Britain’s Got Talent star buys new country home

With her second child on the way, Britain’s Got Talent star Amanda Holden and her record producer husband have bought a new country home for a cool £860,000.

The property is in the increasingly popular Oxfordshire town of Chipping Norton, home to high profile residents including David Cameron, Jeremy Clarkson and former News International executive Rebekah Brooks.

Holden buys £860,000 thatched cottage

Holden and her 36 year old husband Chris Hughes have spent £860,000 on a 17^th century cottage near the market town in the Cotswolds.  The 400 year old thatched property is set in half an acre of private land and will become Holden’s third home.

The couple have a five year old daughter, Lexi, and Holden is due to give birth to their second child in the next few weeks.

To add to the celeb gossip The Daily Mail reports that a source close to Holden said the cottage would allow the family to split their time between their main home in Richmond, South West London and the countryside retreat.  The pair also own a property in Norfolk.

The source said: “Amanda loves the rural way of life... they wanted somewhere within striking distance of London to enable them to live between the city and the countryside more equally. They are after a better quality of life, particularly with a new baby on the way.”

Chipping Norton a mecca for the rich and famous

Over the last few years the town of Chipping Norton has become a desirable location of the rich and famous.  Jeremy Clarkson owns a £2 million home near David Cameron’s country home in the hamlet of Dean, close to the Prime Minister’s Witney constituency.

Other local residents include the Conservative party’s head of strategy, Steve Hilton. In addition, Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of News International chairman Rupert Murdoch, and her PR boss husband Matthew Freud own a £6 million home in the nearby village of Burford.