Jacob Rees-Mogg’s former family home is for sale with a price tag of £2.75m. The Rees-Mogg family moved to the idyllic Somerset country in 1978, giving the future Tory MP and Cabinet minister a luxurious home to grow up in.
The eight-bedroom property in the postcard town of Hinton Blewett, has also recently been home to om Alexander, the CEO of Orange and T-mobile and the founder of Virgin Mobile. He lived in the Grade II listed property for 20 years, even renting it out for a year to Irish pop band The Corrs.
The Old Rectory is only five miles from Bath and Bristol, with Bristol International Airport only around 10 miles away. The property has been renovated over the years, with the current owners spending around £750,000.
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The plumbing, alarm systems, basements, and gutters have all been updated to keep them running efficiently. The previous owners have also added luxurious extras throughout the property.
New bathrooms have been installed along with a heated indoor pool and two new two-bedroom apartments. The L-shaped pool stretches seven meters, reaching a depth of 1.2 meters. It includes an electric retractable cover, toilets, changing rooms, Wi-Fi speakers and even a mirrored ceiling.
The Georgian period house also has six bathrooms, four or five reception rooms, and a kitchen and patisserie. Along with the two new two-bedroom apartments on the top floor, there is another self-contained luxury two-bedroom apartment in the former coach house.
Most of the rectory is from the 18th century, but there are also medieval parts, including the beamed and paneled dining room. A letter written by Lord William Rees Mogg, Jacob’s father, in 1998 explained the historical significance of the property.
He wrote: “Life at Hinton Blewett belonged in the Middle Ages to Bristol Abbey which, at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, became the Cathedral. Although the Rectory garden walls have been rebuilt, they appear to have been originally medieval.
“You will discover that we repeated a Gothic arch that had been built on a part of the wall that was collapsing. In the time of the previous owners, a medieval gold coin was found in a flower bed.
“I believe there is a medieval priest’s house built somewhere within the building and contained in the current dining room.”
The panels in this room were copied in the 1990s in the style of George I.
Stepping outside you will find a walled courtyard and a large walled garden that surrounds the house and offers a high level of privacy. For the current owners it was a dream come true to find the property.
They said: “It was the huge beautiful Georgian windows that I first fell in love with, but this property has so many amazing features it was hard to take them all in.
“The Georgian grandeur is evident in the seven original fireplaces, high ceilings, sweeping staircase and paneling in the dining room, the oldest part of the house. Then there are the walled gardens – I felt this house was perfect.”
The owners are sad to part with their beloved home. They added: “I’ll probably miss the huge sacred yew tree that stands outside my office window and casts shade in the heat waves the most, I’m sure my two golden ones will miss it too.
“I will also miss my kitchen; it’s a traditional kitchen with a huge Aga set in a fireplace, it’s where we gather when we have friends around. We’ve made some wonderful friends here, too, and we know they’ll make the new owners feel as welcome as they do.”
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