Sir Walter Raleigh’s family home is for sale – but it’s a long commute from NC

A manor once owned by the family of Sir Walter Raleigh is for sale, according to a real estate website in the UK.

A listing by Jackson-Stops describes Fardel Manor as having “significant historic and architectural status.”

It is a “late-mediaeval manor house, together with 13th century chapel and service cottage, sheltered in superb gardens on the edge of Dartmoor,” the listing says. “The oldest parts of the present house date back to the 14th century.”

Other accommodations listed include four bedrooms, a library/dining room, a lake, a swimming pool and “orangery,” a special greenhouse for growing oranges.

So what would it cost to make the manor yours? According to the listing, at least 2,000,000 pounds, or more than $2.5 million.

The five-acre property is located in the southwest England county of Devon, near the port city of Plymouth.

Raleigh was born in Devon in the mid-16th century, according to a biography by the UNC Louis Round Wilson Library.

The listing says the manor is documented as an 11th-century Saxon estate, and that it is notable for its connection to the Raleigh family and other North American historical figures.

“Sir Walter Raleigh’s father lived at Fardel at the beginning of the 16th century,” the listing says. “Walter visited the house quite often (as did one of his ship’s captains, John Rolfe, husband of the famous Pocahontas. After her death, her 7 year old son came to Fardel and was brought up there).”

The North Carolina General Assembly named the state capital in honor of Sir Walter Raleigh on Dec. 31, 1792, according to the City of Raleigh.

His name was previously given to the Roanoke Island settlement established in 1587 that is now widely known as The Lost Colony, according to the city’s history.

Raleigh didn’t go on the three English expeditions he sent to North America, according to the UNC collections. He was charged in 1603 with treason over his political stance on Spain, and beheaded in 1618, the UNC biography says.

This story was originally published August 25, 2018 at 11:32 AM.