March 24, 2006

From mirror.co.uk

STAR BUYS GRANDAD'S £2MILLION PILE

by Cameron Robertson

HELENA Bonham-Carter has bought a £2million mansion - once owned by her great-great grandad, the Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith.

The actress, 39, and Batman director husband Tim Burton, 47, are to settle back in the UK at Mill House, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, with two-year-old son Billy-Ray.

An insider said: "Helena and Tim are totally over the moon. Its eight-and-a-half acre garden borders down a backwater of the River Thames. It's absolutely gorgeous.

"More importantly for them, when in the house or garden, you can't see or hear anything from the nearby road â€" the house has total privacy."

The eight-bedroom home, with huge library, is where Asquith used to meet with his successor David Lloyd George. It was later bought by Helena's grandmother Violet, Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury. Howard's End star Helena and Tim met in 2001 on the set of Planet of the Apes.