Eastgate - why Warwick couple changed their minds

Bob and Sarah Newman had put the Grade II* Eastgate on the market for £575,000 after Mr Newman was diagnosed with a serious illness and spent much of the past three months in hospital.

When the bought the run-down gateway into Warwick in 2010 the couple said they were so happy they couldn’t stop pinching themselves. Their plan was always to recoup some of the restoration costs by using it as a holiday let and them perhaps to ultimately retire there.

After becoming ill, Mr Newman, who is a 69-year-old surveyor, felt his wife might not be able to manage the upkeep of the property. Within days, a buyer was found.

But Mrs Newman said: “When we visited Eastgate last week it looked so lovely that we decided we had been far too pessimistic and had simply had a knee-jerk reaction to Bob’s illness for which he is about to start new treatment.”