Step inside Laverstoke, as Hampshire’s great estate goes on sale

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“As you may have noticed,” Clare Scheckter says with a wry smile, “I absolutely love colour.” It is fair to say that the cupola-topped, light-filled entrance hall of her immaculate 18th-century manor house would be an arresting sight in any hue, but in its current vivid orange shade, it is breathtaking.

“I had one word in mind when we began our renovation: bright,” she continues. “We had been living in Atlanta for 12 years and I’d got used to year-round sunshine. I wanted everyone who walked in to feel happy and uplifted, so I looked for the brightest orange I could find.”

Today, the entrance hall of Laverstoke House, which Clare bought in 1996 with her husband, Jody – the South African Formula 1 champion turned entrepreneur and organic farmer – is filled with eye-catching contemporary art and black-and-white family photographs, including one of Milo, her toffee-coloured cockapoo.

Built in 1798, with additions made in the mid-19th century, the Grade II* listed house is one of the finest country estates in the south of England – a paradigm of Georgian elegance amid the Hampshire Downs. The land was purchased in the 18th century by the Portal family, who had established a thriving paper-making business, which at one point supplied the Bank of England for its banknotes. In 1798, Harry Portal commissioned a Palladian mansion in neoclassical style, designed by architect Joseph Bonomi the Elder.

Clare fell in love before she had even set foot in the house. “It was January and, as we came up the drive, everything was covered in the most perfect, glistening snow,” she recalls. “It was so beautiful. Then opening the front door and seeing the high ceilings and incredible proportions, the huge windows and sweeping views, that was it for me. Then we walked through to the Victorian part of the house, and I thought, ‘Oh no.’ It was a series of little rooms – boiler room, game store, coal bunker – arranged around a dark, damp courtyard. It was my husband’s idea to glaze over it, which transformed the space.”

The renovation, which took three years to complete, included replacing the electrics and plumbing, and installing underfloor heating. English Heritage, the Georgian Society and the Victorian Society took a keen interest. Thankfully, only cosmetic changes were required in the Georgian areas. It was in the Victorian addition that imagination was needed, chiefly in glazing over the courtyard and linking the two sides with a dramatic metal and glass bridge.

The library epitomises the attention to detail lavished on Laverstoke House. Painted a soft, neutral shade, in contrast with the rest of the house, it boasts two Ionic columns and decorative work on the ceiling. “The beautiful plasterwork had been hacked off,” says Clare. “We discovered a small section of the original pattern, then I had a historical architect advise us and we recreated it. We had two guys lying on their back on scaffolding for three months.”

While the estate’s proximity to central London (90 minutes by car or an hour on the train) was a big draw, Clare also adores country life, especially long dog walks through the grounds or by the River Test – “The air is so fresh, the water is so clear, and there’s an abundance of wildlife” – and visiting the pretty local village.

“Local” is a recurrent theme in the decor of the house. The Scheckters’ flock of Lleyn and Hebridean sheep provided the wool for the library carpet; the flooring in the two dining rooms was created using oak trees from the park; and the turquoise silk moire wallcovering in the summer dining room was made on the original looms at nearby Whitchurch Silk Mill. 

While respecting the property’s heritage, she argues that great houses such as Laverstoke always have the potential for reinvention – and she wanted to create “a lovely, fun, bright, cheerful family home. My youngest child was one when we moved in, and the oldest would have been 12. So I wanted it to be a fun place for kids to grow up in – not some austere, ‘Don’t touch this, you can’t do that’ place.”

The kitchen is the heart of the house, which is why she insisted on a large open fireplace and a sofa. “As weird as it sounds,” she muses, “glazing over the courtyard made the house function better as a family home. The playroom was upstairs, overlooking the courtyard – I could walk out from the kitchen, shouting ‘Lunchtime!’, and everybody could hear me. If they didn’t respond, I had a secret switch in the kitchen, called the ‘Mum Rules’ button, which turned off the ballroom TV projection system remotely. That drove the kids nuts.”

Outside, deer nibble the grass and swans glide across the lake. This idyllic setting includes a 1.5-mile stretch of the Upper Test, a pristine chalk stream that featured in Watership Down and offers rare double-bank fishing for brown trout and grayling. “It’s beautiful,” says Clare. “And because we’re an organic farm, we have a lot of wildlife.” She’s alluding to this vast estate’s swathes of certified organic arable and pasture farmland, as well as attractive mature woodland. The Scheckters were early adopters of the organic movement, and when they moved to Laverstoke from Atlanta, Jody was passionate about starting an organic farm. “Originally we had 500 acres, but then 1,900 acres adjoining us came up for sale,” Clare recalls. “It all took off from there.”

While she describes their efforts to establish a working organic farm as “not so much a labour of love, more blood, sweat and tears”, one of its most celebrated results was an acclaimed buffalo mozzarella. “Jody had worked in Italy, driving for Ferrari, and he tasted amazing mozzarella there,” Clare explains. “He bought the first 20 water buffalo on a whim, and they promptly broke through all our fences. We ended up paying for a lot of landscaping – but the mozzarella was stunning.” 

In 2002, they founded Laverstoke Park Education Centre, which has welcomed more than 15,000 young people for free farm visits. Laverstoke House also offers plenty of scope for entertaining on a more intimate scale. Perhaps the most memorable party was in June 2023, a celebration of four family birthdays. “I turned the courtyard into a mega nightclub,” Clare recalls. “It absolutely rocked.”

The house is filled with happy memories, from intimate family dinners in the candle-lit cellar to a surprise 75th-birthday lunch party for Clare’s mother in the internal courtyard. It also has a swimming pool, gym, inside tennis court and music room. Downsizing is, of course, a huge decision. “My husband has retired to Italy,” she says. “Although the children visit on various weekends, most of the time it’s just me living here, which is a little excessive.” 

What will Clare miss most about this magnificent house? “So many things,” she says wistfully. “But most of all, how uplifting it is. Every time I’ve walked into this house, I’ve felt so fortunate. It’s something you never take for granted.”

CONTACT CRISPIN HOLBOROW: CHolborow@savills.com