Sarah Ferguson rejected the gift on her daughters' behalves
In 1997, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie were gifted a £1.5million home in Surrey by the Queen. The Grade II-listed property named Birch Hall was purchased by trustees acting on behalf of the Queen, but the princesses never actually moved in after their mother Sarah Ferguson reportedly worried she would not be able to afford the upkeep and running costs. Instead, the family continued to live at Sarah and Prince Andrew's former marital home, Sunninghill Park.
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The Queen bought Birch Hall for Princess Beatrice and Eugenie
In 2016, Birch Hall was listed on the market for £4.2million, after being renovated with even more jaw-dropping features than it originally had.
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The Georgian mansion stands on five acres of land with endless lawn space, a tennis court and its very own outdoor heated swimming pool, and a separate two-bedroom cottage for staff. Its latest owners added in a media and games room, an orangery and a home gym.
Birch Hall also has seven bedrooms, four bathrooms and five living rooms.
The home is surrounded by five acres of land
When the home went up for sale in 2016, Andrew Russell from estate agency Strutt and Parker told the , "It's probably one of the very best of north Surrey's village houses, there's not that many that come on the market. It's a proper country house with five acres of grounds. The house itself is a very attractive and imposing-looking property. Some of the rooms are really quite dramatic, with high ceilings and full floor to ceiling sash windows. It's got a swimming pool, tennis court and beautiful specimen trees dating from Victorian times in the garden."
Speaking of its heritage, Andrew added, "The owners bought it from the trustees acting for the Queen in 1999. The trustees bought it in 1997 for the princesses and I imagine it was chosen because it's a pretty house in a popular village and the gardens are a real draw, it's more like parkland. But they never moved in."
He also explained how its owners had renovated the house: "They reconfigured the staircase and updated the house throughout, moving the kitchen so it overlooks the garden and swimming pool."
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