Estate agent family celebrates 100 years’ ownership of high street branch
Charles Wycherley's family can also trace back a property industry heritage to 1853 when his great-great grandfather opened a business in the town of Lewes.
An estate agent whose family can trace itself back five generations in the property industry has re-opened his family’s longest-standing branch following a refurbishment.
Charles Wycherley’s premises in Lewes (pictured) in East Sussex has been an estate agency for 100 years after the business moved to the premises at 56 The High Street in 1921, which had previously been a pub.
Following its upgrade, Wycherley says the branch retains its original character but with some ‘modern touches’.
His estate agent family can trace an industry lineage to 1853 when Charles’ great-great grandfather Henry started up a property enterprise in the area.
The firm went on to bag one of the area’s first celebrity sales when it helped author Virginia Woolf purchase several properties.
The Wycherley family’s business is also mentioned in a famous and somewhat scurrilous diary published by author Alice Dudeney which is still in print today.
Charles Wycherley, whose name the business currently bears, tells The Negotiator that his son has been working for him so there is hope that a sixth generation may make it through to keep the family name alive.
He also says he and his four full-time staff have been the busiest in living memory during the current property boom helped by the much-reported exodus of Londoners during Covid to desirable rural towns like Lewes.
“We’ve also been privileged to have the reputation to gain instructions from vendors in the area and therefore have the stock to offer them, which we very much specialise in,” he says.
