Overview - Cont ...
The formal entrance is at the front of the house, overlooking the garden, with early brick buttresses sheltering each side of the front door, surmounted by a tiled roof creating a porch. The main door is now at the rear, off the courtyard, opening to a hallway with doors accessing the four main reception rooms, one of the two staircases, and the kitchen/breakfast room. In the front of the house a door in the kitchen area opens to another staircase, at the foot of which a further door opens to the sitting room, which in turn has a door to the secondary staircase and another to the study (these four doors aligning). The kitchen/breakfast room has a walkthrough to the conservatory and additional doors to a pantry and the utility room, which leads to a cloakroom. The first floor landing, accessed by both staircases, accesses all five bedrooms. An opening leads to another section of landing at the rear with access to an airing cupboard, the main bathroom, and a separate shower.
Ground Floor
The entrance hall has exposed wall timbers and Victorian encaustic floor tiles. Most of the house has timber latch-and-brace doors and for the period of the house, unusually high ceilings. Apart from the conservatory, the south facing windows are refitted, hand-made leaded casement windows with diamond panes; the remaining windows are painted wooden casements. The 18th-century front door, opening off the terrace, leads to the west staircase which, if approached from the entrance hall, has an understairs door accessing new steps to the over 18 ft. by over 13 ft. brick lined cellar. With light and power, this houses the workings for the central heating, and the original grain chute doors.
Kitchen/Breakfast Room
Like three of the reception rooms, the Kitchen/breakfast room has an original chamfered spine beam with exposed joists in the ceiling and a prominent vertical wall beam. A brick fireplace with a bressummer above houses built-in storage, to the left of which is a walk-in pantry with a window and shelving. On the opposite wall is a low door accessing the understairs cupboard. Painted casement windows overlook the courtyard, the doors are oak brace and latch, and the floor has Indian slate flags which continue into the conservatory and utility room. The kitchen is fitted with painted Shaker style base units with granite worksurfaces and a matching central island with feature pendants lights. The island has an inset butler’s sink with a boiling water tap and breakfast seating for two. There are two AGAs: a gas fired two hob/two oven and a four hob/two oven Electric Companion AGA (for summer use). There is an integrated dishwasher and space for an American style fridge/freezer.
Utility Room and Cloakroom
Leading off the kitchen area with a casement window overlooking the terrace is the 10 ft. long utility room with room for a full-height fridge and space and plumbing for a washing machine and tumble dryer. This room leads to the cloakroom which has an obscured window over the courtyard.
Conservatory
The kitchen/breakfast room leads into the nearly 14 ft. by over 12 ft. Amdega conservatory via a wide opening. This opening illuminates the kitchen area with natural light and shares the far-reaching views that are such a feature of this house. Added by the current owners in 2005, the bespoke conservatory is built on a brick plinth and has electric underfloor heating. It has a timber frame, a gabled roof with fitted blinds, and French doors to the terrace. The windows and doors of the conservatory, which is currently used as another dining area, are double glazed.
Sitting Room
The over 16 ft. square sitting room, with a solid oak floor, has a new leaded window with a deep sill and side panels overlooking the terrace and view beyond. Like the kitchen, the ceiling has an exposed chamfered spine beam and joist. An original brick inglenook fireplace on a brick and quarry tiled hearth has a later bread oven and an inner built-in open fireplace (working) with a canopy over. Over the centuries, historic timbers have been repurposed in the farmhouse (a fact mentioned in the listing: No. 1400141) and this room is typical. The wooden surround to the notable fireplace is over 6 ft. high and includes a re-set bressummer beam. This room is accessed via original 16th-century three-panel doors with strap hinges from the entrance hall, and a similar door leads out to the west staircase.
Study/Playroom
With a new leaded window overlooking the terrace and with more south facing views, the study has a solid pine floor and good Wi fi (there are also boosters throughout the house). Due to its size - it measures over 16 ft. by nearly 15 ft.- it could be repurposed if desired as a play room or another reception room.
Dining Room
Overlooking the courtyard in the north of the house, the dual aspect dining room measures 17 ft. by over 14 ft. and has casement windows overlooking two sides of the courtyard. It has an inglenook fireplace, like that in the sitting room, but with brick supports on each side. Again, there is a brick internal open fireplace (working) and on each side, within the fireplace, are low wooden benches on brick supports. To the right of the fireplace in the alcove is a built-in wooden cupboard, the upper two doors glazed. The two walls with windows have possibly 18th-century wooden panelling to dado height and the floor has the original stone flags.
