Search This Blog

donderdag 4 oktober 2012

'Darling Buds of May' farm up for sale for £1.35m

The farm in Kent where ITV's popular drama The Darling Buds of May was filmed has been put up for sale for £1.35 million.

Grade II listed Buss Farm was a regular set for the 1990s series starring David Jason and a young Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Roger Holmes, who has lived at the farm in Bethersden for 40 years, is selling the site for financial reasons.

Estate agent Madeleine Rose has listed the property, which includes 20 acres of land, a square kiln oast and Tudor barn.

The property marketing states that the farm "evokes all sorts of memories for people, and to actually put that into something they could live in and make a home for a family, extended family or even to develop generally, sort of brings a special something that not every property has".

Set in the 1950s, The Darling Buds of May focused on the lives of the rural Larkin family, headed by David Jason's "Pop" Larkin and Pam Ferris's "Ma" Larkin. Zeta-Jones played their daughter Mariette.

Produced by Yorkshire Television and based on the novels by H E Bates, the programme ran for three series on ITV between 1991 and 1993.

The show provided a springboard for Zeta-Jones, who went on to star in a range of Hollywood movies and marry Michael Douglas.

In the farm's marketing, Madeleine Rose states that there is a private garden at the rear of the farmhouse "where the Larkins were filmed enjoying their family meals".

According to BBC News, Holmes said of his decision to leave the farm: "We've been here so many years and you've got to walk away, but that's life."

He shared memories of David Jason asking about the car he was restoring, along with "other distractions like Catherine Zeta-Jones walking up and down the drive".

Last year, the small island in the Western Isles of Scotland that featured in BBC reality TV series Castaway was sold to a mystery bidder for an undisclosed sum just two weeks after it went on sale.