The house that toffee built: Sweet sorrow as couple sell £1million home they bought from Millie Mackintosh's confectionery family

mail on sunday 18 august 2013

For Charissa Garner, it was love at first sight. ‘I’m quite an instinctive person and whenever we drove past the house, I always dreamed of living there,’ she says.

‘We had our home on the market and then I saw an advert for The Manor House in the paper. I rang our estate agent and said, “You have to sell our house in three weeks!” He said, “Mrs Garner, you have to be realistic.” But I’m not that kind of woman at all, and he did sell it in that time.’

The Garners now want a home nearer their children’s schools and are selling the seven-bedroom property – in the village of Blofield, just east of Norwich – for £1 million.

Charissa, 40, and her husband Neil, 41, who owns an IT communications business, bought the house from the Mackintosh confectionery family, who had owned it for generations.

In the garden, outside the dining room, is a ‘cocoa wheel’ from the first Mackintosh factory, which would have been used to crush cocoa beans.

Toffee and chocolate used to be made in the kitchen and tested on local schoolchildren.

The Mackintosh family, which is best known for brands such as Quality Street, developed what we now know as toffee, by blending brittle English butterscotch with soft American caramel. Before this, the word ‘toffee’ had been used to describe any kind of boiled sweet.

The family was also the first to turn chocolate-making into a mass-distribution business so that buying and eating chocolate was no longer just for the rich. They did this by importing cocoa beans at lower costs.

Millie Mackintosh, star of E4 reality programme Made In Chelsea and fiancee of rapper Professor Green, is the current heir to the Mackintosh family fortune.

She has commented on how much her family loves cooking. So it is fitting that her family’s former home is now owned by an equally enthusiastic cook, who not only has a herb garden and greenhouses full of tomatoes but keeps chickens for their freshly laid eggs and has planted a garden of wild garlic.

The idea of Mackintosh chocolates having been being made in their house is appealing to Charissa’s children – Talia, ten, Romilly, six, and Zachary, one. But they also adore the house in its own right. Charissa says their friends are always eager to visit.

It is no wonder, as aside from the enormous size of their bedrooms there is a secret passage that runs from the en suite bathroom down to a swimming pool and sauna area.

The en suite itself has a sash window with views of the garden.

‘It’s lovely to lie in the bath and watch the birds in the trees by the window,’ Charissa says.

There is a large balcony attached to the master bedroom where, Charissa adds, ‘we sometimes sit with a glass of wine when the children have gone to bed’.

For the children, there is a zip wire to play with in the garden as well as a swing, not to mention the three acres of land the Garners own in total.

The Garners have had the house, which dates from 1784, extensively renovated. And if they didn’t need to move for schooling, they would set about converting the coach house into a new kitchen.

Charissa says: ‘I love interior design and I’ve done a lot of property renovation over the years. My dad’s a builder so that’s helped, and I’d love to do some more renovation projects once the children are older.’

As an indication of how skilful her overhauling of the house has been, she opens up her husband’s study, which has not been redecorated. In spite of its double aspect, the moss-green carpet and brown walls make it seem dismal when compared to the light and tasteful decor in the rest of the house.

Cameron Black, managing director of Fine & Country Norwich, says: ‘The Manor House is one of the most beautiful and unique homes I have seen come to market in Norwich over the past few years.

‘When I recount the wonderful history to viewers, it makes their faces light up and feel like the house is truly special – which it is. As soon as you walk up the drive, you know it is an impressive house.

‘Aside from its chocolatey past, the location of The Manor Houseis incredibly sought-after – Blofield village has access to all aspects of Norwich via the A47, allowing you to get to the centre of town in ten minutes.

‘It also has numerous outbuildings, which is getting rarer and rarer these days and a big differentiator in the market.

‘We have sold a couple of houses in the area at about £1 million, so I am confident this house will sell quickly.

‘The current market and summer weather is bringing out a much more positive result in serious buyers and faster sales.’