Cate Blanchett purchases $6 million English manor 'Highwell House'

Australian actor Cate Blanchett has a new place to call home following the quick sale of her Sydney mansion last year.

According to the Sunday Times the Oscar-winning actor and her husband Andrew Upton have purchased a historic English manor in East Sussex for £3 million ($6.25 million).

The 46-year old reportedly secured the property last month for £750,000 less than it was originally listed for through Knight Frank back in May last year.

The Hollywood A-lister listed her historic Sydney property, Bulwarra, in Hunters Hill in August with hopes of $20 million, and sold it less than three weeks later to a buyer from China.

The sale result was regarded as a bullish one for the couple, even given the 3642-square-metre property’s significant rebuild since they purchased it a decade earlier for $10 million.

Blanchett will be swapping waterfront views of Sydney’s North shore for five hectares of picturesque English countryside. Highwell House, located in the small town Crowborough, has seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms and five reception rooms.

Originally built in 1890, the home had fallen into disrepair over the years, but was extensively renovated and restored to its previous grandeur with bespoke materials and hand crafted finishes.

Last year Blanchett sold herHunters Hill trophy home for about $20 million. Photo: Supplied

A 19th-century French chandelier hangs in the reception hall, with a large oak staircase leading up to the second level.

Featuring large bay windows and Belgian stone kitchen sink, work tops and tiling, the home also comes complete with its own turret.

While a small town in the English countryside might seem like an odd choice for a famous Hollywood star and her theatre producing husband, they won’t be the only A-listers calling the South of England home – fellow actor Kate Winslet lives in West Wittering.

And Blanchett will not be the mansion’s first famous resident, with Doctor Who actor Tom Baker and Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle both having lived in the property.

Blanchett and Upton have been active participants on the Sydney property market in recent years.

In 2014, they bought a weekender at Berowra Waters for $1,495,000, and an investment apartment for their children in a waterfront block in Elizabeth Bay for $1.92 million. The previous year Upton bought an apartment in Gladesville, near their former home in Hunters Hill, for his mother, Patti, for $780,000.

Early last year they bought the city apartment of Wizard founder Mark Bouris in the historic Astor building as their Sydney base.

– with Lucy Macken