Unique 'Venetian palace' near Windsor on sale for £4m
An extraordinary fairy-tale house boasting a sunken garden modelled on the ruins of Tintern Abbey has come up for sale for £4 million.
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In Wraysbury, near Windsor, Dutch Gardens was created on the site of a run-down bungalow by property developer Trevor Wynne-Jones, who bought the plot in 1966.
He started building in earnest in the 1980s and, over a 30-year period, created a seven-bedroom house modelled on Venetian architecture and surrounded by a moat.
The living room features an Inglenook area with Renaissance-style frescoes inspired by Windsor Castle and matching his-and-hers thrones. There are five further reception rooms on the ground floor, including a library and two galleries.
There are more classical paintings in the master bedroom on the lower ground floor, which opens onto a sunken courtyard, along with a study and enormous morning room. Also on this level are two bedrooms and a separate studio flat.
There are grand stone fireplaces and pillars everywhere, some of exposed London brick - a particular favourite of the house's creator.
However, there's also lots of exposed stone, including the floors, thanks to Wynne-Jones's purchase of the quarrying rights of a Portland stone quarry down near Bristol.
Outside, the extravagant gardens are framed by 'ruins' inspired by Tintern Abbey in south Wales, with roofless walls and archways.
The gardens include koi carp pools, waterfalls and a stone folly, as well as the enormous underground workshop where Wynne-Jones created his designs - he refused to use architects or landscape designers.
Despite the fact that it feels a million miles away from the outside world, the house is in fact just a couple of miles from Windsor and Eton Riverside station. Trains to Waterloo take less than an hour.
Those with a romantic bent and £4 million to spare should contact agents Dexters for more information.
