PASSION for restoration is a common thread in the story of three charming, but quite different family houses that have graced the property market in recent weeks. The first of these is Merry Hall in Agates Lane, Ashtead, Surrey, the home, from 1946–56, of the writer and playwright Beverley Nichols and the subject of a popular trilogy of books— (1951), (1953) and (1956)—in which he describes, with characteristic waspish humour, the acquisition, renovation and landscaping of the run-down Georgian country house in the aftermath of the Second World War. Still wonderfully reminiscent of a bygone era, Merry Hall is now for sale, for the first time in 45 years, through Tom Shuttleworth of Strutt & Parker’s country department (020–7591
