Grandest house in Ilkley for sale with £2.9m tag

But a magnificent mansion designed by renowned Arts and Crafts architect Sir Edwin Lutyens offers the chance to create the grandest house in town.

Heathcote has been used as offices for more than half a century but retains all its original features and signs of ostentatious wealth including Siberian marble columns, a stunning black marble staircase created by Italian craftsmen and formal gardens by designer du jour Gertrude Jekyll.

No expense was spared when it was built 1906 and Lutyens remarked: "This house was for a very rich man who could not spend money: until he met me."

The fabulous, grade two listed property in Kings Road is for sale with a guide price of 2.95m and agents predict there will be a flurry of interest from cash-rich buyers keen to own one of the most prestigious properties in Yorkshire's golden triangle.

The house has been owned by building services company NG Bailey since 1958 but now it is selling up and moving staff to its other Ilkley base at Denton Hall.

Residential manager Patrick McCutcheon at Dacre, Son and Hartley, which is selling the property jointly with Savills, said: "It doesn't work for them as a modern office environment anymore, which is why they are consolidating the operation in Denton Hall, where they have more space."

Whoever buys Heathcote will have to spend money on converting and modernising the house, but Mr McCutcheon said: "Although the house has been subjected to corporate use for over 50 years, the owners of the company have been very careful in their use of it. They have been extremely sensitive in their occupation.

"The fabulous green Siberian marble pillars in the drawing room have been used to support shelving but the pillars are protected. Likewise, the billiard room is lined in walnut and when it was split into offices, the panelling was preserved and the dividing sections do not detract from the look of it."

The new owner will have the chance to create the best house in Ilkley and one of the biggest.

Heathcote has 12,000 square feet of space plus former cottages, ancillary accommodation and grounds extending to 2.88 acres

Built of local Guiseley stone and grey stone dressings from Morley quarries it is one of the best examples of Sir Edwin Lutyens's work.

Inspired by the work of Italian Renaissance architect Michele Sanmicheli it is seen as a turning point in Lutyens career when he became inspired by classicism.

A statement house, it was designed to emphasis the hard-earned wealth and entrepreneurial spirit of the man who commissioned it.

John Thomas Hemingway was a tailor's son who rose from warehouseman to merchant and owner of George R Richardson in Bradford.

Hemingway was a generous benefactor and heavily involved in the local community. He was present at the opening of the new river bridge in 1906 in his capacity as a director of the Wharfedale (Ilkley) Estate Company Ltd.

He was granted his own Armorial Arms in 1903, which incorporated the White Tudor Rose of Yorkshire and a twin masted Chinese junk, reflecting his trading associations with the Far East.

Heathcote is being marketed jointly by Dacre Son & Hartley, telephone 01943 600655 and Savills, telephone 01423 535800.

Architect was style exponent

Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens (1869-1944) was a London-born British architect best known as a leading exponent of the Arts and Crafts style.

He designed more than 30 major English country houses and upgraded many more.

He remodelled Lindisfarne Castle, created Castle Drogo in Devon and designed the Cenotaph at Whitehall.

Lutyens also had an instrumental role in creating New Delhi in India.

One of his best-known projects was supervising the construction of Queen Mary's doll's house in 1924.

His final work was the design for the Cathedral of Christ the King in Liverpool.