The Blairs wanted to buy my Chequers

THE HOUSE Cherie Blair set her heart on buying a few months ago is back on the market £500,000 cheaper.

The six-bedroom Georgian country pile, aptly named Chequers Manor, is set in 67 acres of Buckinghamshire countryside and first went on sale for £4million last summer.

"Cherie came five times, " says the owner, retired American businessman Roger Lilly, 72. "She didn't want me or my wife to be present on her first visit, which my wife wasn't happy about.

She arrived with her secretary and an entourage of security. Tony came twice but didn't mind us being there.

"They seemed very keen and on her fifth visit Cherie brought a builder. They didn't have a problem about the price.

Tony said if Cherie liked it then they would buy it."

The tennis-loving former Prime Minister was particularly taken by the house's unusual feature of having both indoor and outdoor courts.

Then everything went cold and the next thing the Lillys learned was that the Blairs had bought the sevenbedroom, Grade One listed former home of actor Sir John Gielgud, also priced at £4million, in Wotton Underwood, Bucks.

The Lilleys were obviously disappointed, took Chequers off the market and have just put it back on with a lower price tag of £3.5million.

Roger and his Iranian wife Shahla feel it is time to let go of the property, that has been their home for 15 years, and move to Texas from where Roger originates, or Dubai where they own a number of properties.

The couple spent £700,000 upgrading Chequers when they bought it in 1994, hiring the services of their friend, interior designer Brian Juhos, who rented a cottage in the grounds and spent £50,000 of his own money building an octagonal dining room extension.

"He said if he was going to live there he wanted to make it as he wanted, " Roger explains.

Chequers Manor, near High Wycombe, has several quirky features at the end of its sweeping driveway including a seven-car garage, a legacy of its previous owner, the late Aston Martin boss Sir David Brown.

Roger has a passion for vintage cars and at one time stored many beauties in the garage including a Chevy Bel Air Convertible, a 1957 Ford T-Bird convertible, 1953 Cadillac Convertible and 1962 Ford T-Bird Sport Roadster.

"They were all in pristine condition but I have now sold them and have just one car, a Jaguar XJ8, " he says.

It is a mystery why the Blairs pulled out. With southerly and westerly views across the Hambleden Valley, Henley-onThames and beyond, an outside heated swimming pool, gym, sauna and spa the property would seem at least to have fulfilled the exercise requirements of the energetic former Labour leader.

Apart from the main house, there are also three separate apartments and a cottage in the grounds for friends or security guards.

Tony and Cherie could have also escaped the domestic mayhem and ensconsed themselves in the separate office with exposed beams and verandah but instead they opted for a home, which although is a magnificent property dating from 1704, is situated in the not-so-private shadow of handsome Wotton House, which is open to the public in the summer.

Chequers' interior is decorated in Victorian style with marble fireplaces and painted marble-effect created by Shahla's artist sister. "Remodelling our ¬Ê house was a labour of love inside and out, " says Roger. "My wife is an enthusiastic gardener so about five acres are formal gardens."

There are also two paddocks, which are rented out and a 50-acre field used as grazing land.

GOGER and Shahla's property portfolio includes a three-bedroom flat in Cleveland Square, near Hyde Park, London, which they bought as two flats in 1987 for £120,000 and £90,000 each then sold them together for £320,000. "We bought them back four years later at auction for £600,000, " he adds, "They were worth £1.5million before the crunch."

They also own two apartments on Palm Island, Dubai. "Prices have dropped by about 50 per cent in Dubai but our properties have held up because they face the sea rather than the inner canal, " Roger explains. "We paid £220,000 for each of them in 2003. They are now worth about £500,000 apiece."