‘I’ve spent almost a decade trying to drag my 300-year-old country estate into the 21st century’

It was Sept 13, 1774 and Dr Samuel Johnson, the writer, was making a note in his journal: “We came to Lord Sandys’s at Ombersley, where we were treated with great civility. The house is large. The hall is a very noble room.”

Ombersley Court, built between 1723 and 1730 for Samuel Sandys, 1st Baron Sandys, remains large and noble – though it has not been the home of any Lord Sandys for almost a decade.

It is a rare country house today – virtually unseen by the public throughout its history and only once sold. This sale came in 2017, four years after the death of Ombersley’s last hereditary custodian, Richard Hill, 7th and last Baron Sandys, who dedicated his life to the preservation of Ombersley.

It was bought by Tim Hopkins, a local businessman, who had grown up nearby.

“Ombersley Court always had a mystique,” he says. “It looked tired and grey and sad – a bit eerie.”

Before his death in 2013, having no children with his wife Patricia, the 7th Baron Sandys had established two trusts: the Sandys Trust for the house, chattels and surrounding 50 acres and the Ombersley Conservation Trust for 2,500 acres and 42 residential properties.

After his death, a plan was needed for the big house. No one in the family wanted to take it on and since it belonged to a charity “it had to be sold in public”, says Hopkins.

At the time, Hopkins was working on a project with some ancient woodland in Kidderminster. When his architect mentioned Ombersley was for sale, “my ears pricked up”, he remembers.

It was explained that the charity Revitalise, which provides respite grants to disabled adults and their carers, was interested in the house as a possible location and – subject to planning permission – the 7th Baron Sandys had agreed to give them the house.

Hopkins was asked whether he was interested in investing in the plan. He wasn’t but he “said I’d like to meet the trustees”.

It quickly became apparent that “being a Grade I-listed house, it was going to be such a complicated process to get planning permission that it wasn’t going to be worth it”.

If Ombersley couldn’t work for Revitalise, the 7th Baron Sandys had been keen for it to remain a family home. This worked for Hopkins, who bought the house in 2017 for an undisclosed sum. Though, as he says: “the house bought me – it wanted me.”