Where Rock Stars Lived: Harrison, Page, Jagger and Their Grand English Estates
Long before reality TV and wellness retreats, the biggest names in rock sought solitude behind high hedges and moated manors. From Friar Park to Stargroves, these were the homes where legends escaped — and sometimes found themselves.
From secret studios to moated manors, here’s where the legends of rock went to get away from it all.
There’s something quietly poetic about a rock star retreating to a grand country mansion. After years of touring, screaming fans, and the occasional hotel destruction, the lure of high hedges, sweeping lawns, and Grade II-listed peace becomes hard to resist. For some, it’s a sanctuary. For others, a status symbol. But for most rock stars, it’s both.
By the 1970s, the archetype of the rock star country pile was firmly established. Newly minted, British Rock Stars looked to trade their bedsits for billiard rooms, swimming pools and libraries. Whilst later generations of musicians have their own ‘country piles’, like Sting’s 16th Century Lake House (and the surrounding fields of gold) it is this first generation of rockstars that fascinates the most.
So why did rock stars choose the countryside? Adrian Tinniswood’s Noble Ambitions offers one possible answer:
The old order had crumbled, but the houses remained. And where the dukes and dowagers once held court, now came the rock stars and rebels, buying what their ancestors couldn’t have imagined selling.
This wasn’t just about buying property — it was about claiming a piece of England. And in doing so, these musicians left another kind of legacy, written not in vinyl or video, but in brick, stone, and garden walls.
Rolling Stones Retreats
Brian Jones, the original founder of the Rolling Stones, lived at Cotchford Farm in Hartfield, East Sussex — once owned by A.A. Milne. He tragically died there in the swimming pool in 1969. His death has since become one of the many legends that hang over the house and the band. The property has passed through various private owners since, including a period in the hands of the late Alistair Johns, a local developer. You can now stay there as a paying guest.
An image of Brian Jones at his home taken from the website for Cotchford Farm.
Keith Richards purchased Redlands, a secluded property near West Wittering in West Sussex, in the mid-1960s. It became infamous after a 1967 police raid, but more enduringly, it’s where Richards wrote, recorded, and recovered. It became infamous for the drugs ‘bust’ in 1967 that led to the arrest of both Mick and Keith. Mick’s one night in jail inspired the song, 2000 light years from home. Whilst Keith’s main residence is in Connecticut USA, he still owns Redlands to this day.
Mick Jagger, meanwhile, owned Stargroves, a country estate near Newbury, Berkshire, that doubled as a recording hub. With its own mobile studio parked outside, it became a working home not just for the Stones but for Led Zeppelin, The Who, and others. It was here that early tracks for Exile on Main Street were laid down before recording at Nellecote in the South of France. Won’t Get Fooled Again was recorded here, as was some earlY Led Zeppelin tracks that would appear on Houses of the Holy and Physical Graffiti. Jagger sold it in the late '70s, and for a brief moment Rod Stewart became the owner, but whilst it remains in private hands, its legend endures.
Charlie Watts moved out to Foscombe House in Gloucestershire for several years before moving to a 600-acre, 16th century Halsdon Manor, in the Devonshire village of Dolton, establishing a race horse stud and creating a home for his vast collections.
A later arrival into the Stones, Ronnie Wood spent many years at ‘The Wick’ in Richmond, a leafy suburb of London. This stunning 18th-century house in Richmond, London, overlooked the Thames and became a base for his wide circle of friends and musicians. Though not a countryside estate in the traditional sense, it carried the same romantic air of escape and creative sanctuary. At one point he also owned Sandymount House in Kildare complete with a statue of Elvis Presley in the courtyard and a mock Irish pub, as well as a top-of-the-range recording studio inside. The ‘Stones laid down some of the Voodoo Lounge album here.
Page’s Palace
After purchasing The Tower House, a Victorian ‘castle’ in London, and Boleskine on the banks of Loch Lomond, Jimmy Page added a third property to his collection in the late 1970s: Plumpton Place, a moated Elizabethan manor in East Sussex once considered (but passed over) by George Harrison. The estate had been redesigned by renowned architect Sir Edwin Lutyens with gardens by the influential Edwardian garden designer Gertrude Jekyll.
