Celebrity gardener Alan Titchmarsh has said he feels uneasy handing over his £3.5million home to new owners after spending years tending to its four and a half acre gardens. The 77-year-old has moved to a modern luxury five-bed retreat in Surrey, leaving behind his Georgian manor in Holybourne, Hampshire.
Alan Titchmarsh has said he feels uneasy handing over his £3.5million home to new owners after spending years tending to its four and a half acre gardens.
The celebrity gardener, 77, who has now moved to a modern luxury five-bed retreat in Surrey, grappled with selling Manor Farm House in Holybourne, Hampshire. He admits feeling uneasy when Manor Farm House went on the market last autumn for £3.95 million (later reduced to £3.5 million). Despite the grounds of the property being his life's work, Alan said: 'You're only a custodian, I keep telling myself - you don't own anything.
Because of the economic climate, we've had to sell to someone who could buy it. But I will just turn away and say, Good luck. It's very unsettling but I'm starting to make it my own with ours now.
' Alan has swapped his Georgian manor for a stylish £2.6million pad he purchased from an Omaze winner, but he said he refuses to discuss the financials. Alan claimed during an interview with the Sunday Times: 'Money is nothing to do with anybody else, and I don't want to be seen as a show-off.
' Discussing their decision to move, Alan, who celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary with his wife Alison last year, said their old house would become 'unmanageable'. Describing the move as 'an enormous wrench', he said: 'It's a pretty big number and in another ten years time I probably would have found where we were too much for one man.
Four and half acres of busy garden - and yes, I had help but help costs money, so I needed to…' Alan finally sold his countryside retreat - just in time to escape from plans to build almost 160 homes directly behind it. Manor Farm House, near Alton, naturally comes with four acres of delicately landscaped gardens courtesy of its most recent occupier.
But the 17th century bolthole may soon also have hundreds of new neighbours - to the outrage of those already living nearby. About 850 objections have been made to a masterplan that could see up to 156 new homes built on land directly behind the former Titchmarsh base - in a village that is home to just 1,500 people.
Alan and Alison have now decamped to their new home in Surrey they bought from Omaze winner Rachael Reid, who snapped it up with a £10 raffle ticket. He has said of the new, single-storey luxury pad: 'The house is wonderfully modern and completely different from the Georgian farmhouse where we were before.
' Manor Farm House in Holybourne boasts four acres of gardens - and was originally listed for £3.95million Alan and his wife Alison found a buyer for their £3.5million country retreat in Hampshire after putting it on the market in September The broadcast legend has previously revealed he was downsizing because he is 'knocking on a bit' and wanted to move somewhere with a smaller garden before it became 'overwhelming' to look after the four acres in Hants. His new home is also closer to his daughters Polly and Camilla - and his grandsons and granddaughters.
But Alan has also insisted the sale is nothing to do with the row over the 15.6 hectares of land that could soon host scores of homes just behind his former house - despite putting the house up for sale just weeks after the plans came to light. Developers Redbrown submitted its proposals for the land - earmarked by East Hampshire District Council planners as a prime spot for new homes - last July.
Manor House Farm then hit the market in September. The sale price hasn't been declared, but greenfingered British icon Alan and his wife Alison had to knock almost half a million pounds off of the original £3.95m asking price before they were able to find a buyer. Sources close to the star have confirmed that the sale has gone through and Alan is 'very happy' in his new home.
The 7,930 sq ft Grade II listed Georgian five-bed had been sympathetically renovated by the Titchmarshes since buying it for £1.2million in 2002. Approached by the Daily Mail last year, Alan said the housing development proposals had 'nothing to do with our decision to move'.
Alan has insisted his decision to leave was nothing to do with plans to build 160 homes in fields immediately behind his house (pictured: the zone where homes could go) Alan said he was conscious of his age and doesn't want the large grounds - pictured - to become 'overwhelming He said in December: 'We are simply downsizing and moving to be closer to our two daughters and our grandchildren who live a few miles away. Tempting as it might be to suggest that the proposed development (which may or may not come to fruition) has influenced our decision is completely wide of the mark.
The village will remain a delightful place to live, with or without additional housing which will not impinge on the enjoyment or convenience of where we live at presen
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