Fanny Cradock’s Former Home Is Up For Sale

If walls could talk, this country home on the edge of the famous Grove Estate would have plenty of stories to tell: it was once inhabited by TV chef and restaurant critic Fanny Cradock. 

Inside TV Chef & Restaurant Critic Fanny Cradock’s Former Home

Any handsome country home is likely to have a cracking kitchen, but you can bet that the former home of cooking personality Fanny Cradock has a kitchen that’s a cut above the rest. Of course, the property isn’t quite the same as it was when Cradock inhabited it during the 1960s – it’s since been meticulously updated – but still: who wouldn’t want to live (and cook) in the former home of a TV chef?

Cradock herself had a rather eventful career, beginning as a restaurant critic before going on to host a variety of cooking shows, including a successful BBC series and the (still-televised) Fanny Cradock Cooks For Christmas. She was credited with introducing a variety of international dishes to the attention of the British public, from pizza to more elaborate French cuisine, and some even say that she’s responsible for the popularity of the classic prawn cocktail. (She was also known to cook in a ballgown and chef’s apron, declaring that housewives should be inspired by cooking, rather than intimidated by it.)

Gradually, however, Craddock’s traditional recipes fell out of style, and her reputation took a swift dive after she dished out some particularly harsh feedback to an amateur chef during the BBC’s Cook of the Realm competition in 1976. While she lived in this impressive Hertfordshire house (known as The Dower House) during the heyday of her career, she eventually found herself in financial trouble and had to move to East Sussex.

The Dower House itself is certainly fit for a culinary celebrity: the all-important kitchen is kitted out with handcrafted wooden units, a large dining area, and a six-oven AGA, while the sprawling grounds encompass manicured gardens, a charming mill stream, and even a one-bedroom studio containing a second kitchen and an air-conditioned wine room.

The main house is complete with an elegant sitting room, a walnut-panelled library, and a breathtaking entrance hall with French oak floors and a grand staircase. Upstairs, there are four guest bedroom suites plus the palatial principal suite, which boasts its own dressing room. 

Brimming with history and plenty of rural charm, this really is a stellar country home. You’ll just need £5 million to hand if you’d like to be its next owner…

Available through Knight Frank and Savills.