Can’t You Hear Me Knocking? The former country home of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts could be yours – for £7.95 million.
Situated near the Gloucestershire village of Ashleworth, the Grade II-listed Focsombe House is a striking gothic building set in 52 acres of rolling parkland.
Watts, who grew up in Wembley, bought the house in 1976 and lived there for seven years, until 1983.
He had joined The Rolling Stones in 1963, and, at the time he moved to Foscombe, the band was at the height of their fame, having released some of their most acclaimed albums, including Beggars Banquet (1968), Sticky Fingers (1971) and Exile on Main Street (1972), as well as mega-hits I Can’t Get No Satisfaction and Paint It Black.
Watts lived in the house with his wife, Shirley, and their daughter, Seraphina. He and Shirley had married quietly — without telling Watts’ bandmates — in 1964, and given birth to Seraphina in 1968.
Spanning more than 10,000 sq ft, Watts’ expansive former home is comprised of a five-bedroom main house, coach house, converted stable block and enormous, detached vehicle store.
It was built around 1866 by architect Thomas Fulljames and was subseqently owned by a prominent landowning family, and then the descendants of Joseph Bramah, the inventor of the hydraulic press.
Watts bought the house from the novelist and screenwriter Derek Marlowe, who lived there between 1972 and 1976.
As drummer for The Rolling Stones, Watts was known for his love of jazz, his anti-Rock and Roll lifestyle and his immaculate tailoring.
As the band’s fame grew, Watts increasingly avoided the public gaze and settled into the privacy that Foscombe House afforded, with its sprawling buildings, turrets, two long, tree-flanked driveways and surrounding parkland.
Watts converted the coach house —now a two-bedroom, 2,000sq ft guesthouse— into a music studio for The Rolling Stones to record away from prying eyes.
Today, there are three reception rooms —a drawing room, morning room, sitting room, all with grand fireplaces and wide bay windows— on the ground floor of the main house, along with the bespoke kitchen, dining room and study.
Accessible from both the morning and drawing rooms is the original orangery, surrounded by ornately carved arched stone windows.
The house’s five bedrooms and laundry room are upstairs. On the third floor, at the top of the castellated tower, is a smoking room, complete with feature gothic windows, fireplace and doorway which leads out onto a roof terrace.
One of the two outbuildings, the converted stable block, has been fitted with a swimming pool, sauna and steam room.
The vehicle store has space for twenty cars, with a facility created by the current owner to hoist a helicopter inside.
“Foscombe House occupies one of the most magical settings in Gloucestershire,” says Ed Sugden at Savills, the listing agents. “Part of its beauty [is] that it is set in the middle of its own beautiful parkland grounds, with swathes of wildflower gardens and two sweeping driveways of around half a mile each.”
As well as wildflower gardens, there are meadows, a Japanese garden, a vegetable garden, two natural ponds and a canopied terrace with seating for 20 guests.
After seven years at Foscombe, Watts and his family moved to an even grander property: the 600-acre, 16th century Halsdon Manor, in the Devonshire village of Dolton. There, they bred hundreds of Polish Arabian horses and helped to pay for the refurbishment of the local village hall.
Watts died of cancer in 2021, aged 84. Shirley died in Devon 16 months later.
Foscombe House’s current owners have lived in the property since 2011, and are now selling in order to downsize.
“The house is the epitome of glorious gothic architecture, with sun-filled rooms enhanced by the most beautiful features,” says Sugden.
“With guests of the next owner being able to stay over in the coach house that was once the music studio of a Rolling Stone, Foscombe House presents an extraordinarily rare opportunity to live in one of the best Victorian country homes in the UK.”
