A Regal English Manor With Ties to Queen Camilla and Virginia Woolf Just Listed for $5.6 Million

Not only is the 17th-century Possingworth Manor bursting with character, but it’s also got loads of good stories, too.

On the market for roughly $5.6 million (£4.5 million) with Savills, the Grade II-listed country home in East Sussex is believed to have been erected in 1657 by former owner Thomas Offley, whose initials are actually carved into the abode. Interestingly, there is also a recorded mention of the manor that dates as far back as 1281. In other words, this structure is steeped in history.

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Today, the 17-acre property comprises an 11-bedroom home, an outdoor swimming pool, a walled garden, and a gym. “Possingworth Manor has to be one of the most beautiful Jacobean manors to come to the market in years,” Phillippa Dalby-Welsh, head of Savills Country Department, said in a press statement.

Positioned just outside the picturesque village of Waldron, the spread sports three sprawling reception spaces, including a drawing room with its own fireplace, a reception hall clad with wood paneling, and a stately dining room. Nearby, the kitchen features an oil-fired Nobel range cooker and opens to a two-bedroom annex, which could be used as staff quarters or for guests. Elsewhere, the super cozy study is the perfect place to curl up with a book like, say, Mrs Dalloway.

According to the listing, the south wing of the house burned down in 1830 and was rebuilt some hundreds of years later. The estate was purchased as a whole in 1864 by merchant banker Louis Huth and leased between 1918 and 1919 by Alice Keppel. Turns out, the socialite is the great-grandmother of Queen Camilla. (She was also the long-time mistress of King Edward VII.)

At the time, Keppel was renting Possingworth Manor for her daughter, Violet Trefusis, and her husband, Denys Robert Trefusis. Taking after her mom, Violet too was in the middle of a scandalous love affair during this period with writer Vita Sackville-West. Their tryst was fictionalized in Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel, Orlando: A Biography, in which the character of Princess Sasha is based on Violet, and the protagonist is based on Sackville-West.

Shortly after, Lord Strathcona bought the home in 1921 and hired George Trollope and Colls LTD to renovate the manor. From 1936 to 1952, it belonged to Sir Robert Craigie, who served as Britain’s Ambassador to Japan. Famed English author Dame Rebecca West began renting the property in 1939. It should also be noted that the residence became a billet for Canadian soldiers during WWII.

If only these 366-year-old walls could talk.

Click here to see all the photos of Possingworth Manor.  

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