Homes gossip

Jimmy and his maiden are bowled over by Notting Hill

On the opening match of The Ashes today, who should I find has been flat-hunting in Notting Hill but England and Lancashire fast bowler James Anderson.

He and his wife, model Daniella Lloyd, have been trawling the fashionable squares and terraces around Ladbroke Grove and Westbourne Grove with Strutt & Parker. “They are looking for a pied-à-terre in the £2 million bracket,” a friend of Anderson explains.

“But their main home will remain their rather palatial house on the outskirts of Manchester near where Jimmy grew up.”

This glossy couple, somewhat cruelly dubbed the “Baby Beckhams”, recently produced a daughter, Lola. Daniella, a well-heeled Welsh WAG, is a former girlfriend of two Mancunian celebrities, loud-mouthed Oasis singer Liam Gallagher and Manchester United/Wales footballer Ryan Giggs.

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Denmark’s top golfer Thomas Björn is selling Magnolia House, his six-bedroom villa on the Wentworth Estate, for £3.75 million through Knight Frank.

He and his Swedish-born wife, Pernilla, live in a modern villa with swimming pool, games room, triple garage and views of the championship golf course, with their three children, Filippa and twins Oliver and Julia.

The lofty Ryder Cup and European Tour player is an old sparring partner of Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle and Colin Montgomerie.

With no need now for a British base he is returning to his lakeside Danish home at Silkeborg. He will leave behind neighbours of the Bee Gees, Elton John and Duchess of York variety, all current or former estate residents.

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Gryce Hall near Huddersfield, the 16th-century home of Yorkshire landowner Lord Savile, who died last summer aged 89, is for sale through Carter Jonas. The £2 million farmhouse, set in 42 scenic Calderdale acres, has six bedrooms and a Grand Hall.

The classical music-loving bachelor was said to be “one of the last PG Wodehouse characters to inhabit the 21st century”.

He was a crack shot on the family’s nearby grouse moor, his butler served the best Bloody Marys in Yorkshire, and he had no time for wind farms.

His admirers included the Countess of Dartmouth who later, as Raine Spencer (right), became Princess Diana’s stepmother.