Local man buys one of the Lake District’s finest houses

Although 2015 may not go down as a vintage year in the country market, a number of extraordinary properties still changed hands behind the scenes.

Lording it over what's been described as the best vista in the country, this Grade II listed Georgian manor house has just become available in a very stately corner of Oxfordshire.

St James, part of the Berkeley Group, has just bought a massive former convent in West London, which it plans to redevelop into a resi-led scheme next year.