Singer Kate Bush’s Former Berkshire Home Lists for £11.5 Million

Article content

(Bloomberg) — British musician Kate Bush’s former home and recording studio in Berkshire, where she wrote and recorded her albums Aerial and 50 Words for Snow, has hit the market with Strutt & Parker.

Bush owned the house known as Shenfield Mill on the River Kennet from the mid-1990s until 2011, when Fulmar Color Printing founder Mike Taylor bought it for about 2.4 million pounds ($3 million), according to Taylor. He had recently retired and wanted a house where he could spend hours fishing.

Article content

“I was literally looking for a house on the river. I found a few, and they were expensive and didn’t do it for me. But when this one finally showed up, it was perfect,” Taylor says. He says he had to wait nearly three weeks to view the property. , which he suspected was a result of privacy concerns from the famous owner but even before he could see it in person, he fell in love with the house just by looking at the location on Google Earth. When he saw it in person, it more than lived up to his expectations.

“I was sitting in the living room with my wife, and I asked her if she could be happy here, and it was amazing,” Taylor recalls.

Thirteen years later, he says he will be moving to be closer to his children and grandchildren in Kent, so he has listed the house for £11.5 million. For that, the buyer gets 23 acres of lush riverside land, a four-bedroom Georgian main house, a stand-alone Bush dance and recording studio converted into a guesthouse with three additional bedrooms, and a separate two-bedroom cottage. Two more.

More importantly, the buyer will also receive an eco-friendly home, as Taylor has hired engineering consultancy Renewables First to make the property generate its own energy.

Article content

Article content

They installed an Archimedes screw turbine (a fish-friendly hydroelectric device) with a diameter of 3 meters in the river that generates 40 kilowatts of energy per hour from the water that constantly flows through it. Taylor says it generates more energy than the property uses, keeping the home’s operating costs close to zero. The turbine provides power for hot water, air conditioning, underfloor heating and an electric vehicle charging point.

“We’re actually passive because the generated energy we don’t use goes back into the national grid,” Taylor says.

As for the house’s former resident, he says he remembers when Bush burst onto the music scene with her 1978 debut single, “Wuthering Heights.” “Kate Bush being the previous owner is a fun fact we have to tell people,” he says. But while living at Shenfield Mill, he was excited to discover another famous resident.

“Charles de Gaulle spent some time here during the war,” says Taylor, who says he has seen evidence of historical letters from de Gaulle referring to the house, which was not far from the wartime air base from which pilots flew into occupied France.

Article content

Inside the house

The 7,000-square-foot main house is a two-story red brick Georgian house dating from the early 1800s. When Taylor bought it, he embarked on a renovation that increased the number of bedrooms from seven to four and made them all en-suite. All the bedrooms are located on the upper floor, and the ground floor has a main kitchen, a secondary kitchen with breakfast space, a library, a study and additional living spaces such as drawing and sitting rooms.

“The building wasn’t well taken care of before Bush bought it,” Taylor says. “She did a lot of work, but I wanted to go much further.” He says he wanted to bring the house up to date, adding air conditioning and underfloor heating, as well as additional spaces for entertaining, such as a glass-enclosed sunroom connected to the main house. The Taylors also added a 75-foot steel and tile arched pedestrian bridge spanning the river and connecting the two halves of their property.

“The bridge manufacturer went bankrupt midway through the process, so we had to get someone else to pick it up and finish it, but it’s a beautiful design and can be seen from the road,” Taylor says. “We see a lot of people passing by on the weekend and they stop and stare at the bridge, it’s become quite the local attraction.”

Article content

Other work included partnering with environmental agencies to ensure turbines did not disturb wildlife in the river and reinforcing the banks of the river itself to avoid flood risks.

Taylor declined to say how much he spent on the extensive renovations or the turbine, but said it was “significantly more” than he paid for the house.

He says his favorite part of the house is the sunroom, where the family gathers for holidays and Sunday brunch, and has the best views in the house. The windows open completely, letting the outside in.

Ownership

Shenfield Mill is located on the edge of the village of Theale, approximately 5 miles from Reading and 30 miles from London Heathrow Airport. The main house and two outbuildings are located riverside, and the property is criss-crossed by private waterways. The two separate residences, both the studio-turned-guesthouse and the cottage, are located a short walk from the main house, directly across one of those private waterways. Taylor says his housekeeper lived in the cabin.

Also on the plot are the ruins of a historic waterwheel mill that burned down in the 1890s. Estate agents say the factory employed about 100 people.

Article content

Most of the land surrounding the house is fenced farm fields, where Taylor’s flock of sheep roam, keeping them busy in lambing season. He also enjoys watching kingfishers soaring over the gardens and occasionally spotting otters.

“The house has a charm of its own, which is very captivating,” he says. “During the pandemic, we didn’t feel sorry for ourselves living here because it didn’t matter to be cooped up on 23 gorgeous acres with all the fishing I could want to do.”

Taylor has come to terms with leaving everything behind to be closer to family. “We’re looking for a property to move to now, and there’s nothing like this, on the banks of the river, with the hydropower and the size of the land,” he says. “We wanted a great place to live, and that’s exactly what we created.”

Article content