Inside the Sark home being sold off by the Barclays linked to a daring wartime Commando raid that changed history

A cliff-top mansion which played a pivotal role in one of the Channel Islands’ most dramatic Second World War operations is among a string of Barclay family properties now on the market after years of speculation over their future.

The home is one of a number of Sark properties now being marketed individually after years of speculation over the future of the Barclay family’s extensive holdings.

Individual properties on the market after £60m bid fails

The family, through the trust of the late Sir David Barclay, is understood to own around a fifth of Sark and had previously explored selling their estate as a single portfolio.

In 2024, the Sark Property Company – led by Seigneur Christopher Beaumont and entrepreneur Swen Lorenz – attempted to buy the wider estate for £60m, proposing to acquire around 80 homes, four hotels, commercial properties and development land.

The bid ultimately collapsed after the parties failed to agree a price, despite securing backing from more than 100 investors.

Instead, the latest move sees individual landmark properties now reaching the open market, following several years of turmoil for the family of the late Sir David and Sir Frederick, whose previously multi-billion-pound business empire – which previously included the Telegraph, London’s iconic Ritz hotel and retailer Very – has been gradually dismantled.

Most of the properties are empty, with some having previously attracted complaints from residents who felt they were in a state of disrepair – among them, the 10-bedroom Petit Champ Hotel, which is currently listed as “under offer” with the “price on application”. 

In marketing materials, it is described as a “rare and exceptional opportunity to secure a substantial hospitality property as a rental and development prospect in one of the Channel Islands’ most unique and sought-after locations”.

“Set within attractive surroundings and benefitting from gardens and external areas, Petit Champ combines charm, functionality, and considerable potential, making it ideally suited for continued hotel use or repositioning within the hospitality sector,” the listing adds.

The house that helped the Commandos

La Jaspellerie, meanwhile, which was listed online on 6 July, is described as “one of the most exceptional residential opportunities ever to come to the market on the Island of Sark”.

Long before it became part of the Barclay family’s Sark estate, La Jaspellerie found itself at the centre of one of the most daring British Commando raids of the Second World War, Operation Basalt. 

A covert British mission carried out on the night of 3 October 1942, the mission was simple on paper but extraordinarily dangerous in practice: gathering intelligence about German forces occupying Sark and capturing one or more soldiers to take back to Britain for interrogation.

British Commandos landed beneath Hog’s Back under the cover of darkness before climbing the cliffs above Dixcart Bay – and their first stop was La Jaspellerie.

The Commandos broke into the house, where they encountered 40-year-old widow, Frances Noel Pittard, who directed them towards around 20 German soldiers staying nearby at the Dixcart Hotel.

She also handed over local newspapers from Guernsey and other documents that could prove useful to British intelligence, while declining an offer to be evacuated to England. 

A “blank canvas”… with remarkable history

The story features prominently in a newly released marketing brochure for the four-bedroom, three-bathroom home, though it also notes that property today is almost unrecognisable from the house visited by the Commandos.

In 2015, the original La Jaspellerie was replaced with a neo-Georgian shell-and-core residence commissioned by its current owners.

The partially completed house sits in an elevated position overlooking Dixcart Bay and is being marketed as “an extraordinary blank canvas” for a buyer to complete. 

Estate agents describe it as occupying one of the finest frontline coastal positions on Sark, with uninterrupted sea views, extensive grounds, two outbuildings and scope to create what they describe as one of the island’s premier private homes. 

The property is being marketed by Sark Estate Agents, Swoffers and Knight Frank, with the back-page of the jointly-issued brochure promoting the island’s “attractive tax advantages”, including lack of capital gains, inheritance and wealth taxes, as well as the lack of stamp duty.

What’s next for Brecqhou?

It comes as speculation has reignited over whether Brecqhou – the reclusive twin brothers’ island fortress just off Sark – will also be put up for sale.

In a court battle in 2021 over Sir Frederick’s failure to honour court-ordered divorce payouts to Lady Hiroko Barclay, it was suggested that cash flow issues could be “resolved” if the private isle was sold off.

In the years following Sir David’s death, it’s understood that visits to the island by family members have been diminishingly few, with only a small number of staff residing there.

Given this, one Sark resident told the Telegraph earlier this year that rumours of a sale were swirling once more.

“We used to hear a helicopter three, four or five times a week,” he told the newspaper. “I’ve not heard a helicopter in years.”

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