A Grade II* listed Georgian house set within 19 acres near Richmond, dating back to William the Conqueror, is being offered to the market with a guide price of £2.5 million.

After an illustrious start, the estate, believed to have originally been given by William the Conqueror to the Constable of Richmond Castle as a hunting chase, has more recently enjoyed a chequered history. Threatened with army requisition and used to re-house school evacuees during the Second World War, the dilapidated house was purchased by a local businessman who considered demolishing it for its stone. However such was the history of the property that he sympathetically converted it into ten flats instead. It has since remained as flats and within the same family until now.

Despite requiring work to return it to its former magnificence, the house is now ripe for restoration and retains many of its period features including richly carved balusters and fine Italianate plasterwork together with impressive fireplaces and walnut panelled rooms.

The extensive and superb gardens include a former turbine house which originally supplied the hall with its own electricity.

Acquired by Matthew Hutton, Archbishop of York in 1596, the estate has a long association with the Hutton family. Alterations and additions over several hundred years included the current stable block and a successful breeding programme that resulted in the siring in 1764 of Eclipse, a chestnut colt generally regarded as the origin of contemporary bloodstock and from which 95% of all thoroughbreds are descended.

The hall itself was primarily used by shooting parties rather than being lived in by the family through the 19th century, although it is understood that John Hutton may have occupied it whilst he founded the Richmond and Swaledale Bank in 1804, successfully operating this until 1899 when it was acquired by the then Barclay and Company.

Jasper Feilding, Head of Country Department at Carter Jonas, comments, “Marske Hall represents a rare opportunity to acquire an important country house retaining many of its original features. It will appeal to a purchaser looking to restore it to its former glory or alternatively would work well as a country house hotel or similar commercial use.”