Jockey Paul Hanagan's splendid home in Newmarket up for sale
Warrington-born jockey Paul Hanagan and his wife Anna have lived in this idyllic country residence in the picturesque village of Ashley with their two boys and their dog, Murphy, for four and a half years.
Paul’s job has meant the family has to move back up to Malton in North Yorkshire, where they had lived previously (Paul resided there from the age of 17 until 2012), though they are understandably sad to be leaving such a wonderful home.
“We love it – we wish we could take the house with us,” said Anna. “You’ve probably heard it a million times, but if we could pick the house up and take it with us, that would be ideal – but obviously we can’t,” added her husband, the British flat racing champion jockey in 2010 and 2011.
“I just love that it’s so quiet. It’s very safe for the children and it’s a beautiful part of the country.”
“The house was beautiful anyway,” observed Anna, remembering what the property was like when they moved in, “but we have done quite a few things.” Paul noted: “We’ve just modified it, really. We put a lovely new hedge up (at the front) and it’s just started to blossom now, for more privacy.”
The couple also added gates at the front and rennovated the space above the garage, which had been used for storage. “We built a studio on top of the garage, which is a really nice room,” recalled Paul. “We did the stables and the land, we put a brand new office in, new built-in wardrobes and cabinets – nothing needs doing.”
Asked to describe their tastes in interior design, Paul replied: “We like to be quite modern and I think it shows. We don’t like to be OTT. It’s just a lovely family home to live in. We couldn’t ask for a nicer house and it’s also great for people with horses. You don’t need to have kids to move here – it’s a house for every type.”
The property includes three stunning acres of well-maintained land where the Hanagans keep two ponies in the stables they had built (the land beyond belongs to Fairhaven Estate). Is there anything the couple would do to the house if they were staying? “Everything’s done – we couldn’t possibly do any more,” insisted Paul, “unless you could get more land behind – but we’ve always found three acres to be enough.”
The living room is where the family spends most of their time. “It’s a huge room,” said Paul. “When we first came to view the house, the previous owners actually had a full-length snooker table in there. It just shows the size of it, and I didn’t quite realise how big it was until everything was cleared out. We had to get a massive television because the wall’s so big!”
Unsurprisingly, many people in the area are involved in racing and Ashley is very well situated for fans of the sport. “It’s probably a two-hour journey to most racecourses,” said Paul, “like Epsom, Lingfield, Sandown, Ascot, places like that. It’s great when the racing’s on in Newmarket because it’s 10 minutes and you’re there. But here, with the location of it, even if you’re not really into horse racing you can be totally out of the way without ever knowing it was here.”
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