ONE of the Lake District’s most expensive homes has been put on the market for the first time in 200 years.

Town Head House, a Georgian mansion near Newby Bridge, is for sale at £5.25 million – making it the highest priced national park property that Kendal’s Carter Jonas estate agents has ever dealt with.

Selling agent Andrew Holmes said: “It’s a very special home since it’s been in the same family for 200 years.

“It’s also extremely rare to have an estate that’s complete and not split up. It’s certainly one of the most exciting properties we’ve had.”

The nine bedroom Grade II listed house is owned by fine-art dealer Charles Townley and his wife Roslyn and his 105 acre estate also comes with three cottages, a boat house, barns, two coach houses and a walled kitchen garden and woodland.

Mr Holmes said over 100 requests for the property’s details had been made already with 40 of those from people living abroad.

But he quashed rumours the estate had caught the eye of Russian oligarchs who are currently snapping up country estates around the UK.

“I haven’t had any Russian interest in this property but we have sold ‘plus million’ properties to Russian buyers in the Lake District in the past,” he said.

Town Head estate dates back to the 1400s but the main house’s distinctive Georgian wings were added in the early 1800s when William Townley bought it as a hunting lodge.

As High Sheriff of Lancashire his family owned vast areas of land throughout the North West and also Towneley Hall at Burnley.

When he died in 1854 the estate passed to Edmund, a clergyman and landowner who was curate of St Mary’s church at Staveley-in-Cartmel. His successor Edmund James and his brother Colonel Charles Townley made history when he rode 820 miles from Belgrade to Constantinople in 131 hours carrying a message from Lord Palmerston in 1849.

Subsequent heirs made Town Head House a welcome retreat to the Lake District’s literary figures with John Ruskin, Beatrix Potter and Arthur Ransome all visiting the house at one time or another.

In 1987 Charles Townley inherited the house from his parents who retired to another family home in Cartmel.

After years running the estate’s thriving holiday letting business virtually single-handedly Mr and Mrs Townley are now looking towards their own retirement but have said they will miss their ‘much-loved’ family home.