Primelocation has come across a fascinating piece of architecture-cum-literary history for sale in Hertfordshire that will tug on the strings of any Jane Austen fan.

Balls Park, long regarded as the inspiration for Netherfield Park in Pride and Prejudice is being converted into apartments. For those not familiar with the book’s storyline, the house is rented by wealthy industrialist Charles Bingley and it is at one of his parties at Balls Park that Elisabeth Bennett (played by Keira Knightley in the 2005 film adaption) develops her relationship with Mr Darcy and their love affair takes off.

The Grade I listed mansion (picture now, above and below in the early 20th century ), was built between 1637 and 1640 during the reign of Charles I by Sir John Harrison outside Hertford but is now being slowly converted into apartments, as are its coach house and stables. Also, two detached houses on the 63-acre estate, Lime Cottage and and Red Lodge, are being refurbished and will be sold separately next year.

The main house is worthy of its Grade I listing. As well as hundreds of historical fixtures and fittings, Balls Park is famed for its plastered ceilings which are original and “some of the best from the 17th and 18th centuries” according to Ian Dieffenthaller, Conservation Architect at the estate’s developer, City & Country Group.

Balls Park is unusual because it has survived relatively unscathed for 340 years unlike many of Britain’s other great houses. This was possible because the three families to own it successfully navigated their way through Britain’s greatest period of wealth and global influence. Sir John Harrison was a rich financier and customs official but his son and grandson went on to make new fortunes overseas and the estate soon became one of Hertfordshire’s most opulent houses. After a spell in the hands of Norfolk-based Townshend family as their second home, it passed to local high fliers the Faudel-Phillips – notably Mayor of London Sir George Faudel-Phillips – who bought the property in 1889. 

The property carried on in Faudel-Phillips ownership until 1946 when it was bought by the county council and turned into a teacher training college, later becoming part of the University of Hertfordshire in 2002 before being sold to City & Country Group in 2004.

While the planning permission and then refurbishment stages have progressed the property has been a regular star on TV, appearing in films including The Young Victoria (pictured, above), The Golden Compass and TV series including Foyles War, The Inspector Linley Mysteries and Bleak House.

The first properties finished and for sale are within The Stables, built by the sons of Sir John Harrison in the early 1800s. Apartments within it start at £237,500 for a one bedroom apartment and rise to £365,000 for a two-bedroom unit, something that would have been within the reach of Charles Bingley, who Elisabeth Bennet marvels at in Pride and Prejudice for his £4,000-a-year salary which, in today’s money, would be £135,000 a year. The difference was, in his day that bought him the whole estate.

More information from City & Country Group, 01992 551777.

Now here’s a surprise. We’ve just asked Aaron Johnson, the British star of this year’s superhero movie Kick-Ass, what his favourite website is. The reason? His new film Chatroom , out on December 24, deals with the ugly fallout when a group of sexed-up teenagers meet in cyberspace. Expecting a typical answer that any 20 year-old might give – Facebook , MySpace or Twitter – Johnson throws us a curve ball. “Primelocation.com,” he grins. “I’m always looking at houses! I think that’s my porn, I think!”

If this sounds a little strange for one so young, you have to consider that Johnson is advanced for his age. “I’m definitely an old soul,” he agrees. Never mind that he’s played a young Charlie Chaplin (in Shanghai Knights ) and the teenage John Lennon (in Nowhere Boy), with eight years in the film business already Johnson can consider himself a veteran.

Doubtless, spending his teenage years in the company of so many adults on film sets has impacted on Johnson – and not just on his fetish for property web-browsing. As anyone who reads the gossip pages will know, the actor is now the partner of artist – and Nowhere Boy director – Sam Taylor-Wood. He also became a father in July, when Taylor-Wood – who, at 43, is 23 years his senior – gave birth to their daughter Wylda Rae.

Still, he won’t be moving house anytime soon. Back in January, he and Taylor-Wood moved into a five-storey, eight-bedroom stucco property in the exclusive North London village of Primrose Hill (pictured, above) an area famed for its proliferation of actors and artists. Valued at £11 million – which Taylor-Wood was reported to have paid out in cash – the money was said to have come from the artist’s 2008 divorce settlement from millionaire art dealer Jay Jopling.

Yet while Johnson might love looking for houses on the web, he’s had his time on popular social networking sites too. “I used to have Facebook,” he says. “I don’t have it now. And before that, when I was in school, I had MySpace. I went through moments. But I never really got addicted to it, like the way other people did. I know the sort of people who do spend hours and hours on end on it, so I already had an insight. I think that was why when I read the script for Chatroom it drew me to the project.”

Raised in the ‘middle class/working class area’ of Amersham, in Buckinghamshire (as Johnson calls it), he went to a state school but never felt comfortable with his peers. “For me, what I’ve grown up around, made me mature a lot quicker than people in school my age, I suppose. I don’t know what my age is, if I’m honest. If you put me in a room with a bunch of people my age, I’d think they were five years younger than me.” No wonder he spends his time surfing primelocation.com.