The celebrated poet Rupert Brooke, in his ode The Old Vicarage, Grantchester, said of the historic Cambridgeshire house: ‘But Grantchester! Ah, Grantchester! Peace and holy tranquility reign there.
Jeffrey Archer, owner of The Old Vicarage since 1979, has seen that peace disturbed by a gang of raiders.
The Daily Mail can reveal that burglars broke into the 17th-century property this week while the best-selling author and his wife, Dame Mary Archer, were sleeping overnight.
The gang stole four beautiful bronze sculptures, worth tens of thousands of pounds, from the back garden.
“The saddest thing is that, according to the police, the thieves will almost certainly melt down the sculptures and the bronze will be worth only a few hundred pounds,” Lord Archer told the Daily Mail last night.
‘The sculptures are a real loss to the nation. One of them was Oceanides, by Maurice Lambert.
‘Sir Nicholas Serota, when he was director of the Tate Gallery, told me that it was a very important piece, so I had left it in my will to the Tate, so that it could be enjoyed by thousands of people after my death. Unfortunately, that won’t happen now.”
Lord Archer, whose novels include Honor Among Thieves, does not expect to see his prized sculptures again.
Jeffrey Archer, owner of The Old Vicarage since 1979, was attacked by burglars in his home.
The former vicarage of Grantchester, the home of Jeffrey Archer and his wife, Dame Mary Archer, since 1979
The gang stole four precious bronze sculptures, valued at tens of thousands of pounds, from the back garden.
‘The police have been very good and came straight away, but the gang clearly knew what they were doing. They had the professional equipment to remove the sculptures.’
It is not the first time that the Archers’ garden has been the target of criminals.
In 2007, a 6-foot life-size bronze sculpture of a naked shepherd herding his sheep was stolen. It was thought to be worth tens of thousands of pounds.
Lord Archer, 84, a former deputy leader of the Conservative Party, has previously spoken of his love for The Old Vicarage, where his two children were born.
“It’s quite beautiful,” he said of the Grade II listed property near Cambridge.
He was visited by his late friend Margaret Thatcher every summer for 11 years after the former prime minister left 10 Downing Street. A room on the top floor is now called the “Margaret Thatcher bedroom”.
In 2006, the Archers commissioned a bronze sculpture of Rupert Brooke from Paul Day, which was unveiled by Baroness Thatcher. It is located in front of the house.