Family Room
The fourth reception room is over 19 ft. by over 15 ft.; it has a casement window overlooking the courtyard and a circular hand-blown window set low in a wall overlooking the side (above the grain chute in the cellar). The current owners have restored the original ceiling timbers and laid a solid oak floor. There is a built-in cupboard.
First Floor
The landing adds greatly to the character of the first floor which, like all the bedrooms, has newly stripped and polished original floor boards and many exposed beams. There is a landing window over the courtyard, the east staircase has a first floor window over the south aspect, and there is an exposed timber archway to the side section of landing leading to the main bathroom. A loft hatch accesses the water tank.
Principal Bedroom
An arched doorway leads into the principal bedroom which measures over 16 ft. by over 15 ft. and has a semi-vaulted ceiling with exposed eaves timbers. Casement windows overlook the courtyard and there is a covered radiator. A glazed frame in the wall reveals an exposed area of the early wattle and daub wall and there are decorative hearth tiles indicating the original position of a Victorian fireplace. A door leads to a fully tiled en suite shower room with a pitched ceiling with beams and porcelain floor tiles. The modern suite includes a walk-in power shower, a basin in a hanging vanity unit with two drawers, and a WC.
Bedrooms Two and Three
Bedroom two is in the east end of the house with a semi-vaulted ceiling and a leaded window overlooking the garden and views beyond. It measures nearly 17 ft. by 13 ft. - the largest of four double bedroom - and has a structural beam crossing the room. In the gable end are exposed wall beams and two sets of built-in double doored oak storage cupboards on each side of the chimney breast. There is also a wash-hand basin in a fitted unit with storage beneath.
Bedroom three, accessed via an angled door at the head of the east stairs, is only slightly smaller than bedroom two and has similar leaded windows overlooking the garden. It has an intriguing original multi-paned window set high in the room overlooking the west staircase.
Bedrooms Four and Five
With a leaded window overlooking the garden, bedroom four measures nearly 15 ft. by over 13 ft. It has contemporary built-in bespoke oak wardrobes along the entire west wall and the central pair of doors are partially glazed. There is also an original built-in storage cupboard over the stairwell.
Bedroom five is the smallest of the rooms but being over 11 ft. deep, still houses a double bed. Vaulted and with a dormer window overlooking open countryside, it also has some built-in shelving.
Family Bathroom and Separate Shower
An archway leads past the door to the airing cupboard with built-in shelving and on to the bathroom. The bathroom has an obscured casement window overlooking the courtyard and has ample room for a Victorian style suite with twin pedestal basins and a low-level WC. In keeping, the free-standing slipper bath has claw feet and centrally placed taps including a shower fitting. The Amtico flooring recalls a herringbone parquet floor and there is a heated towel rail.
Immediately next to the bathroom, a door with a stained-glass window opens to a space with a raised window over the drive and a shower cubical with a power shower; there is a heated towel rail.
Outbuildings & Gardens
Garden Room
The over 12 ft. square timber garden room is at the end of the second lawn, sheltered at the back by clipped laurel hedging. It has a pitched roof, a pine floor, and light and power connected. Double French doors with vaulted side windows open to the lawn. The space could be used as a home office or a gym; it currently functions as a games room. The east side of the terrace leads to a timber garden shed.
Gardens
The house is accessed via a drive which opens out into a driveway and a block paved courtyard at the rear of the house which accesses the entrance door. The farmhouse owns the drive and block paved courtyard but neighbours around the courtyard have right of way. A further drive continues round the side, driveway leading to an addition gravelled parking area at the side of the garden with decorative wrought iron gates opening to the first lawn. An alley at the side, leading into the garden, houses the boiler and the oil tank, accessible from the courtyard.
Covering nearly half an acre, the south facing gardens slope down from the front of the house and have far reaching views over open countryside towards the Chiltern Hills. Taking in the slope, the gardens are arranged on three levels: The first is a paved terrace adjacent to the house which is retained by a stone wall with planted borders. Steps from the terrace access a lawn which is flat enough for croquet. (These two levels are enclosed on the west side by a brick wall with iron gates to the side drive.) Steps from the first lawn, also retained by a wall, lead down to another lawn which is enclosed to the west by estate fencing and has deep, established herbaceous borders and a decked area with an oak under slate pergola. The garden has an orchard with 16 trees, including apples, pears, plums, and cherries, and further mature trees such as copper beech and silver birch. There are clipped hedges along the east borders and a path leads down the west side towards the paddocks.
Paddocks
The remainder of the nearly 3-acre plot is devoted to paddock land which is readily accessible from the side drive and could therefore be used for equestrian purposes. The paddocks are enclosed by indigenous hedging and there are mature scattered trees including willows.
