The Edwardian house that was home to the producer of the original Star Wars movies is for sale through Savills in Amersham for £3.5m.

Gary Kurtz lived at Pednor Chase in the 1980s. By all accounts the American film producer threw extravagant parties at his eight bedroom home in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. 

The secluded 20-acre grounds of his country house in the hamlet of Pednor two-and-a-half miles from Chesham can provide A-listers and celebs with an opportunity to escape the limelight.

Evidently it was that which appealed to the widowed Princess Alexandra of Denmark. She was Queen of England for nine years until her husband Edward VII died in 1910.

Pednor Chase was built for Viscount Knollys and his family in the year of the king’s death. At one stage Lord Knollys had been private secretary to Edward at the same time as his sister Charlotte was private secretary to Alexandra.

The royal visitor very much enjoyed coming out to see the Knollys because of the secluded setting of their country home. She was a great admirer of rhododendrons.

Her hosts planted them each side of the drive leading up to the house to give her a right royal welcome. Even now the pink rhododendrons are a spectacular sight when they are in bloom.

Threequarters of a century after Princess Alexandra took pleasure in being away from public life at the home of her friends in the Chilterns, the chance to be themselves away from the cameras also appealed to the Hollywood chums  of an Oscar winner during the period when he was producing the first series of Star Wars and other box office epics  and living at Pednor Chase.

Kurtz was a big fan of Doberman dogs. A pair of stone Dobermans still guard the stables. He also left behind a dog cage. Today the main house is regarded as an “Edwardian jewel nesting in the glorious Chilterns.”

As well as eight bedrooms, five bathrooms and four reception rooms in the main house, there’s a party barn with kitchenette and shower room in the grounds as well as the stable block, paddocks, heated swimming pool and a hard tennis court.

It was floodlit at one time with equipment  that had originally lit film sets at Pinewood.