Sotheby's expects John's mansion to sell soon

["Kevin O'Neal" <kevinandt@xxxxxxxxx>]

Nov. 12, 2003

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=74375&command=d
isplayContent&sourceNode=73927&contentPK=7746806
      #4M TAG ON ROCKER ENTWISTLE'S VAST MANSION


      09:34 - 12 November 2003

      Auctioneers were confident last night of selling the late Who rock
legend John Entwistle's Gloucestershire mansion before Christmas. Sotheby's
has been deluged with interested buyers for the sprawling 55-room property
called Quarwood, which is on the market for #4million.

      Entwistle's mother Queenie, 80, son Chris, 31, and lover Lisa
Pritchett-Johnson, 46, have had to sell the mansion at Stow-on-the-Wold to pay
death duties.

      Phil Taylor, who is managing the sale at Sotheby's real estate
department, said: "We've had quite a few people to see it and a couple of them
are going back for another look. It's a substantial property with good acreage
and outlying cottages."

      But residents hoping for another celebrity to snap up the home and
become their neighbour are likely to be left disappointed.

      Mr Taylor said all would-be buyers were "senior professionals" rather
than famous people.

      The stunning mansion on the outskirts of the Cotswold town comes
complete with two skeletons that the musician named Mr and Mrs Bones.

      Entwistle, nicknamed The Ox, used to play tricks on guests with the
skeletons, by placing them under the duvet in the bed of a guest room. His son
Chris said: "He had a macabre sense of humour. Quarwood was always dad's
place, but now he is no longer here, it's just not the same."

      Mr Taylor said because Sotheby's sold many of its contents earlier this
year, including Entwistle's collection of guitars and memorabilia, it was
logical to sell the house as well.

      Ms Pritchett-Johnson, who lived with the bassist in the property for
many years, is now living in a cottage in the grounds pending the sale.

      Entwistle died of a heart attack in a Las Vegas hotel in June last year
on the eve of a US tour.


John's son selling his mansion

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,587-835146,00.html

            Rock'n'roll gothic
            By Cally Law of the sunday times


                  Quarwood is for sale for #4m




            Quarwood, a Gothic mansion that belonged to one of Britain's great
rock'n'rollers, is deserted. Its owner, John Entwistle, bass guitarist of The
Who, died in Las Vegas in June last year, in the arms of a stripper after
taking cocaine. His guitars have been auctioned and it's time for the house to
go too.
            Entwistle's 31-year-old son Chris looked after the day-to-day
running of the house. Now he is faced with the grim prospect of selling the
place that was John's home for 27 years. "I've been coming here since I was
four years old," he says, "but now dad's no longer here, the spark that made
me love it has gone. It was always dad's place and without him it's not the
same."

            It's not hard to imagine how things used to be. On the edge of the
Cotswold town of Stow-on-the-Wold, with its olde worlde tea shoppes and
endless antique emporiums, the Entwistle house stands proud on top of the
highest hill. Stone pillars guard the entrance and signs warn of fearsome
dogs. A gravel drive winds through dark woods before opening up to the 55-room
house and a view over Gloucestershire. It's an impressive sight and not a
little forbidding. Entwistle must have liked it that way. He kept two Irish
wolfhounds and two Rottweilers and had the inside walls painted to look like
stone, for that baronial effect. He also had two human skeletons with which to
surprise and delight guests, who frequently found them grinning from beds and
cupboards.

            "He had a macabre sense of humour," says Chris. Mr and Mrs Bones
now inhabit the master bedroom, one of them peering out from beneath the
duvet. The room is massive and, like the rest of the house, unaffected by the
vagaries of fashion since John and Chris's mother Alison bought it as a
weekend home in 1976. They divorced in 1981. "In 1989 he moved here
permanently. He adored the house and the area," says Chris, an aromatherapist,
who drives a natty German sports car with a personalised number plate: FAL 1C.
It was his father's. "He'd had it since I was a kid," he says, "and I wanted
to keep it."

