On the Market: English Country Manor in Chadds Ford
More Main Line than Wyeth country, this stately mansion was imported from several centuries ago in 1995.
The popular image of the Brandywine Valley comes largely from the work of Chadds Ford’s most famous resident, American Realist painter Andrew Wyeth.
Wyeth’s paintings of Brandywine country are full of trees, fences, barns and classic Pennsylvania farmhouses, and even with suburban development, Chadds Ford today still has that rustic look and feel.
I wonder what he would have done with this house for sale.
Located on 43.27 landscaped and manicured acres along a tributary of Brandywine Creek, this Cotswold-style mansion known as Windmill Hollow Manor looks more like a Main Line estate than a Chadds Ford farm.
But what it really looks like is the 13th-century Buckland Manor in Gloucestershire, England, according to the listing. The people who built this house for sale in 1995 went for total authenticity, or close to it. Its roof is covered with 300-year-old slate shingles, and the leaded glass windows follow ancient English tradition — but they’re double-paned to save energy.
Windmill Hollow Manor on the inside mixes several strains of ancient English domestic architecture. Depending on the room, you will find yourself in Georgian, Elizabethan, Jacobean or Regency environments that transport you to anywhere from the 13th to the 18th centuries.
And the house mixes antique doors, hardware, millwork and flooring with modern reproductions to achieve the ancient look.
But, of course, the appliances in the kitchen and the plumbing fixtures in the bathrooms are totally up to date.
Another authentically English element is the walled garden just off the rear terrace, the creation of renowned English garden designer Rosemary Verey.
This estate offers plenty of opportunities for leisure and recreation, inside and out. On the main house’s lower level is one of those Elizabethan spaces, a large game room; just off of it is a wine cellar reminiscent of that same period.
And on the grounds you’ll find an in-ground pool and pool house along with a 12-stall stable, carriage house and more than nine miles of trails. A three-car garage with storage loft built to resemble an English cottage and a three-bedroom tenant house with a recently updated kitchen round out this spectacular package.
Between its own spacious acreage and its off-the-beaten-path location, this manor house for sale should make you feel like an English lord.
THE FINE PRINT
BEDS: 6
BATHS: 6 full, 4 half
SQUARE FEET: 16,000
SALE PRICE: $6,900,000
OTHER STUFF: The listing agent cautions that property tax information for this property is not accurate because no tax ID number exists for it yet.
1601 Brintons Bridge Rd., Chadds Ford, Pa. 19317 [Chris Patterson & Associates | Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate]