THERE can be no doubt that few properties in our region are as historically important – or have witnessed as much through the ages – as The Forcett Hall Estate.

While the main hall itself started life as an Elizabethan house in the possession of the Shuttleworth family of Gawthorpe Hall, Lancashire, from 1582, it has been modified many times since then, and was even substantially redesigned in 1740 after a fire.

It has also enjoyed its fair share of illustrious owners and tenants, including Robert Shuttleworth MP; his son James, an MP and High Sheriff of Yorkshire; Lord Algernon Percy, the First Earl of Beverley, and Lieutenant Colonel Hardress Waller, whose family has retained ownership of it since 1938.

The estate can lay claim to even more ancient history than the building, as it includes part of an Iron Age oppidum, or fortified settlement, which covered a large area around Forcett and adjoining Stanwick. Much of the earthworks are still evident.

The hall requires some restoration and updating, but will create a stunning family residence of the very highest quality.

Its accommodation, set over four floors, is too extensive to detail, but includes some 15 bedrooms, four bathrooms, basement stores and cellars, an entrance hall, library, ballroom/dining room, sitting room, kitchen, ancillary rooms and stores.

There is also a self-contained three-bedroom first floor apartment within the east wing of the house.

The hall’s principal rooms are all well proportioned, and appointed and retain a wealth of original architectural features including feature fireplaces, decorative plasterwork to ceilings, friezes and cornices, and the main oak staircase.

Standing alongside the hall in its mature parkland setting that extends to around 231 acres in total are an 18th century grade II* stable block, courtyard, garaging, farm buildings, a dovecote, formal terraced gardens, a walled garden, a restored haha, approximately 78 acres of woodland, historic parkland, a 17-acre lake, an ice house, grotto and triumphal arch.

The grounds include around 119 acres of pasture and meadow land known as Front Park and High Park, as well as some fascinating architectural and archaeological features including Iron Age earth works, The Mount, which are thought to have been created from spoil when the lake was constructed.

Further accommodation comes in the form of the two-bedroom Gardener’s Cottage with walled garden and adjoining field that is home to a listed sundial and the aforementioned dovecote, two grade II* listed gate lodges, a modern bungalow and two three-bedroom houses.

The Forcett Hall Estate is a fine Grade I listed house whose secluded and enclosed position within stone estate walls allows it to enjoy far-reaching views, particularly to the south and west.

Situated in Forcett, in the heart of the beautiful, rolling North Yorkshire countryside, the estate is for sale as a whole at a guide price of £4m.

For further information or to arrange a viewing, please contact Savills on 01325 370500.