The Autumn Collection · 2026
For almost four decades we have represented the finest houses on the shores of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Norfolk and Northumberland. Many of them were sold before they were ever advertised.
We take on a small number of instructions each season, and only those we would be proud to live in ourselves. Each is photographed, measured and written about as carefully as it was built.
Showing six of six residences
No. 01 · Cornwall
Polwenna Cove, on the Lantic estuary
A converted 1880s pilchard cellar with its own slipway, a deep-water mooring and an upper sitting room that opens straight onto the estuary.
No. 02 · Norfolk
Saltmarsh Reach, on the north Norfolk coast
A black-weatherboarded threshing barn on the edge of the marshes, reimagined around a double-height hall with uninterrupted views to the sea.
No. 03 · Devon
Haldon Quay, above the Erme estuary
A handsome Georgian rectory of 1794 with walled gardens, a coach house, a boathouse and two hundred metres of private river frontage.
No. 04 · Northumberland
Thornwick Bay, beside the old light
The former keeper’s cottage beside the Thornwick light, restored in limewash and oak, with the whole of the bay at the end of the garden.
No. 05 · Dorset
Studcombe Head, on the chalk coast
Two pavilions of glass and Purbeck stone designed by Monolith Atelier in 2011, with a heated pool cut into the headland and steps to a private beach.
No. 06 · Cornwall
St Wenna, on the inner harbour
A tall, sun-washed harbourside townhouse over four floors, with a roof terrace above the fishing fleet and a mooring licence in the inner harbour.
No residences on our public list match those details this season, though our Private Office may well know of one.
A further twenty-three homes are held by our Private Office and offered by introduction only.
Join the private registerKestle Point · South Cornwall
An Arts & Crafts house above a private cove, offered for the first time in sixty-five years.
Penhallow was built in 1909 for a Falmouth shipping family who wanted a house that looked out to sea from every principal room. Its architect, a disciple of the Arts & Crafts movement, gave it low sweeping roofs of Cornish slate, tall granite chimneys and leaded casements that still open on their original iron stays.
Below the house, eleven acres of terraced gardens fall away through Monterey pines and tree ferns to a private shingle cove, reached by one hundred and four granite steps. The present owners have restored it with great sensitivity over twenty-two years; this is the first time it has been offered for sale since 1961.
“The light arrives across the water an hour before it reaches the lawn.”
Viewings by appointment, accompanied by a partner.
“Two in five of the homes we sell are never advertised. Our buyers simply hear about them first.”
Exceptional homes, beautifully presented.
Every instruction is photographed on medium-format film, measured by hand and introduced to our private register of 3,800 qualified buyers before any public launch.
For sales that should remain unseen.
Where privacy matters most, we market your home by introduction alone, to buyers we have met, vetted and know well. No portals, no boards, no photographs online.
An honest figure, given in person.
A partner will visit, walk the boundaries and give you a considered written opinion of value within five working days, with no obligation and without haste.
From our correspondence
They sold our home of thirty years without a single board, photograph or stranger at the gate, and to a family who will love it exactly as we did.
Written by the partners and published each season in print: an almanac of the coast for those who live by it, or hope to.
Two in five of the coastal homes we sold this year were never publicly advertised. Isobel Hale on the rise of the private sale, and what it means for buyers who want to be in the room.
The reasons are rarely secrecy for its own sake. A family selling the house in which they raised three children does not always want it photographed for strangers; a buyer relocating from abroad may want certainty long before a launch date. The private sale serves both.
For buyers, the lesson is simple: register early, be specific, and let us meet you. The houses on our Private Office list are matched by hand. The conversation usually begins over tea, not a listing alert.
Laurence Okafor kept a tide diary for twelve months from the edge of the marshes: an almanac of light, geese and very high water.
The highest tide of the year arrived on a still morning in March, lifting the creeks over the sea wall path and into the garden of Saltings Barn, which, as its architect intended, simply stood above it on its brick plinth and watched.
Low roofs, deep porches and windows that frame the sea like paintings: why the houses of 1890 to 1914 remain the most sought-after on the coast.
They were built by people who understood weather. Walls are thick, eaves are generous and the best rooms turn their shoulders to the prevailing wind. That is why, a century on, they remain the warmest houses on any headland.
From the first walk of the garden to the handing over of the keys, your sale is led by one of four partners. You will never be passed to a junior colleague.
Managing Partner · London
Daughter of our founder. Has handled the sale of nine of the coast’s fifteen most valuable homes this decade.
Write to IsobelHead of Private Office
Twenty years advising families and estates on sales that are never made public. A former harbourmaster’s son.
Write to RupertPartner · Cornwall & Devon
Born in Polwenna and still rows there most mornings. Knows every creek, quay and right of way west of the Tamar.
Write to ClemencyPartner · Norfolk & Northumberland
A chartered surveyor by training who leads our valuations, and the author of the Journal’s tide diary.
Write to LaurenceTell us a little about your home, or the house you would like to see, and a partner will write to you within one working day. There is no charge and no obligation: only an honest opinion, carefully reached.
Request received
Thank you.
A partner will write to you within one working day to arrange a convenient time.
Reference HH-0000