A STUNNING Herefordshire mansion which was once thought to be a potential home for the now Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate, has been put on the market.
The stunning nine-bedroom home includes a private cinema complex, a leisure complex with swimming pool, cottages and lodges providing substantial Airbnb income, an ornamental lake, cascading ponds, parkland and woodland extending to about 49 acres, Savills said.
It is available as a whole or in two lots.
The agents said the property offers "complete privacy and seclusion" to potential buyers.
Speculation over whether the then-newlywed future king and queen were moving to the mansion was rife in July 2011 after a police escort was spotted at the property, which was then on the market for £5 million.
It was captured by an anonymous reader as it left the plush home, but West Mercia Police moved to quash the rumours, after initially being unable to confirm where the officers were from.
A spokesman said at the time: "I can confirm that the police presence at Pudleston Court on Thursday, July 21 were West Mercia Police officers. They were conducting a close protection training exercise. I cannot comment further on the details of the exercise."
The police motorbikes hinted at the future possibility of royal guests, or inhabitants, as few other figures would require such tight security on a trip to one of the safest places in the country.
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Pudleston Court, around six miles from Leominster, is no stranger to celebrities and was believed to have attracted the interest of business tycoon Lord Sugar.
The sighting of police escorting a convoy of cars from one of the county’s most desirable homes fueled rumours the royal couple wanted to live in the county after Prince William finished his RAF stint in Anglesey.
In January that year, the Duchy of Cornwall’s Harewood End estate near Ross-on-Wye was mentioned by national newspapers as a possible future home for the UK’s future King and Queen to live.
Pudleston Court had been put on the market following the death of Dr Heijn, who helped introduce the barcode and established a successful supermarket chain in his native Holland before he moved to Pudleston and built the Left Bank Village in Hereford.
But it was not until 2014 that the identity of the mansion's owner was revealed, when a planning application submitted to Herefordshire Council bore the name of applicant, George Sideras.
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