East Sussex Tudor home of Jamie Theakston for sale

Nov. 30, 2009 - PRLog -- It was a grey afternoon in the late 1970s and a young Jamie Theakston was sitting perched on a kerb in the village of Ditchling, East Sussex, clutching his easel and a handful of pencils. His attention was on the grand Tudor house across the road, the focus of art classes and numerous history projects at his primary school.

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And no wonder — the roll call of the Grade-I listed property’s former owners sounds like David Starkey’s fantasy dinner-party guest list. Wings Place fell into the hands of Henry VIII during the dissolution of the monasteries in the late 1530s, and was Thomas Cromwell’s until the king gave it to Anne of Cleves as part of his divorce settlement. And it was while wandering the house — which its then owners opened to the local children — that young Jamie learnt his Tudor history.

Thirty years, several successful TV shows and one rather unfortunate stumble into a Mayfair brothel later, Theakston sits facing the open fire in the living room of the same Wings Place. Fresh from broadcasting his daily breakfast show on Heart FM, he is telling the story of how he eventually bought the property that so fascinated him as a child, spent more than a year renovating it — and now hopes to sell.

Eight years ago, while visiting his parents in Ditchling, Theakston was sharing a pint in the White Horse, the local pub, with the house’s owner — the same one as in his schooldays. “He told me he was thinking of selling up,” says Theakston, who immediately realised he wanted the house for himself.

Despite having a fair amount saved in the bank from his media successes, he did not want to get into bidding war on the open market. “I spoke to the estate agent, who said an advert in Country Life was scheduled and that viewers were already preparing to fly in from America for viewings,” he says. “I knew I wouldn’t have a chance of outbidding them.”

So how did he outwit them — using the brainpower and shrewdness that helped him become a member of Mensa? Almost. “I went round to the house and sat down with the neighbour for hours over a bottle of wine, telling him my whole story about how I’ve always wanted to live in the place.” At the end of the night, it transpired all the owner wanted was to see Wings Place “filled with music and laughter”.

What better person to do just that than Theakston, known at the time for his partying and womanising? He was linked to a string of glamorous women, including Erin O’Connor, Anna Friel — and Joely Richardson, his relationship with whom spectacularly collapsed after three prostitutes sold a kiss-and-tell about him to the tabloids. So Theakston swore to the owner to do his best on the music and laughter front, and Wings Place was his for £1m (€1.1m).

“Just goes to show you should never drink with someone who wants to buy your house!” says Theakston’s wife, Sophie, 36, from beside him on the couch.

That’s right: his wife. Those who have rather lost track of Theakston’s love life since the Mayfair incident may have missed the fact that the man once pilloried by the tabloids as a love rat is settled and married. His bachelor days ended two years ago in the church opposite Wings Place, and the couple have two toddlers — Sidney, 2, and Kit, two months. With his two cats and two dogs thrown into the equation, Theakston has wasted no time in building up a brood.

Now 39, he has come a long a way from being the 23-year-old radio sports presenter who then shot to fame on the BBC children’s show Live & Kicking in 1996, and who was on one of the first English cricket teams to play the Afghanistan national side in Kabul.

He’s a little stockier, for one thing, which gives him an air of grown-up authority. He sits huddled up on the sofa next to the elegant and petite Sophie, who speaks fondly of their time in the house — although she could be forgiven for wanting to move from a place so much part of her husband’s past life.

Theakston says he wants to sell Wings Place — priced at £2m — to buy a “family house” instead. But isn’t the detached manor house, with its four bedrooms and large garden, the perfect place to bring up kids — especially since Theakston’s parents live nearby?

It seems there’s another reason (and not just the six-figure profit he is set to pocket). Life in the house has not proved quite as idyllic as he had imagined it would be.

“This house has such a strong character to it, it demands the decor is a certain way,” he says. “You have to respect its integrity” — something that proved tricky when Theakston finally tired of all things Tudor. “I don’t want anything with beams,” he adds. No wonder: although the ceilings are relatively high by 16th century standards, he is 6ft 4in and says he often bangs his head.

The couple have just finished an 18-month refurbishment of their main home, a Notting Hill townhouse they bought three years ago. It is in a completely different style: “modern and eclectic”. They have thoroughly enjoyed the experience but have what Mrs T calls a severe case of “itchy feet”.

“I’m ready to move forward about two or three hundred years, actually — perhaps a Georgian mansion or a Queen Anne house,” says Theakston. Whether this will be in Ditchling — also home to another tabloid favourite, Katie Price, aka Jordan — remains to be seen.

Unexpectedly, perhaps, for those familiar with his laddish radio and television persona, Theakston has a passion for renovating period properties and is justifiably proud of what he has achieved at Wings Place, his first big renovation project. “It was a proper 70s house with green, swirly lino on the floor,” he says. “There was a huge, fat pipe running through the whole house — the kind you used to burn your feet on at school — and an enormous old boiler, the size of a Ford Transit, making a right racket in the cellar. I took it out.”

Theakston coordinated the work himself, without hiring a project manager or architect, and spent “quite a lot” of money — he says he can’t remember how much — returning the house to its original state. Apart from installing the kitchens and bathrooms, all the other work was restorative — “just a case of bringing it back to life.”

So he hasn’t gone back on his promise to fill the house with music and laughter, then? “We’ve had a good go at it. I think that, over the past eight years, the house has seen as much fun as it did in the 500 years before.”

He’s had big dinner parties with people coming to stay and says: “It’s fantastic for entertaining”. However, he’s discreet about names and won’t mention any of the ex-girlfriends who were likely to have been there as well. This is family Jamie, remember.

Theakston says he hopes the new owners will enjoy the house as much as he did. Just don’t try to be clever and go round with a bottle of wine — he’ll probably know what you’re up to.

A guide price:  £2million

Source: The Times


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