Amid the picturesque rolling cornfields of southern Chester County lies a 17th-century Cotswold-style manor. By all rights, this beautiful home, replete with stables, gardens, a pool house and 188 acres of land should feel out of place. The area was barely charted by Europeans by the 1600s, and yet, tucked away in a corner of southeast Pennsylvania paradise, Windmill Hollow Manor wouldn’t feel right anywhere else in the world.
Despite the effusive old-world charm the manor exudes, it is, in fact, not centuries old, but decades old. Built in 1997-98 and modeled after the 13th-century Buckland Manor, it was designed to grant the illusion of a house lovingly maintained over 400 years.
Different materials were used to build the various sections of the house and property, adding to the semblance that that manor grew and expanded naturally as the centuries passed. A graceful stone structure, its 300-year-old slates line the roof and authentic Cotswold leaded glass casement windows allow heaps of natural light. Window and door surrounds were also quarried in the Cotswolds while Elizabethan, Jacobean, Georgian and Regency-style details were used in designing the rooms. Antique doors, furniture and flooring create a thoughtful and entirely unique living space.
Inside the house are 10 bathrooms and six bedrooms, a newly redesigned kitchen as of 2017, dual staircases, a wine cellar, a spacious attic, a basement gym, a steam room, a library, a dining room, a mud room, a full-scale English basement pub and much more.
Each room brings its own charm and individual characteristics the the manor. The English pub is low-ceilinged, basking in a warmly lit glow. It boasts a pool table, pizza oven, comfy seating and stone walls to keep the room cool even during the hottest days of summer.
The library, meanwhile, sits beneath a chandelier and wood-paneled walls, while the aforementioned leaded glass windows fill the room with natural light.Â
The kitchen features modern amenities, a countertop island and several pantries. Windows above the sink look out over the spacious 188-acre property, where rolling hills hide the Brandywine River trickling just below.
Outside the manor itself are spectacular gardens, some of the last designed by Rosemary Verey, with help from William Frederick, before her passing in 2001. One of the 20th century’s great visionaries, Verey’s work at Barnsley House near Cirencester is considered some of the finest of her era. Frederick, meanwhile, worked in the Brandywine Valley for more than 50 years and wrote three exemplary horticultural guides.
The lady of the house, a passionate green thumb herself, has meticulously maintained the gardens for over 25 years. Thousands of shrubs, perennials, copper beeches and oaks line the property, while individual gardens are peaceful oases, blooming with life and color.
So well regarded are Windmill Hollow Manor’s gardens that students from Longwood Gardens and the Philadelphia Horticultural Society come to view seasonal changes and floral maturation.
These wonderful splashes of life that surround the property are a backdrop to the 12-stall stable. A coach house, paddocks and run-in sheds all support the equestrian pursuits which owners of the property may wish to follow. Paths and trails throughout the 188 acres, all part of the Brandywine Conservancy, are perfect for trots to and from the Brandywine River during any season.
A jewel in Chadds Ford, Windmill Hollow Manor is a late 20th-century homage to more romantic, chivalric days of yore. Painstakingly designed to the most minute details, this classical manor house rests on the laurels of centuries of brilliant architectural engineering and lives up to that lofty standard.
As of July 2024, all 188 acres of the property are on sale for $20 million. Any interested parties should contact Victoria Dickinson at vdickinson@psre.com, Carly Simmons at csimmons@psre.com or Chris Patterson at patterson@psre.com.
Related: This Tudor Home Embraces New and Old Design in West Chester
