If Ashwell Court was in California I would believe it. Instead it stands at the end of a large rose garden set back from a village lane in leafy Buckinghamshire. It’s a house almost impossibly magnificent for its quiet setting, crying out for an owner who unashamedly loves the past, and whose friends will relish stepping back into its Puginesque splendour whenever they visit.

Randolph Hearst himself would have stood in silent wonder, so full is the house of astonishing French medieval woodwork and carving. Indeed the great newspaper magnate and collector could have bought it in 1921, when Harrods, the agents, described it as “an architectural gem of the 15th century”, which should “strongly appeal to a rich American for shipment abroad”.

In fact, Ashwell Court, now on sale for £2.25 million, was built in 1906. Its builder J. Cheetham Cockshut had a taste for collecting period woodwork and carving, like Hearst. According to the 1921 sale particulars, much of the woodwork came from the monastery and convent at Blois.

According to Harrods “every piece of material, oak beams, gables, roofing tiles, windows, carved oak” was 15th century. Virtually every room contains some astounding piece of woodwork, whether linenfold panelling, exuberant fireplaces, or neatly folding window shutters carved on both sides. It’s not fudged together by some dealer practiced in the art of making one panelled room into three but bought by a man steeped in medieval craftsmanship and furniture. Cockshut was, among other things, a wallpaper designer who has work displayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

For the past 40 years the house has belonged to Christopher Mitchell, the genial owner of Fleet Street’s famous watering hole, El Vino. He has kept the property in immaculate condition, even restoring the unusual elm rainwater gutters.

From outside Ashwell Court has the look of a grand Normandy manor, bolder than the equivalent timber-framed property in the Home Counties, and much more richly carved. Intriguingly the house has two principal entrances. One is under the carriage arch with a mighty oak door and windows carved with flowing gothic tracery. The other opens into a medieval-style screens passage. On the right is a 36ft-long hall that resembles a great chamber with windows at both ends and a massive inglenook fireplace with hooded chimney in the French manner.

Above the great chamber are a pair of grand bedrooms open to the roof timbers. The adjoining bathrooms have wooden crossvaults and the leaded windows overlook the garden at bathtub level. The sheer quantity of rich dark woodwork is overwhelming and Georgian-style panelling has been introduced in some bedrooms. But a house such as this needs strong Puginesque colours — rich reds, blues, greens and lashings of golds for wall papers, carpets and fabrics, or a more muted palette with as many colours as a Persian carpet.

This is a house robust enough for a large family: Christopher and Barbara Mitchell are leaving because their children have fled the nest.

Fast facts

What you get Grade II listed house with 15th-century panelling. Eight bedrooms, 1.8 acres and cottage.

How much it is £2.25m.

Where it is Central London 30 miles; Great Missenden 2 miles; Amersham 5 miles. Train to Marylebone 43 minutes; Heathrow 18 miles.

Area 6,916sq ft /643sq m; outbuildings 2,169sq ft; 202sq m.

Best schools Little Kingshill Primary; Chesham Prep; Wycombe Abbey; Chesham High; Dr Challoner’s grammar, Amersham.

Where to eat Full Moon, Little Kingshill.

Agent Knight Frank, 020-7629 8171.

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