Horse racing trainer Tom Tate puts family home near Hazlewood Castle on the market for £1.5m
Yorkshire horse racing trainer Tom Tate is saying farewell to the beloved house where he and his family have lived for the past 36 years, but he isn’t shedding too many tears.
“It’s not because we haven’t loved lived here, we absolutely have. But we are only moving a few hundred yards down the road,” he says.
His current home is the handsome Victorian Castle Farmhouse, sitting in the shadow of Hazlewood Castle, midway between York and Leeds. It is the epitome of a beautiful family home, full of memories of a stellar racing career and a rich family life.
The five bedroom property, which is now on the market for £1.5m, is thought to have been built in the mid 19 Century by the Vavasour family who lived at Hazlewood for over 900 years. The Castle is Grade I listed and is currently a hotel and spa.
Castle Farmhouse, which was once used as the priest’s house for Hazlewood Castle, features four reception rooms, a traditional farmhouse kitchen and breakfast room, a master bedroom with bathroom and dressing room, four further bedrooms, two bathrooms, gardens, including a beautiful walled garden backing on to Hazlewood Castle, and a tennis court. All in all, it covers nearly 2.5 acres.
The drawing room is a spacious room, featuring a bar and a garden room at one end. The kitchen, located at the centre of the house, provides space for dining and is accompanied by an adjacent utility room and office area.
A turning staircase, illuminated by a feature window overlooking the garden, leads to the master bedroom, which includes a dressing room and en suite bathroom, as well as two further bedrooms and a family bathroom.
Two additional guest bedrooms and a bathroom are accessed via a spiral staircase from the drawing room and are also connected internally through a door in one of the bedrooms.
The property requires general updating throughout and there is a 10 acre field available by separate negotiation.
“This is the perfect home for a young and active family,” says Tom.
"It’s ideally located half-way between York and Leeds and very close to Yorkshire’s excellent motorway network. We’ve had so much fun here and we’ve no doubt whoever buys our house will enjoy it as much as we have.”
The Tates moved to the farmhouse from Stainburn, near Otley, in 1989, to develop Tom’s burgeoning training career after he had hung up his reins after 22 seasons as a successful amateur jockey.
He will keep the adjacent gallops and continue to train from his new home down the road, the colourfully named Peggy Ellerton Farm.
“We are not really downsizing,” smiled Tom. “Peggy Ellerton has four bedrooms and lots of living space. I think it’s more accurate to say we are re-adjusting our lives as we get older.
We’ve been thinking about a move for a few years, but getting planning permission for improvements to our new home has been a long and challenging process.”
“Peggy Ellerton was the place where some of racing’s most famous jockeys used to live. Most of them were hard-living types, hard-drinking types, so our new home has plenty of stories to tell.
"My wife Hazel, the best thing that ever happened to me, and I will lead a quieter life than those amiable rogues, but we will enjoy ourselves all the same.”
Tom and Hazel, the sister of legendary trainer Michael Dickinson, who memorably trained the first five horses home in the 1983 Cheltenham Gold Cup, met at a hunt ball at the Riley-Smith Hall in Tadcaster in 1969. They married nine months later.
“Hazel and our boys, Richard and James, made Castle Farmhouse a very special place to live. Our five grandchildren love coming here, playing football in the gardens, exploring the house and the grounds. The memories we have of here will live on forever, which is a comfort, as we leave, but more importantly, a joy.”
Leeds-born Tom is very modest about his career as a jockey and a trainer, but he rode some of the greatest steeplechasers of the last century, such as Silver Buck, Badsworth Boy and Bregawn, and trained high-class horses like Welsh Emperor, Lo Stregone (favourite for the 1997 Grand National), Another Bottle and Ask Tom, winner of the prestigious Tingle Creek steeplechase.
Tom adds: “I’ve loved every minute of my racing career. We may be saying farewell to Castle Farmhouse, but nothing else is going to change.”
Castle Farmhouse, Hazlewood Castle, North Yorkshire, is on the market for £1.5m with Hewetson and Johnson. For more information, tel: 01347 868308 or visit hewetsonandjohnson.co.uk