Melinda Manor: The stunning country pile returned
to life by a very unlikely saviour

Mail on sunday 3 July 2016

Today it looks like the perfect Victorian country home, with elegant rooms, a charming exterior and a beautifully landscaped garden. Yet little more than a decade ago, The Old Rectory was just a functional set of offices.

If that seems difficult to believe, then the identity of the person who breathed new life into the six-bedroom house in the Wiltshire village of Lydiard Millicent is equally surprising: glamour model Melinda Messenger.

Now a television presenter, Melinda bought The Old Rectory in 2004 as a home to share with her then husband Wayne and their three children. ‘There wasn’t a bathroom, a bedroom, a kitchen or anything,’ she said in an interview the following year. ‘It was literally boardrooms and offices, with boxes and chairs stacked everywhere.’

Melinda – who was Britain’s best-known Page 3 girl in the late 1990s – set about converting the Grade II listed property back into a home, living on the top floor while work was carried out on the ground floor. The work included removing a set of urinals from an area that would become their family room.

They had actually stumbled upon the property by chance. ‘We weren’t intending to move,’ she said. ‘But my dad had seen that it was for sale, went to have a look, and then said we should see it.’

Despite The Old Rectory being used as offices at the time, its obvious charm won Melinda over. ‘We fell in love with it instantly,’ she said.

The couple sold the property the following year, but new owners David and Anna Cole were instantly smitten by it too.

‘As soon as we walked through the front door, and before we had even seen the rest of the house, we knew we wanted it,’ says solicitor Anna, 46.

‘Melinda did a good job knocking it back into a house,’ adds her husband in agreement.

But the Coles have since put their own stamp on the property. ‘We’ve redecorated, redone the garden, and put in wood-burning stoves,’ Anna says.

Over the years, the couple have also added fireplaces, shutters and flagstone floors with underfloor heating. David’s favourite room in the house is the spacious Smallbone kitchen with adjacent playroom.

‘We always eat in there – we hardly ever use the dining room,’ Anna says. And of the garden, she adds: ‘We’ve probably planted about 100 trees.’

The house, which has five bathrooms and four reception rooms, was built in about 1855 for the Reverend Christopher Cleobury, a fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, and rector of Lydiard Millicent.

His influence can be seen in the stained-glass window – bearing the coat of arms of Pembroke College – on the main staircase.

The Coles moved to Wiltshire from Wimbledon, South-West London, but now they and their two sons – Thomas, 12, and Harry, eight – plan on moving to Dorset because Thomas will soon be going to boarding school there. The Old Rectory is on the market with estate agents Humberts for £2.25 million.

Melinda also sold the house for a similar reason: she wanted her children to be educated at a Rudolf Steiner school, so moved to be close to one in Reading.

David, 47, who is also a solicitor, says that he and Anna concentrated on updating the house before improving the garden at The Old Rectory – but at their next property they will work on both simultaneously.

They also need a new place big enough to accommodate their au pair, Jan. ‘He lives on the top floor of the house,’ David says. ‘He basically has a self-contained flat. Jan is very much part of the family so we need to find another house with space for him as well.’

Anna adds: ‘We couldn’t manage without him.’

They say they will miss the versatility of The Old Rectory. ‘It’s so big and light and airy and you can do whatever you want with it – I think Melinda wanted to have a go-kart track for her boys in the garden!’ laughs Anna.

Jeremy Campbell-Harris, head of the London and Country department at Humberts, says: ‘This is a special property – it is a seamless blend of both period and contemporary features, perfect for a growing family moving out of London and looking for extra space.

‘The Smallbone kitchen has a real wow factor and forms the real heart of the home. Schools close by such as St Mary’s Calne, Pinewood and Marlborough are high on our potential purchasers’ wish-list too. Due to its proximity to the M4, it might appeal to a pilot who flies from Heathrow as the travel time would be about 40 minutes door to door.’