Mr Darcy! Want to buy the stately home where Colin Firth emerged shirt sodden from a lake? Pride and Prejudice stately home is yours (for a cool £45million)

One of Britain’s grandest stately homes, which starred in the TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, has hit the market for a staggering £45 million.

Set in 1,700 acres of parks and farmland, the Edgcote estate was the backdrop for the 1995 BBC drama that helped turn Colin Firth into a household name.

In an iconic scene in the six-part series, Firth, who plays the aloof and arrogant aristocrat Mr Darcy in the film adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel, famously emerged from the lake after an impromptu swim wearing a clinging, soaked shirt.

The TV drama is just part of the colorful history of the Grade I-listed Georgian country pile, which will also leave its super-rich buyer facing a stamp duty bill of £5.3 million.

Coming to the open market for the first time in more than a century, the large six-bedroom property is set within an 18th-century park.

It overlooks its own 8.6-acre lake fed by the River Cherwell, which forms part of extensive formal gardens with ‘entertainment areas’ including a tennis court.

The site is completed by ‘a diverse and attractive residential portfolio of 31 houses, cottages and flats’, including a former vicarage.

However, those who want to bargain can buy the house at a lower price.

Set in 1,700 acres of parks and farmland in Hertfordshire, the Edgcote estate formed the backdrop for the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth.

The TV drama forms just one part of the colorful history of the Grade I-listed Georgian country pile (pictured here on Pride and Prejudice), which will leave its super-rich buyer facing a stamp duty bill of £5.3 million.

It will be available for purchase, along with 12 properties and a 288-acre park, for just £20 million, with the option to buy the house in two separate lots, separate from the majority of the property, which is used as a farm and racehorse stable.

Located in the rolling countryside of South Northamptonshire, known as the area for ‘towers and lairds’, the estate was built between 1748 and 1754 for a wealthy London merchant.

The land had previously belonged to Robert the Bruce’s grandmother, having been transferred first briefly to Sir Thomas Cromwell and then to Anne of Cleves, who lived on a manor granted to her by Henry VIII as part of the divorce settlement.

It had previously been the site of the Battle of Edgcote in 1469, a decisive clash during the Wars of the Roses.

In 1926 Raymond Courage of the brewing dynasty purchased the property and, with his son Edward, went on to establish Edgcote as a major horse racing establishment.

Firth’s portrayal of Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is widely regarded as a full-screen version of Jane Austen’s brooding, wealthy hero.

The series’ most famous moment – when Darcy makes a surprise swim at his Pemberley estate and emerges in a soaked white shirt – catapulted Firth into heartache

In June 2005, the property was quietly purchased by the late David Allen, an entertainment magnet who made his fortune from trailer parks.

In 2012, it was reported that the controversial HS2 high-speed rail line from London to Birmingham would cut through the land.

Mr Allen, who is said to donate £50,000 a year to the Conservative Party, complained and threatened to stop giving money to the party.

Ultimately, English Heritage recommended that the Department for Transport move the line because it was concerned about the impact the stately home would have on heritage sites in the area, including ornamental gardens.

Luxury estate agents Savills said Jennifer Ehle’s role in Pride and Prejudice, for which she won the BAFTA award for best actress, was ‘a testament to Georgian authenticity’.

The house spans approximately 25,908 square meters over four main floors and is arranged around a grand entrance hall and ‘an outstanding reception room suite’.

The property’s ‘wonderful features’ include ‘ornate cornices and plasterwork, hand-decorated wallpapers, intricately carved fireplaces and wood paneling’.

In the novel and the adaptations, the fireplace serves as a place for inner reflection, where Darcy or other characters sit and ‘look into the fireplace’, lost in deep thought.

If you have 45 million pounds in hand, you too can make television history by the fireplace. There is an option to split the property in two for £20 million

Savills described the ‘open-well mahogany’ grand staircase hall as ‘a showpiece of the house, adorned with rich paneling and decorative wall moldings designed to display works of art’.

The wider farmland of approximately 1,149 acres is centered around Lodge Farm, the operational center of an agricultural business with a series of buildings complete with modern machinery.

Cropping follows a traditional rotation that includes winter wheat, winter barley, oilseed rape and spring beans, with recent options focusing on sustainable agriculture incentive programmes.

The 102 decare pasture and pasture area has a mainly grazing license.

Darcy, played by Firth, spends a brooding moment next to the pool table in Pride and Prejudice

The same pool table remains today in estate agent photos after the 102-acre property, which includes farmland and a number of outlying properties, was put on the market

Grand wooden staircase features prominently in BBC’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice

And Savills have described the ‘exposed well mahogany’ grand staircase hall as a ‘showpiece of the house’

On the equestrian side, the facility has a long racing heritage centered around Edgcote racetrack, which was renovated in 2018 and hosts point-to-point meetings.

It has two professional National Hunt racing venues containing all the facilities required to support these training centres, including gallops, paddocks and training pitches.

The land also includes 115 acres of woodland, historically managed for recreational and sporting purposes, which previously hosted pheasant and partridge shoots, offering the potential for hunting, hunting and increasing biodiversity.

Crispin Holborow of Savills said: ‘Edgcote Manor represents an outstanding example of a traditional English country estate.

‘Both the house and its surroundings have gradually developed over the centuries, preserving the integrity and character of this classic Georgian property.

The dinner table was also included in the successful adaptation, which made the cast become stars.

With rich paneling and decorative wall moldings designed to display works of art, the property was portrayed as it is today to anyone rich enough to purchase it.

Today the property offers all the key elements associated with an asset of this caliber and combines a mix of residential and agricultural holdings with diversified income streams from well-regarded racing venues.

‘Also, the potential to restart a shoot further adds to its appeal, especially when considered together with the prime central location of the land.’