For sale: entire English village

A quintessential rural English village. Yours -  £20 million (A$37 million).

West Heslerton in North Yorkshire's going under the hammer. It has a 43 house estate, complete with 2,000 acres of farmland, a stately home, and your own local pub.

Now ownerless and heirless, the village has long been left untouched.

For 150 years it belonged to the Dawney family. Last in line Eve Dawnay inherited the village from her father in the late 1960s.

She was loved by locals for keeping rents low and supporting the local primary school and sports teams. But when she died in 2010 she had no heir to pass it on to. Buying agent Henry Pryor says the village is attracting international interest.

"There are very few traditional estates like this still remaining, and many are passed down from generation to generation and are very rarely available on the open market," says Pryor.

"And that's why we're expecting national and global interest, and we've already had national and global interest."

An opportunity to relocate from the cramped city to the sprawling country. Now beneficiaries are hoping to find a community-loving buyer with deep pockets.

Someone who would rather splash 37 million Aussie dollars on a multi-property legacy than on one luxury house in London.

 

Source: Reuters