Hogshaw Farm House

Design and Specification

Constructed of brick under a slate roof, this early 19th-century property was built as a foursquare, double-fronted working farmhouse, set in its own farmland in the Aylesbury Vale, a few miles from local villages. It takes its name from one of two ancient nearby settlements, Hogshaw and Fulbrook, both lost before the 17th century. Careful to retain the integrity of the original building, the current owners have conserved and restored the fabric of the farmhouse, emphasising the elegance of room proportions, and replacing lost features such as fireplaces, cornicing and skirting boards, refitting sash windows with shutters, and relaying wooden floors. The result is a contemporary and practical family home with over five acres of surrounding paddocks with accompanying equestrian facilities. Also with an agricultural heritage, is an adjacent brick-built drying barn, which has been restored and repurposed as a one bedroom annexe, behind which is the triple carport and garage with driveway parking.

Boot Room, Reception Hall, Hall and Cellar

The current owners have added a new entrance to the house. This comprises a brick-built space with a pitched slate roof, a glazed gable, a window and a wooden entrance door; a second area has a pitched, glazed roof and floor-to-ceiling glass panels. Internally, this area is bisected by a partial wall on the left of the entrance door, which encloses the tile-floored boot room (with a built-in coat cupboard), and a door to the reception hall. Due to the inclusion of glass, the reception hall is light. It has wooden floor boards and a built-in cupboard housing a fridge/freezer. A door from the reception hall accesses the hall, which has the formal front door and the staircase to the first floor. Under the staircase, a door opens to stone steps leading to the cellar, with a quarry tiled floor and window. Doors off the hall access the reception rooms, the kitchen area, and the utility/cloakroom. From the reception hall, a walk-through with a reclaimed lintel, also accesses the open plan kitchen area.

Kitchen/Breakfast Area

Accessed from the hall or from the reception hall, the open plan kitchen/breakfast area has a Travertine stone tiled floor and, like the entrance hall and boot room, underfloor heating. Once the 19th-century dairy, the kitchen has an oil-fired Aga set into a chimney breast with a wooden mantel and a tiled back. There is a range of hand-made wooden painted base and wall units (matching the cupboard in the reception hall), some of which are glazed, a plate rack and a pantry cupboard. Under a sash window, the marble worksurface has an inset double butler’s sink with a hot and cold filtered water tap and an InSinkErator. The same marble infills the shape created by a 90 degree curved oak breakfast bar, which has wine storage below, an inset induction hob and seating. Integrated appliances include a separate fridge and freezer, a dishwasher, and an oven (all Hotpoint).

Dining/Family Area

Another walk-through with a reclaimed lintel, accesses the new dining/family area. The room has the same Travertine floor and a vaulted roof with exposed structural timbers. There is a bay with floor-to-ceiling windows, a glazed gable and double French doors (all Idigbo hardwood) opening onto a terrace overlooking the front. The end wall has a modern exposed brick inglenook fireplace with a reclaimed lintel and an inset Stovax wood burner on a stone hearth. In the alcoves flanking the chimney breast, are built-in oak, glazed cupboards with drawers underneath.

Utility/Cloakroom

The utility/cloakroom has floor-to-ceiling cupboards which house the hot water tank and the Worcester boiler; there is also hanging space and an airing cupboard. There is a marble worksurface with an integrated Samsung washing machine and a Bosch tumble dryer below. On the opposite wall is a white Victorian pedestal basin and a WC with a traditional high cistern. The floor and walls have porcelain marble effect tiles.

Sitting Room, Morning Room and Study

On each side of the front door, with doors opposite one another in front of the staircase, the two reception rooms are double aspect with fireplace surrounds and stone hearths. The sitting room has two full-sized sash windows, the morning room has a full-sized sash window over the front and a smaller window at the side with panelling beneath. (Both rooms have window shutters.) The morning room fireplace has panelling above the mantel to the cornice and a Victorian column radiator. At the other end of the hall, by the cellar door, is a door to the study. Almost square in plan like the other two reception rooms, the study has a dado rail and a modern brick open fireplace with a herringbone brick hearth. Floor-to-ceiling shelving has been built into the alcoves beside the chimney breast, on one side these shelves have glazed louvred doors.

First Floor

The original panelled flight of stairs rises from the wooden floorboarded hall near the formal front door. The straight staircase has a turned painted newel post and turned balusters, the steps are painted wood with traditional brass rods holding down the runner. All three bedrooms and the family bathroom are accessed from the first-floor galleried landing which runs from the front to the back of the house, with a sash window at each end. The rooms have moulded skirting boards and panelled doors with moulded frames.

Principal Bedroom, En Suite Shower Room

With such a regular plan, the principal bedroom resembles the morning room below, with one sash window overlooking the front and a smaller one to the side. It has a stone fireplace with a wooden mantelpiece and a column radiator. This bedroom has window shutters and a deep door with a panelled recess into an en suite shower room with porcelain marble effect tiles on the floor and walls and an obscure window to the side. There is a traditional WC with a high cistern, a corner shower and a round stone basin on a painted wooden cabinet.

