Elizabeth Hurley and Shane Warne buy $9.4 million property Donnington Hall in Herefordshire England

Shane Warne and fiancee Liz Hurley are to the manor born to the tune of $9.4 million.

 

Ben Spencer and Andy Dolan, The Daily Mail, report

It’s cost $9.4 million, has 13 bedrooms and 76 hectares of land.

Having sealed their unlikely union with an engagement, Elizabeth Hurley and Shane Warne have bought a stunning Georgian country mansion.

The purchase of Donnington Hall in a picturesque part of Herefordshire is a big step up the property ladder for the former cricketer and his fiancee.

Ms Hurley, 47, who now models for Estee Lauder, was a government school-educated teenager who grew up in Basingstoke, Hampshire, while Mr Warne spent his childhood in the beachside suburb of Black Rock in Melbourne, Australia.

In contrast, there is plenty of space at magnificent Donnington Hall.

It has 13 bedrooms, five bathrooms, stables, a private lake and tennis courts, as well as 76 hectares of land, 46 of which are parkland and landscaped gardens.

With four children between them - Ms Hurley’s son Damian and Mr Warne’s children Brooke, 15, Jackson, 13, and Summer, ten - and their extensive family and friends, there is plenty of room to accommodate all.

There is also room for a housekeeper and nanny, an extensive cellar, 12 stables, a coach house, tennis court and four estate cottages.

The tenants who occupy these have been reassured their new landlords have no intention of throwing them out.

Mr Warne, 43, proposed with a huge sapphire ring last October and earlier this year Ms Hurley hinted that buying a property together was an important next move for them as a couple.

"It was very important to us to get engaged because of the children. It was important for Damian’s relationship with Shane and his children’s with me that they knew it wasn’t just a passing flight of fancy for us," she said.

"It gives them a little more stability, understanding we have every intention of getting married and setting up home together."

Donnington Hall, mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, is Grade II listed and was the country seat of the Bishop of Hereford until the mid-18th century.

The current Georgian building was built by the wealthy Skippe family, who bought it in 1671.

It was later owned by Admiral Sir Arthur Dalrymple Fanshawe, a former aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria who became commander of the Navy Fleet between 1910 and 1913.

The grounds still contain a 16th century barn and coach house.

A tenant on the estate yesterday said he believed Miss Hurley and Warne bought the property in the spring, although Land Registry records confirm only that the couple were proprietors of Donnington Hall as of September 18.

A groundsman told the Daily Mail he was unable to talk about the property’s owners.

A tenant living in one of the lodges at the entrance to the estate said he had seen the couple ‘driving past in their various vehicles’.

'I think they bought the house around eight months ago but they must have been considering buying it for a lot longer than that as I've seen them a few times over here in the last couple of years or so," the tenant said.

"I'm quite happy to have a famous landlord and landlady – I enjoy watching Shane commentating on the cricket. We’ve been told by the property management company we deal with that they are happy for us tenants to remain."

The hall is reached through a gated entrance on a country road, near Ledbury, shielded from public view by trees, parkland and hedgerows on all sides.

A source in the nearby village of Dymock said Ms Hurley had been a regular visitor to Ledbury in recent months but had not been sighted in Dymock. The couple have yet to be spotted at the village pub, the Beauchamp Arms Inn.

A spokesman for Hayes estate agents in Ledbury, which handled the sale, said: "The property was listed for sale with a guide price of £6million and there was a successful sale of the property in the full knowledge of that guide price."