Wreck of the Week

Last week I went towards the rich side with my property picks. This week, I've gone so far into lottery-winnings territory that we may never be able to look at little Welsh do-up again. But bear with me. Yes, Helperby Manor is the wrong side of £1m (is there a right side?) but it's also up for best and final offers by the end of this month so, let's luxuriate a little in imagining quite what we'd do with a run-down 10-bedroom country mansion sitting in nine acres of parkland. After the death of owner Chris Martins in 2018, the houses' contents (including the largest ever collection of cheese dishes ) were put up for auction.  Now the house itself is on the market, with a guide price of £1,250,000.  According to the Yorkshire Post, it was worth around £800k in 2018 , but that was probably on the conservative side for nine acres within seven miles of the A1M. The house itself is lovely. Four reception rooms, kitchen, other rooms, and the "...

Apologies, a bit of a gap again from me but I thought I'd make up for it by showing a bunch of increasingly large country houses - all with impressive "extra" buildings. This North Yorkshire farmhouse first. Which has possibly some of the dullest photography I've seen but is handsome regardless. Hollins Grove Farm house is Grade II listed, has four bedrooms, comes with masses of period details, outbuildings, pretty views and threequarters of an acre of garden land. Here's that rather useful-looking outbuilding/holiday let... It's in the North Yorkshire village-cum-town of Easingwold , about 13 miles from York and close to the A19. That location means we're looking at a rather hefty mark-up compared to similar properties in  Ireland , at offers over £495k. Realistically, that plus the cost of renovations, means you're going to need around £threequarters-of-a-million stashed under the mattress to do Hollins Grove justice. But, as Gabrielle...