Wolf Hall is the latest TV series to pique viewers’ interest, as they watch wily Thomas Cromwell scrabble to a position of power as advisor to King Henry VIII.
While the adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Booker award-winning novel Wolf Hall and its sequel, Bringing Up The Bodies, is unlikely to revive a trend for wearing bonnets and breeches or lighting homes by candlelight, it is winning admirers for its atmospheric settings.
Thick walled and heavily beamed, these historic houses have stood the test of time, the elements and even civil war.
Though some of the castles and courts used in the series might not be available to buy, there are homes on the market throughout Warwickshire and Worcestershire that even Cromwell would have felt at ease in:
Tudor Cottage
This home in the village of Bearley, Stratford-upon-Avon, is a Grade II listed, black and white timber framed, 15th cottage situated opposite the village church.
It has exposed timber beams in the hallway and study, as well as the drawing and sitting room which both have feature fireplaces.
It is modern where it needs to be with a farmhouse style kitchen with wooden butcher block work surface, two oven AGA and appliances.
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A former garage has been converted to a utility which has the potential to become a downstairs cloakroom – a 21st century equivalent of a garderobe.
Period features continue through to the first floor with exposed timber beams to the ceilings and in the walls of the three bedrooms.
A refurbished family bathroom has more of a Victorian than Tudor feel (fortunately) incorporating a free standing roll top bath, separate shower, toilet and basin.
Outside it has a delightful cottage garden.
Price: £500,000. Knight Frank, 01789 297735, www.knightfrank.co.uk
The Moat House
This is a fine former manor house in Hampton in Arden.
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It sits next to the parish Church of St Mary and St Bartholomew and also backs onto the grounds of Hampton Manor (this estate was mentioned as far back as the Domesday Book but the house is 19th century, built in the neo-Tudor Gothic style).
The five bedroom Grade II* listed Moat House dates back to the mid-16th century with a wealth of original features including beams, leaded windows and fireplaces.
Both the dining hall and drawing room have inglenook fireplaces. There is a farmhouse kitchen with sitting room just off. The fine library is known as the Long Room and has a vaulted ceiling, exposed roof trusses and maple floor.
On the first floor there is a magnificent Elizabethan stone fireplace, five bedrooms, a bathroom and two en suites.
The mature gardens feature a pathway leading to the back of the Church of St Mary and St Bartholomew, while several mature trees offer high levels of privacy.
Price: £1,500,000. Knight Frank , 01789 297735, www.knightfrank.co.uk
The Old Falcon
The Old Falcon at Bidford on Avon near Alcester, once welcomed a famous chronicler of the activities of Royal courts, including Henry VIII’s.
Originally a coaching inn, it dates back to 1530 and is believed to have once hosted William Shakespeare. Having enjoyed the hospitality a little too much, the bard fell asleep under a nearby crab tree.
King Charles II is also said to have addressed his followers on the eve of the battle of Worcester December 2, 1651, from the steps of The Old Falcon. It forms a large wing of the building which is on the corner of Church Street and High Street.
It has a blue lias stone exterior, leaded windows with handmade glass, exposed beams and roof timbers, original elm doors, fireplaces and stone mullion windows.
In the dining room there is even a stained glass window of its inebriated guest, William Shakespeare.
Accommodation includes a reception hall, drawing room, dining room, kitchen/breakfast room, utility and guest cloakroom on the ground floor.
On the first and second floors there is a master suite with bathroom, four further bedrooms (one en suite), a sitting room/occasional bedroom and a bathroom.
It also has a cellar, garage, loggia and cottage gardens.
Price: £650,000. Knight Frank, 01789 297735, www.knightfrank.co.uk
Pickersleigh Court
Unsurprisingly found worthy of note by Nikolaus Pevsner (famous for his Buildings of England series of books) Pickersleigh Court at Pickersleigh, Malvern, is a former country manor dating from the 15th century with 19th century additions.
Grade II listed, it has historic associations to the Foley and Beauchamp estates and it once sat in open countryside and looked towards Madresfield Estate (the house/family that Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited is supposedly based upon).
It is timber framed with leaded light windows set beneath a pitched tiled roof.
Inside, there are four reception rooms, the main ones possessing feature fireplaces, some fine moulded ceiling beams and polished wood block floors.
The kitchen and ancillary rooms are in need of some modernisation.
The first floor, accessed by two staircases provides up to eight bedrooms.
Gardens are bounded on three sides by a tall yew hedge. There is a formal rose garden and some magnificent specimen trees including a blue cedar and a holm oak.
An adjoining paddock has planning for four detached houses to be built.
Price: £490,000. Knight Frank, 01905 723438, www.knightfrank.co.uk, and Andrew Grant, 01905 734735, www.andrew-grant.co.uk