The current Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev Richard Harries, will not live in the house because he is retiring in June. But his successor, yet to be appointed, will enjoy one of the largest private gardens in the city in addition to a magnificent set of high-ceilinged rooms ideal for entertaining, and huge bedrooms on two floors upstairs. There is also a wine cellar.

The new bishop will, like all his colleagues, live rent-free, which is a just as well because mortgage repayments on a house the price of Pullens End would be more than £16,000 a month; local estate agents estimate that it would cost £9,000 a month to rent it on the open market. A bishop of the Church of England earns about £40,000 a year.

Huth has written articles about Pullens End in the property sections of both The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.

"I am very sad about it," she said yesterday. "I don't want it to go to anyone else, but there you are. We just wanted to sell it to someone who would have just as good a time in it as we have for the past 30 years or so."

Pullens End has been on the market for 11 months but the Church Commissioners are believed to have paid close to the asking price for it.

Sensitive to the possibility of criticism, the commissioners prepared a statement pointing out that there had been a recent review of what kind of building would make a suitable "see house" or bishop's home.

"Pullens End will provide appropriate living accommodation (in line with the suitability criteria set out in the recent see house review) to meet the family and hospitality needs of the new bishop, so that he can carry out his key role in the mission of the diocese and wider church," the statement said. "It provides good transport links and sufficient flexibility to provide offices for the bishop's staff should that be required in future."

A spokesman pointed out that the house was an "investment". Once money has been spent by the church on refurbishment and some remodelling to take account of a need for office space, it is not thought that there will be any change from £2.5 million.

The church's spokesman added: "The money will come from national funds, income from historic resources of the church, and not from money people give in their parish churches."

Mr Harries now lives in a house in Linton Road, north Oxford, which has been rented from Wolfson College for the past 25 years and, if sold, would realise a price "north of £2 million" according to a local agent.

The purchase was criticised by John Tanner, an Oxford city councillor, who said: "I do not think the church should be spending lots of money on big houses when Oxford is experiencing such a housing crisis."

END