Knock off £10m: house owned by Oliver Reed and Jim Davidson at auction for less than a quarter of 2009 price

The Surrey estate was listed for £12million in 2009 but is now up for auction with a guide price of £2.6 to £2.8 million.
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A commuter-belt Tudor manor house once separately owned by actor Oliver Reed and comedian Jim Davidson is to go under the hammer at auction with a guide price less than a quarter of its estimated peak value.

The 12-acre Okewood Hill estate near Cranleigh, Surrey, will go on sale at the end of the month with auctioneer Allsop on the instruction of receivers.

The auction catalogue lists the Grade II-listed property, which has had a colourful recent history, as having a guide price of £2.6 million to £2.8 million.

This compares with the £12 million tag put on it when it went on the market in 2009.

When it failed to find a buyer during the recession the price was cut to £8.5 million and has fallen successively since then.

There have also been attempts to find tenants for the estate at a rent of £25,000 a month.

As well as the six-bedroom, five-bathroom main house said to have been built in the 16th century, the estate includes an office suite with a triple garage and one-bedroom “au pair” annexe, plus a two-bedroom staff cottage, stables and horse training school, helipad, pond and heated koi carp lake claimed to be England’s largest.

The red-brick property was known as Pinkhurst Farm when it was owned in the Seventies by Mr Reed, the hard-drinking star of Oliver! and Gladiator.

One story says the actor once “kidnapped” the milkman and took him on a two-day drinking binge. The milkman was sacked but Reed took him on as a gardener and doubled his wages.

It was bought from Mr Davidson for £2.5 million in 2004 by businessman Spencer Day who spent £5 million on a huge refurbishment including an indoor swimming pool, Bang and Olufsen speakers and a £280,000 gravel drive.

Richard Adamson, partner and auctioneer at Allsop, said: “Okewood Hill Estate presents a rare opportunity to purchase a country estate close to London.

"It is likely to be popular among potential buyers that fall in love with this unique mix of English country manor and Hollywood-style glamour.”

The auction will be at the Cumberland Hotel in central London on May 31.