Midelney Place, Drayton, Somerset, TA10

A MAGNIFICENT PRIVATE COUNTRY ESTATE OFFERING PERIOD GRANDEUR, SUBLIME GARDENS AND PARKLAND, PRIVATE LEISURE, EQUESTRIAN AND ADDITIONAL PROPERTIES, IN APPROXIMATELY 76 ACRES.

NEARBY:

Taunton 9 miles, Castle Cary Station, 19 miles, M5 10 miles, Bristol Airport 30 miles (all distances are approximate).

ACCOMMODATION:

Principal Manor House

Ground Floor:

Grand reception hall, drawing room, dining room, sitting room, family room, snug, study, living/dining kitchen, orangery, butler's pantry with walk-in safe, laundry room, larder, boot room and cloak rooms. Extensive wine cellar.

Leisure suite with indoor pool, steam room, Jacuzzi, gym and lounging / relaxing area.

First Floor:

Principal bedroom suite, 4 further bedroom suites, 2 further bedrooms with separate bathrooms, individual dressing room.

Second Floor:

Perfect au pair/nanny/housekeeper/ teenage floor - all self contained with kitchen, sitting room, 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.

Outside:

Equestrian:

Stable courtyard with 9 Monarch stables - all with power and water. Feed store, large tack room and cloakroom. 40 x 60m all weather sand and fibre arena.
Cross country course and post and rail paddocks along with parkland grounds to hack in.

Commercial barn with motorised roller door, ideal for cars / machinery storage, a range of outbuildings and fuel stores.

Additional Property:

Midelney Lodge - 3 bedrooms, Midelney Barn - 3 bedrooms and Stable Cottage - 2 bedrooms.

Gardens and Grounds:

Tree-lined private driveway leading to beautiful carriage driveway that creates a true sense of arrival. Landscaped gardens, terraces  ideal for lounging or entertaining, mature specimen trees and copse, parkland,  sublime views, water features and ponds. In all 76 acres.

INTRODUCTION:

Set within 76 acres of beautifully landscaped parkland, gardens and grounds, Midelney Place is an exceptionally private and comprehensively equipped Grade II listed Victorian country estate that combines a substantial 13-bedroom principal residence with extensive ancillary accommodation, exceptional equestrian facilities, a major private leisure complex and significant estate buildings.

Midelney Place offers an outstanding combination of period grandeur, private leisure amenities and effortless connectivity to London and the South West. Approached along a sweeping tree-lined avenue and framed by formal terraced gardens and ornamental water, this is a house that delivers genuine wow-factor from the moment of arrival — a rare chance to acquire a substantial country estate of real character and pedigree.

Built in 1866 and designed by the celebrated architect James Piers St Aubyn, Midelney Place is a superb example of High Victorian Tudor-Gothic architecture, with striking gabled elevations, dressed stone bay windows, tall decorative chimney stacks and a distinctive turreted flag tower. Later additions include a light-filled orangery and garden room, together with a private indoor swimming pool complex — combining historic character with genuinely liveable, entertaining-ready accommodation throughout.
— Grade II listed Victorian country house dating from 1866
— Designed by architect James Piers St Aubyn
— Great hall, drawing room, dining room, library, sitting room, office, playroom and billiard room.
— 13 bedrooms arranged over three floors with two dressing rooms and five bathrooms, offering accommodation on a scale suitable for a large family, extended family living and substantial guest accommodation.
— Self-contained flat — ideal for staff, guests or multi-generational living
— Indoor swimming pool complex and gym
— Extensive oak panelling, exposed floorboards, cross-beamed ceilings and multiple period fireplaces
— Large original cellars with wine bins
— Garaging and a range of outbuildings.
— Three separate ancillary residences comprising: a two-bedroom stable cottage, a recently converted barn providing three double bedrooms, and a separate three-bedroom Lodge House.
— Together, these properties provide 21 bedrooms across the estate as a whole, allowing considerable flexibility for family, guests and household staff.

Within the approximately 76 acres of gardens, grounds and parkland are two substantial level lawned areas capable of accommodating helicopter landings. This is a rare scale of privacy and grandeur close to the heart of rural Somerset. These provide a further practical amenity appropriate to a private country estate of this scale, subject to the relevant operational, safety and regulatory requirements.

The house is approached along a private tree-lined avenue passing an attractive gatehouse. To the south, formal balustraded terraces and stone steps descend through manicured topiary to open parkland lawns, with an ornamental water garden providing a beautiful and tranquil focal point.

The estate benefits from extensive, above-average equestrian facilities, providing an exceptional setting for both recreational and competitive riding. These include a dedicated cross-country course, a substantial 40m x 60m all-weather riding arena and nine traditional stone-built stables.
Together with the surrounding parkland, these facilities provide an established and particularly well-equipped private equestrian environment of a scale considerably beyond that normally associated with a country residence.

Substantial Barn and Potential Additional Uses:
A further notable asset is the approximately 18m x 36m metal-framed barn, providing around 648 sq m (6,975 sq ft) of covered space.
Its considerable size offers substantial flexibility for a variety of uses, including general estate purposes or secure storage for a significant collection of classic, prestige or sports cars.
The barn's dimensions may also lend themselves to adaptation for sporting and recreational purposes, potentially including indoor padel courts, subject to any necessary planning and other consents.

A particularly distinguishing feature of Midelney Place is its exceptional degree of privacy and seclusion. The estate is enclosed and screened by established walls and mature hedging, with no public rights of way crossing the property.
The estate's privacy is further enhanced by an extensive CCTV security system providing coverage across the grounds. Incorporating infrared night-vision technology and motion detection, the system enables surveillance during both daylight and darkness, with the ability to detect moving objects. This provides an additional layer of security and reassurance.
The combination of its substantial 76-acre setting, natural screening, absence of public access through the grounds and comprehensive security arrangements creates a particularly private environment for an owner for whom privacy, discretion and security are paramount considerations.