Although Page never owned Headley Grange, located in Hampshire, it remains closely associated with him and Led Zeppelin. This Victorian workhouse-turned-manor was the recording site for tracks like Stairway to Heaven, Black Dog, and When the Levee Breaks. Genesis also recorded The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway there, making it one of Britain’s most legendary rock residences — even if only temporarily borrowed.
Beatles Boltholes
John Lennon famously bought Tittenhurst Park in Sunninghill, Berkshire — a grand Georgian mansion where he recorded "Imagine" and filmed its iconic music video. It’s also where the Beatles gathered for their final photoshoot. Ringo Starr later took over the property.
George Harrison went one step further with Friar Park, a sprawling neo-Gothic estate in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. Once owned by eccentric Victorian lawyer and inventor Sir Frank Crisp, the house inspired Harrison’s song Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll). The front cover of All Things Must Pass was photographed in the garden, with George seated among gnomes — a fittingly surreal image that continues to captivate fans.
In The Reluctant Beatle by Philip Norman, Friar Park is described as, “a terracotta-and-white Gothic fantasy filled with spires, turrets, gargoyles, and cathedral-size windows — a Victorian creation so eccentric that it verged on theme park territory. Its 65-acre grounds included a Japanese garden, a rhododendron garden, an Alpine rock garden, and even a miniature version of the Matterhorn. Originally built in the 1890s by Crisp as a kind of Edwardian wonderland, the house also featured stained-glass windows by Edward Burne-Jones and faux medieval inscriptions. Even the light switches were friars' faces, operated by tweaking their noses.”
George was happy here, preferring to spend time in the vast garden, as an antidote to the music industry. “I could try being a pop star forever and going on TV and do concerts and be a celebrity, or I can be a gardener.” – George Harrison, Good Morning Australia, 1982. “I don't want to be in the business full time, because I'm a gardener. I plant flowers and watch them grow. I don't go out to clubs. I don't party. I stay at home and watch the river flow.”
George was a regular visitor to Eric Clapton’s country retreat of Hurtwood Edge, located in Surrey near the village of Ewhurst. A secluded house where he lived during some of his most productive and tumultuous years, it was here he fought addiction, found clarity, and wrote some of his most heartfelt music. It was in the gardens here that his good friend George would hang out when staying away from the Abbey Road recording sessions. One particularly bright day, he thought, “here comes the sun” … you know the rest!
In contrast, Paul McCartney chose a more modest route. Rather than a stately English home, he found peace at the end of a country lane in Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, where he bought a farmhouse near the Mull of Kintyre. That story — and how it inspired a global hit — belongs to a future Scottish feature.
Who Hideouts
Roger Daltrey of The Who embraced country life in every sense. His estate, Holmshurst Manor, is located in Burwash, East Sussex, and became known for its trout lakes and conservation work as much as for any celebrity guests. He once remarked that breeding fish gave him more satisfaction than playing to a full stadium.
Pete Townshend, Daltrey’s bandmate, took a different approach. In 2010 he took on a 41-year lease of Ashdown House, a 17th-century mansion near Lambourn, Berkshire, not far from the Uffington White Horse (inspiration for an XTC lbum cover and the location of the Cloudbusting video.) Owned by the National Trust, Townshend as custodian is responsible for the upkeep of one of Britain’s finest historic properties, which you can visit on two days a week. The volunteers won’t name the owner directly but acknowledge his presence.
The beautiful Ashdown House
Can you visit these houses?
With the exception of Pete Townshend’s Ashdown House, which is partially open to the public as a National Trust property, all of the homes featured in this article are private residences. Please respect the privacy of the owners, but feel free to find them on Google maps!
This is just a selection of rock stars and their country mansions — we’ve no doubt missed many. Do you have others you think should be added to the list? Let us know in the comments.
Note: Recording locations like Headley Grange, The Manor, and Ridge Farm Studios are explored in our future article: "Getting It Together in the Countryside."