Mid Wales country house needing restoration sells for £230,000 at auction

A historically important country house requiring full renovation to restore it to its previous grandeur sold for £230,000 at auction last Friday.

Set in 1.4 acres of gardens and woodland, the Grade II I* Listed Dolforgan Hall at Kerry, near Newtown, sold to a local businessman after being marketed with an enticing guide price of £150,000.

With original sections dating to the 17th century, the property boasts significant architectural features and parkland views but is currently not habitable and requires complete renovation and refurbishment.

Dolforgan Hall has been converted into six apartments with a floor area of approximately 14,599 square feet. The Grade II* Listing reflects its national architectural and historic significance.

The imposing country house went under the hammer in a £2.755 million, 22-lot collective property and land auction held by leading regional estate agent and auctioneers Halls in Shrewsbury.

Dolforgan Hall was sold jointly by Halls and Newtown agents Morris Marshall & Poole.

James F. Evans, a director of Halls, said Dolforgan Hall had attracted competitive bidding from within the region before being sold for £230,000 to an unnamed local businessman.

“The key to selling properties like Dolforgan Hall at auction is local knowledge and experience of applying the correct guide price to attract potential purchasers,” he added.
An important country house in the Kerry Vale, the hall was once a substantial landed estate that influenced much of the surrounding parish. Iconic features include a grand columned entrance portico, symmetrical Regency facades, a fine internal staircase and reception rooms, formal gardens and stunning views over traditional parkland.

“The site was occupied by a manor house from the 17th century with much of the older house replaced with the elegant Georgian/Regency mansion seen today,” said Allen Gittins, Halls’ chairman.

The original manor house was built for the Fox family and later purchased by John Herbert who extensively rebuilt and extended the property between 1790 and 1800.

Between 1807-‘18, one of the world’s earliest iron bridge was built to carry the main drive to the house. In 1846, Walter Long married 21-year-old Harriet Avarina Brunetta Herbert, only daughter of Captain John Owen Herbert, owner of Dolforgan.

Double tragedy struck when Harriet died the following year from childbirth complications and Walter died three months later.

The hall passed briefly to Walter’s brother, Richard Pedruddocke Long in 1867 but was purchased with the 4,250-acre Dolforgan Estate the following year by James Walton, High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire.

It remained Walton’s primary residence until his death in 1883 and the hall was then sold to John William Willans, chief engineer of Liverpool Overhead Railway who died unexpectedly in 1895.

John Bancroft Willans, a historian and photographer, inherited the hall and his extensive photographic record of Dolforgan is now in the National Library of Wales. He died in 1957 when the hall was sold to the family of the current owners.

During the early part of the 1940s to the end of Second World War, Dolforgan Hall was a refuge for children escaping the bombing of London.

Picture: Dolforgan Hall, Kerry which sold for £230,000.