Springing into action
OF remarkable distinction’ is the description in Murray’s Berkshire Architectural Guide 1949 (edited by John Betjeman and John Piper) of the classic, early-Georgian West Hanney House in the quaint Oxfordshire village of West Hanney, five miles north of Wantage, 13 miles from Oxford and 70 miles from central London. For sale through Savills (020–7409 8885) at a guide price of £4.5 million, the exquisitely symmetrical former rectory, listed Grade II*, sits elegantly in the middle of its walled three-acre garden, its flamboyant skyline, high gates and wall dominating the green and village cross in the heart of the settlement ‘whose beauty lies in the balanced variety of its buildings’ (Country Life, 1943).
‘To the
