Sandon Hall: a very refined rural retreat

Fancy having a country estate all to yourself? Sandon Hall is just the place, says John Stepek

The Agency, Sandon Hall
The Agency, Sandon Hall
(Image credit: The Agency, Sandon Hall © )

Have you ever visited a stately home and thought: “This is nice – but wouldn’t it be nicer if we had it all to ourselves?” Then a stay at the Sandon Hall estate in Staffordshire might be just the thing for you. Sandon has been the seat of the Harrowby family since Nathaniel, the first Baron Harrowby, bought it in 1776. You won’t be staying in the house itself – which today serves as an impressive wedding venue – but in The Agency, the former land-agent’s residence, which is a five-minute walk away from the main property.

This Georgian property – recently renovated and elegantly refurbished before being opened up to the public – comfortably accommodates four couples and would make an excellent choice for gathering far-flung family members for a weekend or Christmas break in the country (or of course, for a wedding). There’s a drawing room with a baby grand piano for the musically-inclined, a snug with a large TV and fireplace, plus a large utility space which is very convenient for shedding outdoor boots and scrubbing down dogs (the property is pet-friendly) before retiring in front of the fire in the evening.

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.