Why England manager Gareth Southgate calls Harrogate home

Since taking over the England reins, Gareth Southgate's workplace has been their St George's Park training complex in Staffordshire.

Yet the 47-year-old still calls the peaceful North Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate home.

Watch Leeds United fan celebrates England win wildly in bar full of ColombiansSouthgate first moved to Harrogate in the early 2000s, after signing for Middlesbrough, with his wife Alison, and the couple have raised their two children, now 19 and 15, in the town.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He owns the six-bedroom, 16th-century mansion Swinsty Hall - overlooking a scenic reservoir between Leeds and Harrogate - which is one of the few Grade I-listed properties in Yorkshire still in private ownership.

GALLERY: England fans watch penalty shoot-out win in Leeds city centreThe family have extensively renovated the four-storey house, which has a Great Hall, master and guest suites, a wine cellar and a cinema room. The grounds contain a two-bedroom cottage, a barn, an Elizabethan knot garden and a stream.

In 2013 the Southgates put their mansion on the market with an asking price of over £3million, but the estate - which is reputed to be haunted by the ghost of a man who stole valuables from plague victims - is no longer for sale.

Harrogate-based England fan on his experiences watching England in RussiaThe family have been spotted socialising in local bars and shopping in town centre boutiques, while their son Flynn has played football for a junior club in the area and is also a talented cricketer. Gareth is involved in community events, having previously taken part in a Q&A session at Rossett High School.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Yorkshire Post illustrator Graeme Bandeira has bumped into Southgate several times at football events in Harrogate, and has also seen him shopping at luxury cosmetics store Molton Brown.

"He's very approachable and involved. If you ask him to do a kids' football presentation evening and he has the time, he will do it," said Graeme, who is also a junior football coach.