Stunning and historic: That’s how one property expert has described North Luffenham Hall. The property is not just Grade II or II* but Grade I listed (accounting for just 2.5% of all listed properties), making it one of only 6,000 buildings in the UK to boast the status — alongside Buckingham Palace and Grimsby Dock Tower!

The Jacobean mansion is fresh to the property market and could represent an extremely desirable Christmas present for its new owners, who will enjoy generously proportioned accommodation set within six acres and arranged over three floors.

Current owner Roger Canham has served as the property’s custodian for over five years, and has renovated the property, including making extensive changes to the grounds. But the property’s history is as interesting as its current situation.

“It was built in 1555 by James Harrington, then acquired by Simon Digby.” says Roger. “He was the cousin of, and a named conspiritor with Guy Fawkes. Meetings were supposed to have taken place at the the Hall, reportedly in the Digby Room, during the planning stages of the gunpowder plot.”

The early Jacobean period saw the property altered and extended by the grandson or great-grandson of Digby, including the addition of beautiful wood panelling in the library, sitting room and dining room.

Another quirky fact involves the property’s subsequent owners, the Fenwick family, being visited by their great friend the 19th century super-soprano Dame Nellie Melba. The singer agreed to several private performances for the family at the property, but on one occasions, just as she began to sing, the bells of the adjacent church pealed, and Melba stormed out in fury.

Thankfully, the Canham family is more even-tempered, but with daughters Caroline, 19 and Sophie, 18, leaving home & Eleanor, 16 and Hector, 12, coming of age, the family feel that this is an appropriate time to look for new custodians. So, what can the new occupiers expect? For a start, stunning architecture.

The property has flavours of Jacobean, Georgian and Victorian architecture, and sits centrally within six acres of elevated grounds overlooking beautiful Rutland countryside.

“It really is a one-of-a-kind property.” says Roger, himself a property expert and investor. “We had seen it two years before it came onto the market and had always held a soft spot for it.”

“We’re really lucky because properties like this are usually kept in the family and passed down through the generations.”

Quite legitimately described in the agent’s particulars as a mansion rather than acountry home, the property features ten bedrooms with five bathrooms, arranged over three floors, plus a separate two-bedroomed self-contained apartment which is, itself, Grade II* listed.

The home also has six reception rooms with a beautiful large reception hall with oak-panelled fireplace currently home to both the family’s Steinway grand piano and a large, lavishly adorned Christmas tree.

“It’s a superb house at Christmas, and we enjoy standing around the piano singing carols as a family — we usually have around 20 people with us at Christmas with a further 40 for New Year’s Eve.” says Roger.

The main drawing room, meanwhile, features large mullion windows with shutters and window seats as well as an ante-area with marble open fireplace.

The dining room, meanwhile, is particularly beautiful, with Ionic columns and heavily carved panelling, open fireplace with stone surround and wine cupboard, as well as a carved inscription bearing the date; 1616.

North Luffenham Hall’s practicality is also boosted by a large vaulted kitchen with bespoke cabinetry, four-oven Aga and Miele appliances.

The property’s grounds include stabling for six horses plus associated tack room, workshop with hayloft, tennis courts, wildlife pond and orchard.

There’s also a heated indoor swimming pool with sauna, gymnasium and as well as a billiards room too.

The grounds have certainly come into their own during the kind of long, hot summers we lament at this time of the year.

In recent years the house has hosted garden parties for Mary’s Meals, which provides nearly 200 tonnes of food aid to Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, to where tens of thousands of people have fled in search of food.

As part of enterprising daughter Eleanor’s Duke of Edinburgh Award the house was also transformed into a Bed and Breakfast for last year’s Burghley Horse Trials. Ultimately, though, North Luffenham Hall is a family home, and a beautiful one at that.

“We’ve really enjoyed living here, we’re going to miss the place terribly.” says Roger. “It truly is a unique property and given its style and scale, it’s so fortunate that the Hall hasn’t been transformed into a hotel or similar before now. It’s a piece of history... and a beautiful home.”

North Luffenham Hall is currently on the market with King West of Stamford for £3.75m. For more information see www.kingwest.co.uk or call 01780 435970.