Whether you’ve got the funds for this eye-watering property on the market for £5.5m or just love to trawl through listings of dream homes for personal ‘research’, we thought you’d like to take a look at the most expensive property you can buy in Wiltshire right now.
Zeals House in Mere is treasured by people in the area and has stood as a landmark for hundreds of years.
The grand country house has changed over many centuries, according to Historic England.
The earliest section consists of a two-story 14th-century hall house built on a rambling L-plan of limestone rubble with Welsh slate roofs, presumably re-built around an earlier home acquired by one Matthew de Clevedon in 1372.
So what does it look like now?
From the outside, Zeals still gives us all the manor house vibes, and looks like it has been lifted straight out of an episode of Bridgerton.
It boasts an incredible 58 acres of land part of its grounds, with southerly views over its own parkland, lake, the Blackmore Vale and beyond.
According to Rightmove: ‘Extensive parkland and gardens surround Zeals House and include pasture, paddocks, woodland, a lake, and a stew pond.
The lake itself curls around the end of the main lawns and reaches up to the stew pond which lies within the walled kitchen garden, just below the greenhouses.’
The inside, as you can imagine, is just as stunning.
Featured in the dream home is a Georgian-style Great Hall, drawing room, and principal bedroom, with their complex coving and cross straps ceiling moulding, contrasting with the magnificent full-height wood-panelled bedroom next door.
Although advertised as a family home, it has also been hinted that it could easily be turned into a bespoke country house hotel as there is an unconverted coach house, stable block and two gate lodges.
It’s not short of history, either.
Zeals was requisitioned as a base for the RAF officers during the Second World War when an airfield was created at nearby St Martins Farm.
After the war, the house became a school for boys up until 1956 when the Troyte-Chafyn-Groves ended the lease and moved back in.
In 1968 the property was purchased by Alex Phippon, ending the unbroken possession of the Chafyn family since 1452.
Since 1968 the house has been sold four times and as a result retains many original historic interior features such as 18th-century wood panelling and marble fireplaces.
Will you be writing its next chapter of history (or just fancy a browse)? Check out the full listing here.
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