In the pleasant countryside south of London is a village that is described as a “magnet” for celebrities.
Ditchling in East Sussex has been home to the BBC radio presenter Zoe Ball, Raymond Briggs, the creator of The Snowman who died in 2022, and the late wartime singer Dame Vera Lynn.
Queen Camilla also went to a school there in her early years, Dumbrell’s.
Officially called North End House, everyone referred to it colloquially in reference to the three sisters who founded the institution.
Another Dumbrell’s pupil, Jenny KilBride, reminisced in a piece marking Queen Camilla’s coronation in 2023, describing the school as having been “run very strictly”.
She also remebered “a big school room with lines of old fashioned wooden desks”, and the activities that girls took part in were “eccentric”.
These included “top and tailing” gooseberries, de-stalking blackcurrants or podding peas on the floor of the school room. This while a “formidable” teacher read from classic literature.
Ms KilBride concluded: “Maybe Dumbrell’s was a good preparation for the challenges of her [the Queen’s] future life though nothing could have been further from our thoughts as we made camps in the back orchard at playtime and tramped about the muddy Sussex countryside looking for wildflowers.”
It is located near the foot of the South Downs National Park, a landscape that is said to be “brimming with romance”.
Rightmove says house prices in Ditchling had an overall average of £836,746 over the last year.
Experts add that the majority of properties sold in Ditchling during the last year were detached, and sold for an average price of £1,135,200.
Semi-detached properties, meanwhile, sold for an average of £747,488. Terraced fetched £458,333.
But, overall, the historical sold prices in the village over the last year were 6% down on the previous year, and 4% up on the 2019 peak of £803,487.
House prices in East Sussex as a whole, though, had an overall average of £421,056 over the last year.
The majority of properties sold in the county were flats, selling for an average price of £271,404.
Detached properties sold for £601,130 on average, and terraced properties £407,660.
