NY Agent Lands an Old House
Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 12:09PM 
The NY office of Prudential Douglas Elliman has just landed a very unusual listing: the oldest private residence in England. The 12th-century property is called Saltford Manor House and it can be yours for $3.8 million.
The current owner and his wife bought the “uninhabitable shell” in 1996 for $450,000. He called the renovation “jolly hard work” that involved living in a temporary cottage with small children for more than a year. When he bought it he did not know he had purchased England’s oldest private home. He thought it was only “800 years old.”
In 2003, Country Life magazine named the five-bedroom, three-bath property England’s oldest private home (royal palaces and castles were excluded from the survey) after it was able to date some original features to the first half of the 12th century. Former residents include Bishop Geoffrey of Constances, a guest at William the Conquerer’s coronation. The home also belonged to the Earl of Gloucester, who came from the “same family” as Gloucester in “King Lear.”
Here is part of the official listing from DPE:
Saltford Manor House is located in the West Country, 100 miles from London, between Bath and Bristol. The house was featured in Country Life magazine The Oldest House in Britain as well as in British press articles. Bishop Geoffrey of Coutances, the first owner of this historic property, stood next to William the Conqueror at his coronation on Christmas day 1066. It was owned by King John and Henry 1’s eldest son commissioned the Norman window, modeled on a window in Hereford Cathedral, in the main bedroom. On the ground floor, exquisite details abound; massive honeyed-oak beams, a Norman arch and Cotswold flagstone.
