Mid Wales manor fetches £410,000 at auction

Carregedio Lake went for double its guide price while Maenol manor sold for £410,000 at an auction in Welshpool.

The lake and the manor, both near Llanidloes, went under the hammer at Welshpool Livestock Market.

Carregdio Lake, which sold for £31,000, is two miles from the nearest main road and 12 miles from Llanidloes, the nearest main town. It sits within nearly three acres of land and woodland.

Estate and land agents Morris Marshall and Poole had anticipated a guide price of £15,000 when it went to auction, but bidding soon rose.

Andrew Turner, partner at Morris, Marshall and Poole, said: "Sometimes it's difficult to judge how such a unique piece of land will sell. Owning your own Welsh lake is obviously a unique opportunity.

"We'd had a lot of interest prior to the sale and this was demonstrated on the day."

The buyer, who has not been named, was among several bidding for the lake and a range of other residential, commercial and agricultural properties from Mid Wales and Shropshire.

Meanwhile Maenol was sold to a local family. The home was built in the 1830s by Thomas Evans, a former Superintendent Surgeon of the East India Company in Madras who went on to donate rare plants to Kew Gardens in London,

The property, complete with servants' quarters and a coach house cottage summer house, had a guide price of £350,000. But part of the building is in a state of disrepair and is in need of a substantial revamp.

Mr Evans, who had a home in London, was involved in bringing rare orchids from India to Kew, a process which was then in its infancy.

He decided to use the money he made in India to buy land in Llanidloes.

New owner Paul Jervis, from Llanidloes, said he wanted to turn it into a family home for generations to come.

He said: "I've bought it as a family home for generations to come. I'm looking forward to restoring it to its original condition."

Mr Turner added: "Thomas Evans created a Tudor gothic-style manor house and it's believed some of the materials and ideas he used came from India where he had worked.

"We have some historic photographs from the early days of Maenol, including a garden party in the 1800s which portray the lifestyle Evans led and the wealth he had at the time."

It is understood Evans was born in 1773. He retired to Llanidloes and died in 1845 aged 72 and Maenol remained in the family until the 1950s.