A Buckinghamshire house that belonged to a branch of the Slazenger family is on the market through Savills in Amersham.

Ralph Chivas Gully Slazenger lived at Thorne Barton Hall in Ashley Green with his wife and children from the end of the Second World War until 1953 when he sold his stake in the family’s sports goods empire and moved to Ireland. According to reports at the time, they upped sticks to avoid the punitive tax regime here.

The present owners of the seven bedroom Victorian house in six acres, a mile from Chesham, have lowered the price by just over half a million since they put their house up for sale last year for £4.5m. The price is now £3.95m.

The grounds include an all-weather tennis court, swimming pool and the ornamental pond where the two princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, paddled when they came to stay. It’s a nice story that’s been passed down the ages but whether it’s true, only the Queen could tell us.

The new wing with a 45ft studio above a row of garages was added by the current owners.

The house today has four reception rooms, the kitchen has an Aga and walk-in pantry, the 26ft breakfast room opens onto the terrace, all the principal reception rooms have high ceilings.

Upstairs, there’s a self contained flat with guest sitting room and kitchen along with four bath/shower rooms. All seven bedrooms are doubles.

Over in Cookham, a riverside house reputedly once owned by Diana Dors is also waiting for new owners. The agents at the Marlow office of Hamptons International are inviting offers over £4.5m.

Riverdene is said to have been home to the actress when she was being hailed as England’s Marilyn Monroe. Prior to the arrival of the Blonde Bombshell, the house was owned at one time by the racing driver Sir Algernon Guinness who set the land speed record at Brooklands in 1922.

The distinctive design of Riverdene with its slate Mansard roof has been compared with the Parisian mansions in the leafy Bois de Boulogne.

The house appears in paintings by Sir Stanley Spencer, the Royal Academician who lived nearby and described Cookham as ‘a village in heaven.’ The garden stretches down to the towpath close to Cookham Bridge on the south side of the Thames.

Riverdene has four reception rooms, a cinema room, wine cellar and two staircases leading to the eight bedrooms and five bathrooms on the two upper floors (four suites including master bedroom with dressing room as well as large bathroom).

The wood panelling surrounding the Louis XVI fireplaces in the drawing room came from a house in Upper Berkeley Street once owned by Wallis Simpson, later the Duchess of Windsor. French doors in the drawing room open onto the verandah which overlooks the lawns. Some of the glass panes in the casement doors are original.

The grounds include a heated swimming pool and access to a private dock for a slipper launch or some other craft on which to get afloat on this marvellous stretch of the river.

The latest Land Registry stats for England and Wales revealed that 375 homes were sold in May for a million or more – 215 were in Greater London.

Oliver Knight, commenting on Knight Frank’s Prime Country House Index for the second quarter of this year, said pricing was key especially when a property first comes on the market.

“While it is important not to overstate its impact Brexit continues to create an element of uncertainty among some buyers and vendors. Interest rates are also expected to rise this year albeit gradually.

"This underpins our forecast for fairly modest price growth in prime regional markets of 1.5 per cent in 2018 and for two per cent growth in 2019."