Business tycoon Sir John Madejski is selling his home in Berkshire.

The founder of the car magazine Auto Trader, best known in the wider world for the football stadium named after him in his home town of Reading, has “reluctantly” come to the conclusion he doesn’t have enough free time to justify hanging on to the 8,000 square foot Lutyens-inspired Arts and Crafts house he had built in Lower Basildon near the Thames-side village of Pangbourne.

Sir John, now 79, describes Adshead Park as his “very special place.”

He bought the five-acre plot in Hook End Lane in 2005 specifically for the house he’d long dreamed of building

It’s at the top of a hill with glorious views over the Chilterns Area of Natural Beauty.

The team at the Reading practice of Hives Architects, who Sir John commissioned to draw up the plans for Adshead, had an uphill struggle to get planning permission. Several applications were thrown out before one was finally accepted by the council.

The project necessitated demolishing an existing 1950s farm bungalow on the land. The site is surrounded by fields.

The prize for going the distance to win over the planners is a homestead specifically designed to capitalise on the position. It was built with the best materials on the market at the time and the latest building technology.

Hugh Maconichie, Savills director of country house sales in the Home Counties, is expecting interest from local and overseas buyers.

He describes Adshead as a “one-off both for its position and what it is.” It’s on his books for £10 million.

All the bricks and tiles are handmade. The windows are bronze and set in oak frames. All the joinery is solid oak. Internal floors are either Italian marble or limestone.

All the principal rooms are air conditioned, the underfloor heating is generated by a geothermal system, everything is top drawer. Heating, lighting, security – each system has been supplied by a manufacturer whose reputation is second to none.

The rooms at Adshead are spread over three floors.

There are four en suite bedrooms on the first floor.

On the ground floor are three principal reception rooms and the recently fitted Smallbone kitchen.

On the lower ground floor is a leisure suite with gym, cinema, swimming pool, steam room, sauna, jacuzzi and wine room.

All this for the past eight-ten years has been the home of a business magnate whose remarkable life started with a spell in a children’s home until he was able to join his mother and Polish stepfather whose surname he adopted. From there on in, he prospered.

Leaving Adshead will be a wrench but John Madejski takes the philosophical view. He told a journalist: “It needs a family to make the most of all it has to offer.”

One thing’s for sure. He’ll always be a son of his home town Reading and a legendary supporter of its football team.