In Tune

Stories and Songs on today's free French CD, with The Times

Navigation - link to other main sections from here

From The Times

December 7, 2007

Why the West is best

Andrew Riley explains the enduring allure of the Cotswolds

JUST what is the secret of the Cotswolds' ever-increasing appeal? It's not so much the prospect of rubbing shoulders with celebrity near-neighbours (Liz Hurley and the Kates Moss and Winslet), although that may be part of it. Rather, it's the chocolate-box charm and mellow stone of villages such as Stow-on-the-Wold and Moreton-in-Marsh. That, and the opportunity to live among your friends - particularly if they are film stars - and hang out at fashionable eateries such as Daylesford Organic.

The luscious Grade I listed Court House in Painswick, Gloucestershire is typical of the sort of mansion that attracts the rich and famous to the Cotswolds. It is for sale with Savills (01242 548010) for £1.8million.

Henry Holland-Hibbert, who heads the country house department at Strutt & Parker, lists Gloucestershire as one of the top “Premier League” counties, with Hampshire and Berkshire. Gloucestershire is the farthest of the three from the capital but lures buyers by looks alone. Interestingly, Holland-Hibbert says that buyers in the Cotswolds are not so much hedge fund managers - though these are present - as local families who are trading up.

Rupert Sweeting, of Knight Frank's country department, says that rising numbers of international buyers favour the Cotswolds, “although no Russians yet”. He says that the perfect house remains a Georgian rectory with 50 acres on the edge of a pretty village in Gloucestershire.

Sweeting's top tips for value are Herefordshire - including Ross-on-Wye and Ledbury - and Wiltshire/Dorset, home to Madonna. Both areas, he says, are up to 20 per cent cheaper than the Cotswolds.

Holland-Hibbert favours the Northamptonshire/Oxfordshire borders - “a forgotten area for buying country houses, but prices are 15-20 per cent less than the Cotswolds.”

He says that the year to September went very well, with prices up by 11 per cent overall. “Quality property - houses with no glitches or problems - are still selling easily, despite the credit crunch.” Sweeting agrees and says there is now a two-tier market: “really good stuff” and everything else.

What about 2008? Holland- Hibbert forecasts a 4per cent rise in prices. Sweeting is less sure. “I think - and this is a personal view - that growth will be negligible,” he says.

Please don't mention Ledbury again Times! People might cotton on!

Peter, London,

Stow and Moreton; villages? I spend ten years (1993-03) in a rural pile on the edge of the Cotswolds. Fruits of 20 years hard graft in Japan. If the Labour government hadn't come along, I would in all probability still be there, with no financial worries for the remainder of my life. Probably the Tony Martin case was the last straw, but in any event, left UK as a borderline political refugee and returned to Japan. All you say about the Cotswolds is correct, no need to drive into the countryside; step into the garden and you are already there. So to give that up provides an indication of the disenchantment I felt towards UK. And the political, civil rights, civil liberties situation has significantly deteriorated since I flew the coop.

Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Japan

I grew up in Ratley, near Banbury, Oxfordshire - Warwickshire borders...To me, this place is Heaven. I couldn't afford the cottage that my grandparents bought in 1917! Far too expensive but I can understand why.

pat, FL, USA/ExPat,