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HAVERHILL'S Lord of the Manor has sold the house he never lived in — after being driven away by the town’s smell problem.
Vale Manor, a derelict Grade II Listed Building in Haverhill, which has stood empty for more than a decade, has been sold to a consortium of Arabs and others.
Les Rosan, of Croydon, who bought the property six years ago along with the title of Lord of the Manor of Haverhill, said he was relieved to have sold the house.
And he says the main reason he never went ahead with plans to restore the property as a family home for himself, his wife and six children, was the smell problem in the town — particularly from the nearby sewage treatment works.
Mr Rosan, who runs a recovery and investigation business, declined to say what the property fetched, but said he made a “modest profit” on it.
The new owner’s identity remains a mystery, but Mr Rosan believes the property is likely to be restored and used as business headquarters.
He intends to keep the Lord of the Manor title and said he was sad his plans to come to Haverhill never came to fruition.
“We made a lot of friends and are still in touch with some but in the end I wanted out.
“We spent about £100,000 on it but we had so much trouble with people breaking in, 17 times, and the last straw was when they smashed the Georgian staircase completely.
“But the main reason was the smell. We could have got over the other things, but it was the horrendous smell down there that we never got over.
“It does need a lot of money spent on it, but I think the new owners will go ahead with some of my plans for it,” Mr Rosan said.
(Picture Caption: Listed building... Vale Manor in Haverhill.)