Kirtlington Park is available for £28k/week
With a question mark hanging over foreign holidays this summer, the super-rich are upping the ante in the English countryside instead and renting out stately homes for stratospheric sums.
For some, it’s a full-time escape during the pandemic. “We’ve seen a mad scramble among people with very high standards and unlimited resources looking for something really special to avoid a long period of incarceration in their London homes,” says Roarie Scarisbrick, partner at Property Vision.
Others – particularly those whose children are at school in London – are using them as weekend retreats. And for would-be countryside buyers stymied by a severe lack of suitable homes for sale, a high-end rental, particularly near to sought-after schools, is the necessary stop gap, says search agent Jess Simpson, who is busy sourcing country rentals priced at £100,000 a month, or more.
Dear Editor, What a load of nonsense from Lord Lymington about his dream to build a huge development south of the M3. It is absolute rubbish to suggest that his plan could work under any present plans, mainly how do would you get an extra say 2,000 vehicles to exit his dream location on a normal traffic flow situation? Those who use the A3345 for their normal travel to work experience a huge back up of vehicles trying to get under the motorway bridge. And this is every normal every working day. There appears to be no logical sense in pretending that all will be well and the road can cater for this situation, it simply not feasible and the people who have drawn up these plans need to go back to their desks.
LAND on the edge of Basingstoke earmarked for 2,500 new homes should be protected, according to a countryside charity. The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) carried out an assessment of the countryside around Cliddesden set to be home to the Upper Swallick development. It claims that the 296 hectare site is classified as valued landscape and it should be protected. CPRE Hampshire claims it has an important contribution to the characteristics of the Basingstoke Open Downs. Christopher Napier, of CPRE Hampshire, said: Landscapes play a vital role in tackling the climate emergency by capturing carbon, cleaning the air, helping to slow flood waters and providing habitats for wildlife.
They are perhaps one of the most iconic features of Britain. But with most people having mobile phones in 2021, the need for the classic red telephone box has diminished. Pre-pandemic, taking a visit to the heart of London would not only see tourists looking at the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge, but also taking photos in a telephone box. Designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935, the K6 kiosk was commissioned by the General Post Office in 1935 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V, and were one of eight types introduced between 1926 and 1983. Around 60,000 of the K6 kiosk were installed between 1936 and 1968, with around 3,400 still in operation in England today.