The Ripple effect

AS with the proverbial bus, you can wait forever for the right country house to come along and then three appear all at once. It bodes well for the market this summer that three exceptional houses— a Georgian masterpiece, a rare 17th-century manor and a whimsical Thames-side estate —have come to the market after generations in the hands of their devoted owners.

Described as ‘a sleeping beauty’ by selling agent Simon Backhouse, of Strutt & Parker in Canterbury (01227 451123), Grade II*-listed Ripple Court, three miles from the quaint coastal town of Deal, is rightly regarded as one of east Kent’s most important country houses. Owned by the same family for the past 60 years