RSS Feed

Related Articles

Related Categories

Gold rush millionaire’s country retreat up for sale

1st March 2012 Print
South Marlands

Featured in the Architectural Review of 1904 `Marlands’ is an imposing stone built country house in the West Sussex village of Itchingfield, just an hour from London Victoria, and was once home to one of the city’s original financial wizards, Herbert Latilla. Latilla was a contemporary of Cecil Rhodes and is reputed to have made a million pounds in three days during the 1934 gold boom. At least some of his vast wealth was spent on ensconcing his family at Marlands, a magnificent house with uninterrupted views over countryside to the undulating hills of the South Downs.

Chairman of six companies, director of nine, on his death in 1949, the local paper described Herbert Latilla as a great anonymous philanthropist. In 1939 the Latilla family left Marlands when the military requisitioned it for occupation by the Canadian army during the war. Sub-terranean tunnels and an underground bunker are still evident in the grounds at Marlands. On Tuesday 6th June 1944 the local fire service war diary records the moment a flying bomb fell on the stables at Marlands and killed 50 (chickens).

Now divided into three homes, the major portion, South Marlands is a vast and hugely characterful living space of 5,625 square feet arranged over three floors. The house can be occupied as a large, 7 bed house, with four reception rooms, including a wood paneled sitting room with paneling reclaimed from Welbeck Abbey, four recently refurbished bathrooms, two kitchens, including a magnificent newly finished kitchen / breakfast room with roof lantern, a utility room, two cellars and an external self-contained office (annexe), or as a four bed house and a two bed self-contained flat. South Marlands is offered a price guide of £1m.

Access to South Marlands is via a quarter mile long tree-lined drive, winding through woodland and rhododendrons to give prestigious and secluded entrance drive. The property is within a mile of the famous blue-coat school at Christ’s Hospital and a range of other good private and state schools, is close to the major motorway and rail network, just 3 miles from the market town of Horsham with access to London Victoria in an hour.

Owner Mary Stuart-Miller said “South Marlands is a magnificent house with an interesting history in a really stunning setting. It is perfect for those with a large family or who enjoy entertaining and are looking for a generous property with space for an extended family or to utilise the separate flat’s potential rental income”.

South Marlands is offered for sale with a price guide of £1m, for more information visit hamptons.co.uk.

More Photos - Click to Enlarge

South Marlands