The new owners of a 17th century country house in Wiltshire have been given the go ahead to begin the first phase of planned work on the estate.
Standen House is a Grade II listed building north of Chute Standen, approximately 6.5 miles north of Andover.
The country house is set within around 40.74 acres of parkland which includes woodland and bridleways.
It was on the market in 2017 at a guide price of ‘excess £10 million’.
The new owners submitted a masterplan for the property in July 2023, the first phase of which has now been approved by Wiltshire Council.
These initial works will affect the exterior surroundings of the main house.
The old staff accommodation building, Stable View Cottage, will be demolished and relocated to the existing manège, where a new workshop will also be built.
Garden Cottage, another prior estate worker dwelling, will be fully renovated.
A new pool house and outdoor swimming pool will also be constructed within the brick walled garden.
The refurbishment of the main house and erection of a new car port are planned for a second phase of work.
The approved application stated: “The proposals seek to enhance the site and the architectural character of the main house by way of consolidating the piecemeal changes over the past 125 years in a sympathetic manner.
“The site owner is also committed to ensure the future of the site and accommodation for future generations, by way of sustainable energy generation.”
The Heritage Impact Assessment concluded: “The proposals represent significant investment in the estate as a whole from new owners who are seeking to overturn less sympathetic recent additions and uses, returning the estate back to a country estate with productive outbuildings.
“The focus of the proposals is to declutter the service area and immediate setting of the house, through doing so repurposing the otherwise redundant garden cottage and reducing the impact of the modern manège’s at the eastern service entrance.
“The relocation of the pool from the earlier garden to the later Victorian productive garden follows historic precedent and removes an unsightly recent addition from a more significant area of the landscape, whilst giving new use to the redundant later area.
“It is considered that this provides a significant enhancement to the estate and its heritage significance.”
Details for all planning applications in the county can be found on Wiltshire Council's planning and building control public register.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here