REFUGEES desperately fleeing Nazi oppression found sanctuary in one of Herefordshire’s great country houses after the Second World War.

Now the gracious Grade II listed Georgian pile near Almeley is on the market for a cool £10 million.

Major refurbishment over the past 18 years has made Nieuport House, home to Latvian exiles for for over 40 years, into a highly desirable home with its 10 bedrooms, nine bathrooms, winery, restored walled gardens, fishing and 427 acres of land.

Owned since 2004 by David and Jenny Crichton Watt, Nieuport House, believed to have been the home of Lollard martyr, Sir John Oldcastle - the model for Shakespeare’s famous comic character, Falstaff – has had a colourful history.

After the First World War, the imposing red-brick house served as a TB hospital for 30 years. In 1953, as part of a general exodus by Latvians fleeing persecution by the Soviets and later Nazi occupiers, a number of nationals made their home at Nieuport House.

With its medieval origins, the house was transformed in the 18th century by the Foley family, and later extended by James Watt, grandson of the steam engine inventor.

In 1996 Nieuport House was acquired by Richard and Cary Goode who carried out extensive renovations and redesigned the gardens.

When the Crichton Watts family came in 2004 with their four daughters they bought back the two-and-a-half acre walled garden from Herefordshire Council and set to work.

The vintage greenhouse has been rebuilt, and a tropical glasshouse and winery built in cedar wood and wrought iron. The gardener’s cottage has been restored and 90 acres of woodland bought back from the council. “It was very romantic in a way,” Mrs Crichton Watt told a national newspaper. “There was one old Latvian lady left living in the gardener’s cottage.” Much of the garden was overgrown with brambles and nettles.

Once a year Nieuport House hosts a major fundraising plant sale for the British Red Cross. Throughout the year, the grounds are used by The Cart Shed, a charity offering opportunities to improve well-being through woodland courses.

On the market through Knight Frank, Nieuport House is described as a “magnificent” Georgian house with fine landscaped gardens, a lake, Coach House, Victorian stable block, paddocks, walled garden, 11 flats, cottages and farmhouses, parkland, woodland and working farms.

“The current owners have worked tirelessly to reinvigorate and refurbish the house, in particular the principal rooms and pieced back together the estate to its former glory,” the brochure explains.