Published: 05/05/2010 08:33 - Updated: 05/05/2010 09:31

ASHBOURNE'S historic mansion house is to be sold, after its current owner's ill health has forced him to abort an on-going restoration programme.

 

 

Elderly London-based owner Paul Manousso had hoped to use the former home of Dr John Taylor as his summer retreat, but a serious cancer operation last year has left him unable to continue restoring it.

 

 The house, in Church Street, will now be sold by public auction on Thursday, July 8 by auctioneers and estate agents Knight Frank. 

 

 In a letter to the News Telegraph Mr Manousso exclusively announced: "I have, with the utmost reluctance, had to give up the idea of doing up the mansion with the idea of making it my second home. This has been a painful and difficult decision to make, as I think the house quite wonderful.

 

 "Another factor that has affected the decision is that in June I will be 80 years old, single, and without a partner or friend to share it with.

 

"I hope that whoever buys it will cherish it as much as I do. It is a unique and beautiful building which greatly enhances Ashbourne."

 

 The house is best known for hosting visits by famous lexicographer and author Dr Samuel Johnson, who was firm friends with Dr John Taylor grandson of Benjamin Taylor, who built the house in the late 1600s.

 

 The house was extended by Dr Taylor in 1784 shortly before he died in 1788 and owners since then have included Derbyshire County Council, which used it as boarding accomodation for Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School - based across the road at the time.

 

 Derbyshire County Council tried to sell the house in 1992 but it failed to reach its reserve price - rumoured to be around £300,000 - and Mr Manousso bought it for an undisclosed sum in 1995.

 

 Chairman of the Ashbourne Heritage Society, John Titterton said: "We are disappointed to hear that Mr Manousso is suffering with ill health, but let's try and be optimistic about the forthcoming sale and we hope the mansion will be used and enjoyed and appreciated as the important part of Ashbourne's heritage that it is."