Bedrooms Two, En Suite Bathroom and Family Bathroom

Bedroom two has a sash window, the lower half obscured, overlooking the side and a three piece en suite shower room with a WC, a corner shower and a pedestal basin. Ceramic tiles are on the walls and floor. The family bathroom, used by bedrooms three and four, has ceramic floor tiles and tongue-and-groove panelled walls to dado height and around the panelled bath which has a hand-held shower fitting. There is a WC, a pedestal basin and a heated towel rail as well as loft access in the ceiling.

Bedrooms Three and Four

Like the sitting room beneath, bedroom three is nearly square and double aspect with sash windows overlooking the front and side and a reclaimed column radiator. The plan of bedroom four again resembles the study below. Nearly square, it has a sash window with shutters overlooking the side and a radiator with a cover. There are two sets of built-in floor-to-ceiling painted wooden wardrobes with double doors

Annexe

The old grain dryer, now converted to an annexe known as Digby’s Brew House, has been painstakingly restored and, like the farmhouse, there is a new slate roof and the brickwork has been repointed. Access to the slate-floored ground floor is via a wooden door with a glazed panel. The triple aspect sitting area is open plan to a dining area (with room for a table seating six), and the kitchen. There are base and wall units and a granite worksurface with an inset butler’s sink. Integrated appliances include a Hotpoint double oven with an induction hob and an extractor above, a washing machine and a Neff dishwasher. French doors in the sitting area access a paved outside space and there is a brick fireplace with a two-sided wood burning stove. A brick arch on one side of the fireplace accesses a staircase, an arch on the other side leads to the dining/kitchen area. The wrought iron and wooden staircase rises to a bedroom with a vaulted roof, exposed timbers and a window overlooking the drive. There is a Juliet balcony with a timber door. The en suite shower room, with marble effect tiled floor and walls, has a round stone basin on a wooden cabined, a WC, and a shower.

Outside

A turning off the Clayton Road accesses a stone chipped driveway that curves round the back of the stable block and reaches the enclosed area in front of the annexe. The same turning has the option of an electronically operated set of gates that open to the farmhouse drive, which curves past a statue of a wild boar, round the paddock and alongside the gardens, leading to the gravelled parking area in front of the garages.

Gardens

In front of the new entrance at the side of the house, is a paved outside seating area. Accessed through an arch in a brick wall opposite the garaging is a courtyard garden which can also be accessed from the French doors in the seating/dining area and is overlooked by the kitchen window. This area is paved and enclosed with established shrub borders. Beyond the courtyard adjacent to the house, is a gravelled area with an enclosed oil tank. The garden at the front and other side of the house is mainly laid to lawn with established trees and is enclosed by fencing with mature shrub borders, indigenous or hornbeam hedging, punctuated by immature pear trees.

Barn/Stable Block and Paddocks

The three-year-old timber clad steel barn, with a pitched roof, was built as a stable block and now only needs completion. It is accessed from the farmhouse drive and has a sliding door in the gable end and four stable doors along the 50 ft. length. There are transparent panels in the corrugated roof, a concrete floor, and water and electricity connected. Directly in front of the stable doors are two turnout pens enclosed by post and rail fencing. In front of the turnout pens, closer to the house, is a 164 ft. by 82 ft. manège with silica sand and turf float. Between the manège and the house are three paddocks enclosed by post and rail fencing accessed by various farm gates off the drive. Behind the stable block and in a strip on the right, are larger paddocks, all enclosed by hedges or post and rail fencing, and fulfilling the 5.63 acreage. All the paddocks (and the Quainton Hills beyond), can be seen from the farmhouse.

Triple Carport and Garage

Behind the annexe, enclosed by wooden fencing, are the wooden framed carports, which resemble an agricultural barn with weatherboarding, a clock gable, and a slate roof. There are three open bays with vertical wooden piers on stone blocks with arched braces and gravelled floors. At the end there is an enclosed bay/workshop with an electrically operated roller door, a concrete floor, and an extended back area with a corrugated roof with a transparent panel for natural light. Water and electricity are connected.

Locality

The property is surrounded by countryside with a network of bridlepaths easily accessible. It is located in the Aylesbury Vale between East Claydon and Quainton, which is about 4.5 miles away (about 10 minutes’ drive) and has a Church of England school, a village store, tennis courts, a playground, a windmill, a church and The George and Dragon public house and tea room. North Marston village is about 8 minutes’ drive or 45 minutes’ walk across the fields and has a community shop, a Church of England Primary school rated good by Ofsted, and a pub, The Pilgrim, which was rated as a best local restaurant in the Good Food Guide. The property is also only 11 minutes’ drive from amenities in the market town of Winslow which include a range of shops, cafes and restaurants, and a farmers’ market on Wednesdays. A new station on the east west rail line is being constructed in Winslow and is expected to open in 2024.A wider range of facilities are available in Aylesbury (10 miles), Buckingham (9 miles) and Bicester (14 miles).