Huntmaster’s farm goes for £2.5m during record-breaking auction

A large family farmhouse and land inherited by a well-known local huntmaster has sold for more than £2.5m in a record auction.

Highlightley Farm, in Dronfield, Derbyshire, went under the hammer at the Mark Jenkinson and Son auction in Sheffield - six years after former owner and Barlow Huntmaster Anne Wilson died intestate aged 89.

Her stone built detached farmhouse on Highlightley Lane with adjoining L-shaped outbuilding, set in eight acres, went under the hammer with a guide price of £400,000 but sold for £1.36million - the highest individual sale result in more than 30 years of Mark Jenkinson and Son auctions.

Meanwhile 200 acres of Highlightley grazing land and woodland sold in 14 individual lots at the auction for £1.179million.

Adrian Little, Head of the Auction Department at Mark Jenkinson and Son, said "We are aware that our auction presented a unique opportunity to purchase a building and land with real scope for development in an enviable setting and was likely to attract a lot of interest."

"But we had no idea the farmhouse on Highlightley Lane itself would break our own record by selling for more than three times the guide price, and, with the land, the site in total went for more than £2.5million."

In total "5 million worth of property was sold during the two-hour long auction, held at the Platinum Suite, Sheffield United Football Club, and 91 per cent of lots offered were sold.

Former owner 'Miss Anne' - as she was known - inherited the large house with farmland and stables from her aunt and lived there for about 40 years, but moved into a caravan in the grounds before her death after the Barlow property became dilapidated.  Joint huntmaster of the Barlow Hunt for 20 years, she died in the Chesterfield Hospital after gas from a portable heater ignited inside her caravan home.

Born at Horsleygate Hall, Holmsfield, Miss Anne was the youngest of three in a family steeped in Barlow Hunt history, with her grandfather, father and elder sister all previous Masters.  She took on the Mastership after her sister's death in the late eighties.

Miss Anne was an eccentric and respected well-known figure among the hunting and farming communities - a former Land Girl, Guide Leader, President of Barlow Pony Club, and a fan of fast horses as well as cars.