In the game of “guess how much that house is on the market for now”, I think I have a winner. We all have a few of those might-have-been dream homes that, if you had hitched yourself with a mortgage, would have made you a millionaire by now, but this property is in a different league.
The price of Caversham Park, a glorious grade II listed manor house in the Thames Valley, has risen by a factor of 1.25m since it was listed in the Domesday Book with a value of £20. It is now on the market for about £25m with Lambert Smith Hampton.
Since 1086, there have been changes, naturally. The estate has shrunk and it is now for sale with a mere 93 acres of rolling lawns, tarmac driveways and less attractive postwar outbuildings. That’s the Second World War, not the English Civil War, when Charles I was imprisoned in a house on the same site. Last year it played host to Antiques Roadshow.
Battles, the crown and the fate of the country have had a fair influence on the evolution of Caversham Park. In 1542, the lease for Caversham was given to Francis Knollys, one of the first members of Henry VIII’s formal bodyguard. He started to build the first manor house on the site; it was finished by his son William, who entertained Elizabeth I there in 1601. Royal entertaining continued until 1633, when Caversham Park was bought by the Earl of Craven for £10,000.
The house burnt to the ground in 1850 and was rebuilt in classical style around an iron frame, designed by the architect Horace Jones. This version of the manor house is what survives today (to varying degrees).
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Taxes and the economic consequences of the First World War meant Caversham Park was put on the market in 1920 — I haven’t found out that price yet — and its sale to investors the following year saw the 1,800-acre property subdivided, with the mansion and park taken over by the Oratory School, which extended the chapel.
Following another fire and financial struggles, the property was sold to the BBC in 1941. It soon became the headquarters of BBC Monitoring, playing a key role in tapping communications from Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, to newspaper and radio networks. Staff would transcribe and summarise 240 broadcasts a day into an 80,000-word document called the Daily Digest, which was delivered to London.
From 2019, anyone living at Caversham Park will be able to speed their way into the capital — to Bond Street in 53 minutes or Liverpool Street in just over an hour — thanks to the new Crossrail station at Reading, two miles away.
The property has many possible futures — it could become a hotel and spa, or posh offices, or be restored as a stately mansion, all 64,000 sq ft of it. Or converted into flats, with more in the grounds. A large proportion of the park was sold for housing in the 1960s, when it became Caversham Park Village — a three-bedroom semi is on sale for £410,000. My best guess? Posh retirement homes for £1.25m.
Finally, thank you to one friendly reader who, following my request for the naughtiest things you’ve ever done in a showroom, shared this confession. While visiting a show home, in the spirit of fun, he (for it is always the less fair sex, it seems) grabbed his wife and threw her onto the bed. “It was meant to be outrageous — no one else was around — but she bounced back up and collided with my face, giving me a fat lip.”
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Stay in touch by emailing helen.davies@sunday-times.co.uk. Reveal all on Twitter @TheSTHome, and showcase your real homes — and pets — on Instagram @sundaytimeshome