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Times
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Times
‘Irreplaceable' bronze statues stolen during manor house festival
It was the first day of the summer jazz festival at Iford Manor. The sun beamed on the blooming gardens and the sound of a saxophone filled the air but the contentment was about to come to an abrupt end. On Friday morning, the owners of the country estate near Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, woke to discover that four bronze sculptures had been taken from the grade I listed gardens overnight. Among the missing pieces was a copy of Rome's Capitoline Wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, including its plinth, which had been in the gardens for 120 years, a pair of symmetrical bronze fawns inspired by those at the ancient Villa dei Papyri in Herculaneum, and a bust of Antinous. Marianne Cartwright-Hignett, 42, who runs the estate with her husband William, also 42, said: 'The policeman asked for a victim statement and I said, 'well, you know, it's not my statue'. And he said, 'oh, who owns it?' I said, 'no, no, no, this is everyone's loss'. This is a huge loss.' The garden, which has been open to the public since about 1910, receives about 20,000 visitors during the six months of the year it is open. Cartwright-Hignett said: 'It feels a million miles away from everywhere. When you go into the garden, you're not sure which country you're in, you're not sure which century you're in. There's a cloister at the back which has a line from a Tennyson poem. The inscribed line says 'a haunt of ancient peace'. 'It's a really tranquil, healing space … it feels like someone's just ripped the soul out of the garden.' After she posted the news on Instagram, the BBC gardening presenter Monty Don replied to say he was 'very sorry and angry'. Cartwright-Hignett, who lives on the estate with her husband and two sons, Horatio, six and Freddie, three, added: 'Gardeners' World have been here a couple of times in the past and Monty Don did a lovely episode of his series of Big Dreams, Small Spaces here.' Wiltshire police are investigating, and asking antique dealers and auction houses to be on alert for the stolen pieces. Cartwright-Hignett is particularly keen to see the Romulus and Remus statue returned. She said: 'That's kind of irreplaceable. The curator of the Capitoline at the time, in the late 1800s, let the estate owner take a direct copy from the original. We believe it's the last time a direct copy was allowed to be taken. Ironically, it was here for safe keeping in case the one in the Capitoline ever got lost or stolen.' She added: 'My dearest hope is that no one's stupid enough to melt it down. I just hate the thought of this being in someone's private garden where one person gets to see it.' In 2011 a Henry Moore sculpture worth £3 million was stolen from his foundation in Hertfordshire. It was later believed to have been melted down. Earlier this year a bronze statue worth £60,000 was stolen from the home of the artist Anne Curry in Essex. A 17th-century 'Shepherd Boy' statue was stolen from an outbuilding in Pickering, Yorkshire, last year — it still hasn't been found — and in March two men were sentenced for damaging and stealing a Paddington Bear statue in Newbury in Berkshire.
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Homes for sale in England with swimming pools
There is much to ogle at in this four-bedroom, ground- and first-floor apartment – part of a striking 17th-century manor house that has been sensitively carved up as part of a cohousing community. Every room is cavernous and light pours in through mullioned stone windows. There is a cellar, now a workroom. The property sits in 2.8 hectares (seven acres) of grounds which ramble through lawns to woodland. The communal open-air swimming pool is shrouded by trees. It is a seven-minute drive to Bradford-on-Avon station and town centre. £785,000. Inigo, 020 3687 3071 Photograph: Inigo This grand Edwardian home, to the south of the city centre, has three reception rooms, four bedrooms and a conservatory. The light-filled hallway leads into a sociable kitchen, a dining room, a conservatory, and the drawing room, which has an arched window seat under the stained-glass windows. Outside, the rear paved terrace is south-facing with a swimming pool at its centre. The garden is part-walled and bordered by mature flowers and trees. This detached house sits on a large a corner plot twice as wide as the neighbouring terrace homes. £725,000. Sowerbys, 01603 761 441 Photograph: Sowerbys High above sea level, and on the private North Foreland estate, is this restored Edwardian villa. It is thought to have been the original show house of the estate, and has views of the lighthouse and east across the sea. Built in 1902, it has only been occupied by four families. Spread over three floors, there are five bedrooms. The dining room leads on to the terrace and BBQ area, sheltered by raised flowerbeds, and beyond is the sandstone-bordered, heated swimming pool – fitted with a concealed, automatic cover . £2.5m. Inigo , 020 3687 3071 Photograph: Inigo A short walk from the green space of the park and lido is a corner building on Mentmore Terrace. On the third floor is a two-bedroom, two-bathroom, warehouse-style apartment with exposed concrete ceilings in the open-plan kitchen-dining-living area, and a private balcony with a protective half-height glass screen. Atop the building is a communal heated swimming pool with decking, flowerbeds and views over the City of London. The terrace runs alongside the railway line and parallel to London Fields, and the overground station is nearby. £730,000. Dexters, 020 7247 2440 Photograph: Dexters On South Quay Plaza, a Berkeley Homes development, is the 68-floor Hampton Tower, which is home to 627 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. There is a one-bedroom flat for sale on the ninth floor with an open-plan living-dining-kitchen area and floor-to-ceiling windows looking out to Canary Wharf. The tower has a gym, a swimming pool, a games room, a co-working space, and a bar and a roof terrace on the 56th floor. It's a five-minute walk to the DLR, a seven-minute walk to the Jubilee line and a 13-minute walk to the Elizabeth line. £727,500. Dexters, 020 7590 7299 Photograph: Andrew Beasley /Dexters
