A 15-bedroom house in Norfolk believed to have once been bought by Pirates of the Caribbean Hollywood Johnny Depp star finally sold after 81 viewings and 31 offers.
Burnham Westgate Hall, which attracted publicity when it was rumoured Depp had bought it, always denied by agents, has to be one of the hardest homes to sell. It had been for sale for a decade.
A family from Norfolk has bought the house, situated in 30 acres, and will be living in it as their main home. They said they did not want to be identified.
The house, lived in for the past 30 years by 'Baroness Thrift' Patricia Rawlings MP went on the market originally in 2011 with Savills and two years later was taken on by Sowerbys. Marketed for £3.8m, it was one of the most expensive houses, not part of a country estate, ever for sale in Norfolk.
Spencer Cushing, manager at Sowerbys in Burnham Market, said: "We took over selling it exactly eight years ago in March 2013. Its marketing history has been well documented throughout the last decade...for a long while it was rumoured in the international press that it had been purchased by Johnny Depp.
"However despite having interest from buyers across the nation and across the globe in the last year we had what I would consider three serious buyers offering on it and interestingly all were local to Norfolk.
"Whilst Burnham Westgate Hall is an exceptional property with a rich history, its size and grounds have always
made it a challenging sale in a part of the world where, pre-Covid, 90pc of the buyers only wanted easy to maintain second homes. That market has completely changed in the last 12 months with a huge rise in home owners looking to make North Norfolk a permanent home and any large family house with a large garden or even better a few acres of paddock land is now attracting multiple buyers regardless of its condition."
The mansion for sale for a decade
Burnham Westgate Hall, which backs onto the Hoste Arms in Burnham Market, was remodelled in the 1780s by one of the nation's most famous architects, Sir John Soane. The Grade II star listed house was used to train domestic servants in the 1930s and 1940s, before becoming a residential home from 1945 to 1990.
In 1991 it became the home of Baroness Patricia Rawlings, 82, a Conservative politician, famously dubbed 'Baroness Thrift' because of her money-saving tips to the nation. It once went up for sale for £10m and there was speculation Johnny Depp had bought it, always denied. Its price-tag altered over the years and finally went from £4.5m to £3.8m.
Boasting a grand sweeping staircase and palatial parkland grounds, it's considered to be one of the finest houses in Norfolk in one of the most expensive locations.
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