Location

Whiligh is located on the outskirts of the thriving and pretty village of Wadhurst, named the best place to live in the UK in March 2023 by the Sunday Times. Wadhurst offers a good selection of local shops, including a butcher, delicatessen, hairdressers and florist, together with two supermarkets, including a Jempsons. There is also a post office, a fine church, doctors’ surgery, a sports centre which is shared with the local secondary school, a garage, plus pubs and a variety of cafes and restaurants.

The large town of Tunbridge Wells is approximately 8 miles to the north, with extensive shopping, cultural and entertainment amenities including two theatres, cafes and restaurants, health clubs and and Knights Park out-of-town retail park.   Recreational facilities in the area include golf courses at Lamberhurst, Flimwell and Tunbridge Wells and Bewl Water, the largest stretch of open water in the South East with options including horse riding walking and cycling trails, sailing, canoeing and fishing. There is a tennis club and football club near-by at Sparrows Green, as well as a good network of footpaths in the vicinity and a sports centre at Uplands in Wadhurst.   

Mainline rail: Wadhurst station is approximately 2.1 miles away, with commuter services to Charing Cross (via London Bridge and Waterloo East) and Cannon Street, or Frant station (Bells Yew Green) is on the same line approximately 5 miles away. Alternatively, Tonbridge (approximately 13.9 miles via the A21 accessed at Lamberhurst), offers more frequent services.

Communications: The A21, accessible to the east at Lamberhurst, links to the M25 (junction 5) and thereby the national motorway network, Gatwick and Heathrow airports and the Eurotunnel.

State and private schools: Wadhurst primary school and Uplands Academy in Wadhurst, private preparatory schools in Wadhurst (Sacred Heart), Langton Green (Holmewood House), Tunbridge Wells (The Mead, Rose Hill), Five Ashes (Skippers Hill) and Hawkhurst (St Ronans and Marlborough House). Public schools including Beechwood in Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge for boys, Mayfield for girls and Eastbourne, Bedes in Upper Dicker and Brighton, Kent College, Pembury and Sevenoaks which are co-ed.
All distances are approximate.

Description

Whiligh covers an important, large section of the original converted mansion, located at the heart of this well-known country estate outside Wadhurst. Historically, the estate belonged to Lord George Courthope, a Justice of the Peace, M.P. for Rye, Baronet and Peer, and the estate remained with the Courthope’s family for several centuries. The Grade II* Listed country house today is predominantly Georgian, although the original house was first built in 1586. Then, in the twentieth century, it was divided into two in the 1980’s, to provide for two manageable but still sizeable family houses, Courthopes and Whiligh. Interestingly, the estate itself is renowned for its magnificent array of oak trees, timbers from which were used in the construction of the roof of Westminster Hall in London, and then again in its reparation after World War II.

Whiligh has been stylishly updated by our clients during their time here and it is sympathetically presented to embrace and enhance the abundance of period features found throughout. Generally, the house provides for a wonderful feeling of space and light, helped by the large classical style sash windows and the impressive lantern light above the main staircase, along with nearly all the rooms benefitting from fine proportions and enjoying far reaching views. High ceilings, two stunning and contrasting reception rooms, a wonderful ceiling lit main staircase and some equally glamourous bedrooms, all set the tone, especially combined with the stunning modern kitchen/dining room, formed from joining together two rooms and having the surprising benefit of direct access to a beautiful outside dining terrace, approached through a wall of opening, by-folding doors.

The house also benefits from substantial cellarage too, ideal for storage and a workroom and offering further potential too, these days, subject to the listing.

Outside: Whiligh is accessed via a long private drive, wrapping around the building, with a gated, very generous gravelled, parking and turning area in front of the house. The private grounds which amount to approximately 3.38 acres, comprising extensive formal gardens and terracing, landscaped around the drive, a further walled garden and also an extensive area of wooded, parkland and some woodland. Outbuildings include a summerhouse/store by the terrace and a tractor store/shed accessed in the parkland.

Whiligh also has easy access to delightful countryside walks.