A Grade II-listed country house formerly belonging to the Rees-Mogg family has gone on sale for £2.75 million.
Known as The Old Rectory, the eight-bedroom Georgian property in Hinton Blewett, Somerset, was where Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg grew up.
The Rees-Mogg family, which included William, a baron and the former editor of The Times, his wife Helena de Chair and their five children, moved into the house in 1978, when Jacob Rees-Mogg was nine. Jacob Rees-Mogg has represented North East Somerset since 2010.
During their time there, William Rees-Mogg became an IRA target, and, in the interests of security, the property was fitted with solid steel doors, which still exist today. According to The Times, the family employed a round-the-clock surveillance team and installed security cameras in all the rooms.
Today, renovated by its current owners for a total cost of £750,000, the 8,140 sq ft house has five reception rooms, six bathrooms and seven fireplaces. It sits on almost an acre of gardens, and has an indoor heated swimming pool, pastry kitchen, walled garden “filled with sweet smelling shrubs” and a gym.
The house comes with two new self-contained apartments located on the top floor and adjoining former coach house.
“The indoor swimming pool area and the annexe in the former coach house are two of my favourite features of The Old Rectory, but the Georgian architecture is just as stunning,” said Fine & Country agent Sue Sadler.
“This home evokes history and charm wherever you look, and you don’t often see houses with seven fireplaces! Set in the heart of the Chew Valley, it also offers fantastic views of the Mendip Hills in a beautiful quintessential English village.”
After 23 years in the house, the Rees-Moggs eventually sold the property for £820,000 to Tom Alexander, the CEO of Orange and T-mobile, in 2001.
Alexander lived in the house for a further 20 years — even renting it out to Irish family band, The Corrs, for a year. He used the extension on the former coach house — now where the swimming pool is located — as a garage for his extensive car collection, complete with underfloor heating.
In 2020, the house was sold for £1.35 million to its current owners, who were seeking a house in the country to accommodate their children and grandchildren.
"It was the massive, beautiful Georgian windows that I first fell in love with, but this property has so many incredible features it was hard to take it all in,” one of the sellers commented. “I just felt this home was perfect."
Now, however, the owners are looking to downsize, and plan to move to Cornwall. They said: "I will probably miss most the huge sacred Yew tree that sits outside my office window and casts shade in heatwaves.
“I will also miss my kitchen. It is a traditional kitchen with a massive Aga set into a fireplace, where we gather when we have friends around. We have made some wonderful friends here too, and we know they will make the new owners feel as welcome as they have us."
According to Sadler, the house would suit a family looking to live on the outskirts of Bristol, Bath and Wells, due to the concentration of state and private schools.
