- Stately Piles of Money - Archived Message
Posted by Joan aka HazelP
on July 28, 2011, 9:19 am
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Emma (1996) was filed here. http://tiny.cc/choyq Stately Piles of Money STATELY PILES OF MONEY The Crichel estate in Dorset is reportedly for sale Sunday July 3,2011 By Jane Slade THE Crichel estate in Dorset, which has been in the Marten family for 300 years, is reportedly up for sale. It includes three villages; a 25-room, 18th-century manor house; cricket club; and church and provided the backdrop for the 1996 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma starring Gwyneth Paltrow. The sale brings into sharp focus the plight of many owners who have inherited vast houses and estates which are too big to live in and cost too much to run. Accounts reveal Crichel made a loss of £176,500 in the 15 months to March 2010. The 5,000-acre property has a whopping price tag of £100million, which also raises the question: who will buy it? In 1938 playwright and composer Noel Coward wrote: “The stately homes of England how beautiful they stand, to prove the upper classes have still the upper hand.” Some 70 years on those upper classes are struggling to maintain their halls, palaces and castles. They are being replaced by foreign tycoons who can afford to invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in restoring a crumbling castle. Leon Max, a Russian-born fashion designer, bought Easton Neston, a magnificent baroque mansion set in 550 acres of Northamptonshire countryside, for £15million in 2008 from Lord Hesketh, John Major’s former chief whip in the Lords. “The rough number I use is that in a good year it loses £500,000 and in a bad year it could lose £1.5million,” Hesketh complained of the Grade I-listed property. He had to split the 3,300 acres of farmland into lots after failing to attract the asking price of £50million. “I like the idea of being a country gentleman,” Max declared. “I am looking forward to shuffling to my atelier in my monogrammed slippers.” Not only has Max made Easton Neston his company’s European HQ but he has learned to shoot, wears green corduroy Savile Row suits and entertains the local hunt. |
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