Could a bruised banker save Stoke Hall?
A new owner with time - and £2.75m - to spare is need to finish the restoration of this Derbyshire mansion
Marcus Binney
Should Dick Fuld, the head honcho of Lehman Brothers, fancy a change of scene from Wall Street after the collapse of his investment bank, he could do worse than move to Derbyshire and complete the restoration of Stoke Hall. This Grade II* listed Palladian house, on sale for £2.75million, stands amid grand romantic scenery and has a breathtaking view south towards Chatsworth, four miles distant.
It would be a major challenge to finish the restoration of one of the county's finest buildings, but for someone with the time, energy, means and the eye to carry the torch to completion, it would be one of the heritage triumphs of the 21st century. At least you would not have to worry about the roof, which has been releaded to a high specification with advice from John Oliver, former comptroller at Chatsworth. The drive to the hall has stone cobbles beautifully laid in fan patterns all the way to the house - Edinburgh New Town offers none better. The house itself has exquisite masonry. Here are all the trademarks of James Paine, the talented young architect of the stables at Chatsworth, including stone balls on the parapet and lunette windows. Each stone is as exquisitely chiselled as those facing Robert Adam's Dumfries House, Ayrshire, recently bought by a consortium led by the Prince of Wales.
Stoke Hall had been eeking out an existence as a pub hotel in 1982 when it was spotted by Richard Jowitt, the head of a Sheffield computer company. His widow, Barbara, says: “We were then living in a cottage. He rang me from his carphone to say he'd just been to the auction and bought it.”
Jowitt began by building an impressive stone garage block with five doors, each large enough for a Rolls-Royce. Below, using the steep fall in the ground, he built the workshop of every handyman's dream, nearly 50ft long and 20ft high. He died earlier this year but the store is still brim full of joinery and timber, intended for continuing the house's repair.
Background
Stoke Hall has three storeys in the main block and two in the extensive wings to the rear. Paine's entrance hall is now a large drawing room: it opens on to a staircase with cantilevered flights and gorgeous garlands of flowers fashioned in stucco. It's intensely lively, as if craftsmen from Chatsworth were moonlighting at weekends. The 30ft-long saloon, the most ornate room in the house, is not yet restored; the next-door morning room lacks a floor but has a riotously busy ceiling, as well as walls stripped to reveal traditional timber framing.
On the upper floors there are spacious bedrooms nearly 20ft square, lovingly repanelled and with plush marble bathrooms. Intriguingly there are early 18th-century Baroque marble fireplaces, suggesting that an earlier house was incorporated. The bedrooms have glorious views to the crags of Froggatt Edge. To the east the formal garden and lawn is enclosed by yew hedges planted by Jowitt and ringed by beech trees.
Downstairs, there is a large well-equipped modern kitchen that opens into a sitting room with bay windows - and a vaulted wine cellar that has been immaculately fitted with oak wine cupboards.
Fast facts
Stoke Hall, left, has views towards Chatsworth in Derbyshire, is Grade II* listed, covers nearly 15,000 sq ft and has 22 acres of land; Broom, above, is a 1920s country house with 18 acres in High Hurstwood, near Uckfield, East Sussex, for sale for £3 million with Mansell McTaggart (01825 760770); Rockbeare Manor, below, near Exeter, Devon, is a Grade I listed Regency country house with 106 acres for sale for £3 million with Knight Frank (01392 423111); Broome Place, right, in Bungay, Norfolk, is a Grade II listed Edwardian country house with 40 acres and views over the Waveney Valley, for sale for £2.9 million via Strutt & Parker (01603 617431)