A lighthouse which inspired legendary naturalist Sir Peter Scott is up for sale.
Sir Peter Scott’s lighthouse stands on the eastern bank where the River Nene meets The Wash on the Cambridgeshire - Lincolnshire border 12 miles north of Wisbech.
The four-bedroom structure and its 1.7 acres of grounds are on the market for £600,000.
King’s Lynn-based agents Fine and Country say it stands in “a marine area which is one of England’s last great wildernesses, a place where you can enjoy true tranquillity, as well as the excitement of some of England’s great wildlife spectacles”.
Sir Peter painted skeins of geese and other wildfowl while he lived there in the 1930s. At the time, it stood on tidal marsh.
Since 2010, it has been owned by Doug and Sue Hilton, who are selling the property to move nearer to family in Wales. They admit seeing it go will be a wrench.
“It’s very much like Bilbo Baggins’s ring,” said Mr Hilton, 66. “Once you put it on you don’t want to take it off.
“We can’t give the lighthouse the attention it needs, so we want to find someone to take it on the next stage of its journey.
“The next stage is primarily to do with trying to do something that makes it more accessible to the public.”
The property comes with kitchen, reception rooms, gallery, light room, studio, shower and basement. It also has planning permission for a separate visitor centre.
Property developer and environmentalist Mr Hilton said: “It’s just wonderful really, it’s incredibly peaceful.
“You walk in there and somehow or other a cloak goes round you. At the end off the day I’ve not found a more friendly building in my life.
“Just sitting on the ground floor of that tower, it’s a crazy, quirky room. It’s circular, it’s narrower at the top than at the bottom, the doors are all different shapes and sizes but they all fit somehow.”
Upper floors offer panoramic views of the coastline. Great skeins of geese still fly to and fro at dawn and dusk, like the winter visitors which inspired Peter Scott to pick up his paintbrush.
In 2010 it was sold by Savills of an asking price of £435,000.
Once owned by Anglian Water, the lighthouse, built in 1826, stood empty for years. In 1984 it was bought by Commander David Joel who had known Scott since the 140s when they had corresponded over two Egyptian geese the commander had donated to London Zoo.
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