An entire village near Malton, North Yorkshire is up for sale – with a guide price of £20 million.
West Heslerton includes 2,116 acres of agricultural land, a 21-bedroom manor house, 43 homes, the village pub, a garage and sports fields. It goes on sale next week with Cundalls of Malton.
The village is part of the West Heslerton Estate, which has been owned by the Dawnay family for 150 years and was inherited by Eve Dawnay in 1964. Committed to preserving a traditional way of village life and sense of community spirit, Miss Dawnay, who passed away five years ago, always kept rents low and supported local causes. She had no direct heir, so the family decided to sell the estate.
The Yorkshire village remains largely unchanged since the 1950s and many of the families have lived in the village for generations.
Miss Dawnay's sister Verana Elliott explains how the family have long been involved with village life. 'Anybody from the estate was welcome to walk straight in and go down to my father's study; virtually every day of the week there was somebody popping in to ask his opinion or tell him about some problem such as a smoking fire or broken fence.'
Verana has fond childhood memories of folk dancing in the village hall during the war, 'But times have changed, and it will be lovely to see new life breathed into the estate.'
The idea of owning an entire village village has certainly got people's imaginations going. Cundalls director Tom Watson predicts sales of lottery tickets to skyrocket, 'I think there will be plenty of people using the phrase 'If I won the lottery...'
