Fancy a cricket club for $34 million (USD)?

March 15, 2009 1:31 PM

Quintessential English village Linkenholt is on sale for £22.5m

A picturesque village that has two blacksmiths, a shop, a cricket club and a three-storey manor house, is being sold for about £22.5 million.

The village, which is part of a 2,000-acre estate on the North Wessex Downs, near Andover, Hampshire, and in an area of outstanding natural beauty, is being sold by the the Herbert and Peter Blagrave Charitable Trust.

More on this story here and here.

Estate agent Tim Sherston told the Guardian "It is very unusual, particularly in southern England, to have a whole village for sale. It's an excellent opportunity for someone to invest in prime agricultural and residential property and it's a safe location to park their money in these troubled times."

posted by ornate insect (31 comments total)

What does it mean to own an entire village? Do you get prima nocte rights?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:33 PM on March 15 [2 favorites has favorites]

What does it mean to own an entire village? Do you get prima nocte rights?

These days, villages don't come complete with the people. It's a sad thing, really.
posted by Devils Rancher at 1:38 PM on March 15

villages don't come complete with the people.

My understanding is that this village does come with the villagers. As a trust, presumably the new owner would be contractually obligated to allow the villagers to stay on.

Village residents, some of whom have lived there all their lives, are not sure, although there is a sort of phlegmatic, rustic resignation. At the village shop, which sells sweets and home made jam from a counter in the front room of one of the cottages, Tina Abbott. who has been there nearly 40 years, says: "We've suddenly become famous. We've had all sorts round - there was the Newbury Weekly News and Radio Berkshire. Now you. We just hope whoever buys it keeps it exactly the same. We don't want change here."
posted by ornate insect at 1:41 PM on March 15

If I owned it, could I legally pillage it?
posted by furtive at 1:45 PM on March 15

I say that all the Mefites chip in. We need our own village. We do! I get to be either the village hedge witch or the crazy cat lady. I'm good either way.
posted by dejah420 at 1:46 PM on March 15 [9 favorites has favorites]

Are there weaker villages nearby?

::steeples fingers::

Investment, indeed...
posted by sidereal at 2:02 PM on March 15 [5 favorites has favorites]

It would hardly be pillaging if you owned it. It'd be dull; it's like pillaging your own basement.
posted by echo target at 2:05 PM on March 15

If I owned it, could I legally pillage it?

You'll need apply for permission to the local authority (forms PIL437 and LOOT345 in triplicate or via the web using IE only) and even then you will probably only be allowed to pillage in a way that is consistent with local character pursuant to the regulation 63 of the British Preservation of Historically Based Regional Class Economic Cooperation.
posted by srboisvert at 2:08 PM on March 15 [8 favorites has favorites]

What does it mean to own an entire village?

I was assuming that you're the landlord of the whole town, but I don't know.
posted by Flunkie at 2:13 PM on March 15

I'd imagine you'd just be purchasing the land and inheriting lease agreements so unless pillaging is within the terms of the lease I doubt you could do such a thing.

The real question here is how do I pull off Dinochicken Day and still be legally free from any entanglements which result from the kids they may eat?
posted by jimmythefish at 2:19 PM on March 15

My understanding is that this village does come with the villagers. As a trust, presumably the new owner would be contractually obligated to allow the villagers to stay on.

Serfs. The word is serfs.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:21 PM on March 15 [2 favorites has favorites]

Why would I want a crummy english village with people and their needs and wants when I could buy hundred times the real estate - premium real estate! - in Second Life, populate it with furries and be livin la vida loca?!

This is bullshit.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 2:23 PM on March 15 [2 favorites has favorites]

You might think it would be fun to own a quiet little English village, but these places have murder rates that are through the roof.
posted by Acheman at 2:26 PM on March 15 [10 favorites has favorites]

A picturesque village that has two blacksmiths, a shop, a cricket club and a three-storey manor house....

...and a cop, a biker, a construction worker and an American Indian.
posted by chillmost at 2:36 PM on March 15

If it comes with peerage I'm in!
posted by thecjm at 2:37 PM on March 15

You drive to Linkenholt up a steep road winding through a beech hanger in which pheasants cough, a hare gambols, and daffodils are in bloom.

Quintessential English village indeed. Wankers.
posted by netbros at 2:44 PM on March 15

I'd buy it if it wasn't for that damn human statue.
posted by defenestration at 2:45 PM on March 15 [2 favorites has favorites]

Let's see, if we've got 80,000 mefites, well, it's only $425 each. I'd pay $425 to own a share in a British village. There'd be a queue for pillaging, I assume, but that's not too bad. It'd sure make getting British health care easier.

I guess the question is, how many bedrooms in that manor house? Because with 25 cottages, that's 3200 of us in each (we would have to have PB set up a schedule), which, equitably distributed, would only be ten of us per night!
posted by klangklangston at 2:46 PM on March 15

taterholt?
posted by defenestration at 2:48 PM on March 15

If I bought that village I would give everyone a number, then pass a by-law saying you could only refer to each other by number.

I'd also have weather balloons filled with a heavier-than-air gas rolling around town.
posted by blue_beetle at 2:52 PM on March 15 [3 favorites has favorites]

I would like, buy the village, plant trees around the village and have nameless creatures roam those trees that surround the village and then the village something something dead, skinned bodies of small animals are starting to appear around the village something "I'm back".

No I wouldn't.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 3:14 PM on March 15

I would attract tourists to my village by having my villagers perform a daily re-enactment of the video for "The Safety Dance."
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:21 PM on March 15 [2 favorites has favorites]

"So, when are we building the wicker man?"
posted by klangklangston at 3:22 PM on March 15 [2 favorites has favorites]

Look! It comes complete with pond puddle. This is awesome. I've been needing a village and some serfs for a while now.
posted by mygothlaundry at 4:39 PM on March 15

“Villagers enjoy living in a beautiful part of the world in a settled way and they want it to stay like that,”

We tried that approach with our landlord, with mixed results.
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:09 PM on March 15

Acheman: really? Any evidence, anecdotal or otherwise? and, why?

I thought that was only in Hot Fuzz.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:26 PM on March 15

leotrotsky: I think Acheman was also referring to detective stories, particularly Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, and more modern TV programmes such as Midsomer Murders and so on. The village-murder-spree is a popular subgenre in English literature and television.

Or he has information that we don't.
posted by WPW at 5:40 PM on March 15

I wonder how much it'd cost to buy a similar sized chunk of downtown Detroit?

Hmm, quaint English village or downtown Detroit... There just might be enough leftover to build a Robocop to go with it.
posted by porpoise at 6:46 PM on March 15

I wonder how much it'd cost to buy a similar sized chunk of downtown Detroit?

I'm reasonably sure I could manage 10% down after scouring behind my couch cushions and rooting around under the floor mats of my car.
posted by CynicalKnight at 7:27 PM on March 15

But that's exactly the problem, CynicalKnight.

There needs to be a compact who is willing to bet that, a) if we spent this money to buy this chunk of land, and b) we can confince a certain group of people to populate this bought area.

I *really* think that this is possible because of the 'internet' that makes connections between disparate people possible, but from my experience of the internet, I'm just playing makebelief.

What do we call the MeFi-owened Detroit? MeDroit? DeFi?
posted by porpoise at 9:05 PM on March 15

Two words: "Royston Vasey"

You're my wife now...
posted by PontifexPrimus at 4:24 AM on March 16