Seen from above, Midelney Place reveals itself as a house that has been shaped by centuries of quiet Somerset history. Sir Richard Rivell, granted these lands as Lord of the Manor in the early thirteenth century, made his home at Midelney, where an Elizabethan manor once stood — a lineage stretching back through the drained moors and rhynes cut by the monks of nearby Muchelney Abbey, into the ancient, water-threaded landscape of the Somerset Levels that still frames the house today.

The building that rose in its place is a confident piece of Victorian storytelling in stone. Midelney Place is a Victorian country house completed in 1866, listed Grade II, built by the architect James Piers St Aubyn for the Trevillion family in the High Victorian Tudor-Gothic style. From the air, its steep tiled roofline reads like a small skyline of its own — a cascade of gables, dressed stone bays, and mullioned windows, all gathered around clusters of tall diagonal chimney stacks with their crenellated caps, one still flying the flag from a turreted lookout. A glazed orangery and later garden-room extensions soften the eastern flank, while an indoor pool pavilion with its glass roof sits discreetly among the service wings — a nod to the leisure amenities the house has long offered.

The approach only adds to the sense of arrival: a long avenue cut through mature woodland leads the eye straight to the front door, passing an Arts and Crafts gatehouse built around 1895 in a style close to that of the Norwich architect Skipper, which still guards the entrance. To the south, the gardens fall away in formal balustraded terraces and stone steps, stepping down through clipped topiary to open lawns and, further still, an ornamental water garden with a small planted island at its centre — a quiet, reflective counterpoint to the grandeur of the house above it.

The house sits within 76 acres of landscaped grounds, ringed by open farmland and rolling countryside near the market town of Langport — a setting that places Midelney firmly within a wider tradition of great Somerset landscaping, not far from where Capability Brown once worked for the Pitt family at Burton Pynsent

Taken as a whole, Midelney Place represents considerably more than a substantial country residence. The combination of a 13-bedroom principal house, three separate ancillary residences, approximately 76 acres of private gardens, grounds and parkland, extensive equestrian infrastructure, comprehensive indoor leisure facilities, private cinema room, substantial outbuildings and grounds capable of accommodating helicopter access creates an unusually complete private country estate.
Its particular combination of scale, privacy, security, accommodation and exceptional sporting, equestrian and leisure facilities, together with the absence of public rights of way across the estate, makes Midelney Place particularly suited to those seeking a highly private country estate capable of accommodating family, guests and staff while providing extensive recreational facilities entirely within its own grounds

ENVIRONS:

Midelney Place lies just outside the village of Drayton, less than two miles from the historic market town of Langport, on the edge of the Somerset Levels — an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty renowned for its rolling countryside, waterways and rich wildlife.
— Local convenience store, garage and petrol station, post office, church, primary school and a well-regarded village pub/restaurant.
— Langport (under 2 miles): everyday amenities including a Tesco supermarket, medical centre, churches and schools of all ages, including the well-regarded Huish Academy.
— Exceptionally well placed for access to some of the South West's most exclusive private members' destinations, including The Newt in Bruton and Babbington House, part of the Soho House collection. Both are renowned for their distinctive hospitality, beautiful grounds and highly curated social atmosphere, attracting a discerning international clientele and offering a rare sense of privacy and exclusivity.
— Sherborne, Bruton, and Frome - historic and distinct market towns lying a short distance away.
— Renowned local schooling in both the state and independent sectors across Somerset and neighbouring Dorset including Millfield, Sherborne, and Kings (Taunton).
— Taunton and Castle Cary railway stations with mainlines to London, and a common commute to Millfield School only 20 minutes away. Bristol Airport only one hour drive away.
— Excellent walking, riding and country pursuits directly from the doorstep, amid the waterways and wildlife of the Somerset Levels.

Despite its wonderfully rural, private setting, Midelney Place is remarkably well connected — with fast mainline rail access to London, swift links to the motorway network, and a choice of regional airports within easy reach.

Taunton Station 9 miles-20 mins, Mainline services to London Paddington-1hr 45 mins, Castle Cary Station 19 miles-30 mins, Direct GWR services to London Paddington-1hr 20 mins, A303 8 miles-15 mins. Links directly to the national motorway network
M5 Motorway (J25, Taunton) 10 miles-20 mins providing swift access north to Bristol and the Midlands, and south to Devon and Cornwall Bristol Airport 30 miles-50 mins.
Wide range of UK and European scheduled and low-cost flights
Exeter Airport 44 miles-55 mins Regional and holiday charter flights, Central London 133 miles-2 hrs 35 mins, by road via the M5/M4 or A303.

This combination of a fast, direct rail link to London Paddington from nearby Taunton and Castle Cary, easy access to the A303 and M5, and a choice of two regional airports makes Midelney Place a genuinely practical proposition for a permanent residence, weekend retreat, or London-connected family home — all set within the privacy and beauty of one of Somerset's most captivating landscapes.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

SERVICES:

We are advised that the property has mains water and electricity. Drainage is via a private system. The central heating is oil fired.

LOCAL AUTHORITY:

Somerset Council

TENURE:

We are advised that the property is freehold and that vacant possession will be granted on legal completion.

DIRECTIONS:

Travelling on the A378 towards Langport, proceed into the village of Curry Rivel, and as you start to leave the village, the gates to Midelney Place are on the right hand side.