County property guide: Surrey, home of the stars Visitors can only gain access through a portered gate. This is North Surrey for you. It is also, of course, a Premier League hotspot, according to Zoopla. John Terry and Jamie and Louise Redknapp are at Oxshott, and Chelsea FC's training ground is at Cobham. But since the Olympics there have been newcomers on the horizon - flocks of cyclists who have discovered the swooping leafy trails on the Surrey Hills after watching the Olympic road race flash through. The ancient woodlands are being rediscovered and newly appreciated. Some cyclists have even bought houses here to be close to the action. For nearly 20 years Neil and Mary Jane Palmer have lived the classic Surrey life in The Manor House at Headley. Neil was a co-founder of Telstar Records (Ant and Dec, Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five, Elaine Paige) and bought here to start his second family and be able to "step out of the front door and see green, horses, villages." Their daughters, Phoebe, 16, and Hannah, 14, flexi-board at one of the excellent schools. Mary Jane keeps a few pigs and sheep, Neil plays golf and is a director of a small investment company which he calls "a boutique dragon's den." At weekends the family gathers for lunch in one of the foodie pubs and reconnects with old world charm. The Manor House has everything you find on a Cluedo board, from the billiard room to the wine cellar. There is a cottage and flat, and acres for the horses to run in. They are now selling through Knight Frank (020 7629 8171) and Savills (020 7016 3780) at £4.75m to move closer to Guildford and continue what estate agents call the London-Surrey experiment. "It is the perfect fudge for Londoners," says Mark Jamieson of Strutt and Parker in Guildford. You buy your wellington boots, Labrador and Range Rover and leave London. It is a comfort stop, not scary countryside. The good schools make South Surrey a family heaven (Tormead, Royal Grammar, St Catherine's, Guildford High, Cranleigh, Charterhouse). "About 80 per cent of our buyers at £1m and above come from London, and all are interested in the schools," says Mark. For the real quality of Surrey lies in its sepia-tinted villages. "The fascinating thing about Surrey is that it is much more diverse than people realise," says Phillippa Dalby-Welsh of Savills. In villages around Guildford, Haslemere and Farnham there are a lot of farmhouses lived in by successful young couples who have often done well in the financial services industry. A highlight of the year is the Cranleigh Show, where the rural heart is bared. "There are gorgeous tile-hung houses, a real rustic charm, and all the heritage of Edwin Lutyens architecture, and the romance of gardens designed by Gertrude Jekyll," says Phillippa. Here in the summer men play cricket on the village green, drinkers spill from the pubs and you can glimpse England as it must have been a century or two ago. The only difference is that it has become rather more expensive since then. Number of houses and location that have sold at over £1m in the last three years 1 Virginia Water: 82 2 East Horsley: 43 3 Englefield Green: 17 4 Lower Bourne: 17 5 Fetcham: 17 6 Bramley: 16 7 Cranleigh: 14 8 Wonersh: 13 9 Chobham: 12 10 West Clandon: 12 For schools: 1 Six-bedroom house, St Omer Rd, Guildford, at £1.09m through Clarke Gammon Wellers (01483 880900). 2 Firfield Lodge, Merrow, Guildford, with three bedrooms, at £1.1m through Strutt and Parker (01483 306565). For private estates: 3 Anodor House, St George's Hill. Newly built with five bedrooms, pool, cinema room and separate staff annexe, at £10.25m through Savills (01932 838000). For old-fashioned villages: 4 Hurtwood Cottage, Holmbury St Mary, with five bedrooms, access onto 3,000 acres of The Hurtwood on the Surrey Hills AONB, at £1.6m through Knight Frank (01483 565171). 5 Oak Cottage, Thursley, Grade II listed with two bedrooms and a studio, at £595,000 through Knight Frank.