Moorland property in Stanbury to be sold at auction

Moor Lodge near Stanbury is a former retail showroom, and was once home to Scar Top Antiques – whose popularity drew visitors from across a wide area.

Now the stone-built 47,000sqft property – together with 22 apartments and a gamekeeper’s cottage on the five-acre site – is up for sale.

It is being auctioned by SDL Property Auctions, part of Eddisons.

The company says the property has capacity to generate £180,000 a year in rental income via the apartments and cottage.

A view from the moorland location (Image: submitted)

It will be sold online in a single-lot timed auction, which opens on Tuesday, October 8.

Eddisons director, Andy Thompson, says: "This is a really unusual property in an amazing location, five miles from Haworth and with sweeping moorland views across Bronte country.

"It has a great deal of potential for redevelopment, subject to securing the relevant planning consent, and we’ve had interest from all sorts of potential new owners – from investors to entrepreneurs.

"The site includes a former shooting lodge which has been used as a retail showroom, as well as the keeper’s cottage and a three-storey block of self-contained apartments.

"The property could be ideal for redevelopment as a care home, residential conversion, wedding venue or large private residence, subject to planning permission."

An aerial shot of Moor Lodge (Image: submitted)

SDL Property Auctions is selling Moor Lodge jointly with agency Whiteacres.

Jonathan Wolstencroft, a commercial property agent at the firm, says: "This is a stunning site with countryside views in a beautiful area, and it has significant development potential. The apartments are generating a healthy income and the site would lend itself to a range of different applications."

Bidding is scheduled to open at noon on October 8, and the auction will close at 2pm the following day.

Interested parties can download a pack from SDL Property Auctions' website.

In its days as a retail showroom, the site also boasted a tearoom.

Following an expansion in 2012 it was rebranded as Ferndean, in a salute to the home of Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre.

The move was in recognition of possible links to Charlotte Bronte's classic novel.

Research revealed the 18th-century lodge may have been the location Charlotte had in mind when writing the book.

Jane Eyre was published under her pen name Currer Bell in October, 1847, by Smith, Elder & Co.