I wonder to what degree there’s an America/Europe divide (or at least a UK/non-UK divide) here.
From my perspective as an (admittedly fairly well-off) Brit, the English countryside is littered with these kinds of manor houses. Seriously, they’re everywhere. Turning them into conference centres is honestly a better use for them than most common alternatives.
(Not making a claim about whether the Wytham purchase was a good idea all-things-considered—I currently lean weakly towards “no”—just commenting on this specific aspect.)
For calibration, I’d guess that there are probably 20+ properties (90% CI roughly 10-200) within a 90-minute drive of where I grew up that fall into roughly the same reference class as Wytham Abbey. Including several actual castles, though very few of those would be for sale.
I wonder to what degree there’s an America/Europe divide (or at least a UK/non-UK divide) here.
From my perspective as an (admittedly fairly well-off) Brit, the English countryside is littered with these kinds of manor houses. Seriously, they’re everywhere. Turning them into conference centres is honestly a better use for them than most common alternatives.
(Not making a claim about whether the Wytham purchase was a good idea all-things-considered—I currently lean weakly towards “no”—just commenting on this specific aspect.)
For calibration, I’d guess that there are probably 20+ properties (90% CI roughly 10-200) within a 90-minute drive of where I grew up that fall into roughly the same reference class as Wytham Abbey. Including several actual castles, though very few of those would be for sale.
I live in America so that theory checks out in my case at least.