            The walls of John's bedroom are still bright orange. The en-suite
bathroom has a sunken bath, double shower, lots of gilt and pink Austrian
blinds. The entire width of the large double bed was dominated by a
cinema-style TV screen - one of several strategically positioned around the
house. John had five separate satellite connections so he could have different
channels in different rooms.

            "Dad's main passion was watching movies and television," says
Chris. "When I was young we lived in Ealing and the only time I'd see him was
on Sundays because he always worked until late at night. We'd sit and watch
old movies on TV together. And more recently he loved the History Channel."

            Another passion was collecting. It was classic rock star stuff:
armour, platinum and gold discs, pinball machines and 180-odd guitars. At one
time, despite having no driving licence, he had seven extravagant cars,
including a Thunderbird, a Cadillac Eldorado and a hatchback Rolls-Royce
Silver Shadow, customised to take the dogs. There were more than 100 stuffed
fish, shark and tuna he caught in Florida, Hawaii and Mexico, where he had
time-share apartments. Other collections were less glamorous. "He must have
been Franklin Mint's premier customer," says Chris, pointing to a shelf around
the entire kitchen, once laden with commemorative plates. "Those leaflets
would fall out of the Sunday papers saying, Part one of a collection of 20,
and he'd go, 'I'll have that'."

            John, who was 57 when he died, believed money was for spending,
which is why his heirs - his son, his mother and his girlfriend - are forced
to sell to pay the death duty. It's also why he needed so many rooms, despite
living at Quarwood with just his girlfriend, Lisa Pritchett-Johnson. There are
two recording studios and an awful lot of guest rooms, all with en-suites.
There's an entire room for the guitar collection, another is a sort of guitar
operating theatre, for repairs. The Barracuda bar involves a suite of rooms,
with a billiards table and pinball, Asteroids and Space Invaders machines.
There is a huge room at the top of the house dedicated to the train set. "It's
mine," says Chris, "but I was never allowed to play with it. Dad liked to show
it off to his friends."

            Known as The Ox, Entwistle was the anchor of The Who. In the days
of hits such as My Generation, I'm a Boy, Happy Jack and Substitute, while
Keith Moon, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey swaggered and exploded on stage,
he stood solid and dependable. He was a far more accomplished musician than
most rock bass players, playing the bass almost as a lead instrument. At one
time, he played trumpet in a jazz band and turned down a place at the Royal
Academy of Music. By rock standards, he lived a quiet life. "There have been
some cracking parties here," says Chris, "but it wasn't party central."

            If the star in him hung out in bars, it was the ordinary
working-class bloke from west London who started every day - admittedly in
mid-afternoon - in front of the telly in the kitchen, doing the Mirror
crossword. It was brought to him daily, along with The Sun, by his 80-year-old
mum Queenie who lives in one of the estate's seven cottages. Three of these
have lifetime tenants: Queenie; a 90-year-old woman who was there when the
Entwistles arrived; and Sue Scarrott, who for 20 years has looked after the 40
acres of woods, paddocks and pastures. There is also a large shed called
Dunsniffin, home to the dogs, and a dilapidated pool: "A barbecue next to the
pool seemed like a good idea at the time," says Chris, who has moved with his
wife Leah out of their estate cottage to a small house nearby.

            Entwistle was not a gardener but he liked to sit by his Koi carp
ponds, where a web of string wards off herons. Here, some joker has stuck a
huge plastic spider, a reference to Boris the Spider, the song he wrote in
just 11 minutes that became his signature tune. A monkey puzzle tree he
planted months before his death has been made into a memorial and, as Chris
points out, lots of spiders have made their homes in its spiky branches. At
Quarwood, the spirit of John Entwistle lives on.




55-room mansion in Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, John's home for thirty
years.
"Now dad's no longer here, the spark that made me love it has gone."
Quarwood is for sale for #4m through Sotheby's International Realty (01242 510
500, www.sothebysrealty.com)