A New York Hard-Sell for an Ancient British Home

That’s partly why James Wynn, a former actor turned video producer, has turned to one of Manhattan’s largest real estate brokerage firms to sell what one British magazine identified as Britain’s oldest home. After becoming e-mail pals with the Prudential Douglas Elliman president, Dottie Herman, he has asked her to sell his 12th-century property in Somerset, called Saltford Manor House, for 2.5 million pounds, or about $3.8 million.

James WynnNice lawn, too.

Mr. Wynn and his wife bought the “uninhabitable shell” in 1996 for 300,000 pounds. He called the renovation “jolly hard work” that involved tearing up floors and living in a temporary cottage with small children for more than a year.

In 2003, Country Life magazine named the five-bedroom, three-bath property England’s oldest private home (royal palaces and castles were excluded from the survey) after it was able to date some original features to the first half of the 12th century. It boasts terra cotta frescoes in the bedrooms and former residents like Bishop Geoffrey of Constances, a guest at William the Conquerer’s coronation. The home also belonged to the Earl of Gloucester, who came from the “same family” as Gloucester in “King Lear.”