Over 20 years since it was last sold, Penny Churchill looks at a home once owned by a scientist and champion chess player player that has come to the market.
The last time Loth Lorien at Wadhurst, East Sussex, appeared on my radar was in December 1999, when the striking Arts-and-Crafts house was being offered for sale by Hamptons on behalf of the eccentric 78-year-old American chessmaster, physicist and passionate gardener, Dan Mayers. Today, it’s for sale once more, a house set in 4¾ acres of woodland gardens and grounds a mile or so from Wadhurst station, with Savills quoting £2.85 million.
During Mr Mayers’ 40-year tenure, he created one of the world’s largest private collections of rare plants and trees in Loth Lorien’s 35 acres of grounds. ‘William Robinson gave you the Wild Garden. I give you the Wilderness Garden,’ he said at the time.