Coombe Barn

About The House Cont'd

The barn has approx. 4,454 sq. ft. of accommodation set over three floors. The current owners use a door on the north side which opens to the utility room (with a cloakroom), and has doors to the dining room and the kitchen/breakfast room, with an additional, external stable door. The breakfast area opens to the sitting room (with double French doors on the south side), and to the snug. The sitting room has a walk through to the dining room and a door to the family room, which accesses a shower room and has steps to a lobby with doors to a study/bedroom six and the integrated garage. The family room spiral staircase reaches the first floor landing which joins the gallery over the sitting room, and accesses three bedrooms (one en suite) and a family bathroom in the west of the house; it continues up to a guest suite on the second floor. A staircase from the east of the sitting room accesses the first floor principal bedroom which has bespoke oak stairs to the second floor en suite bathroom.

Kitchen/Breakfast Room

The dual aspect kitchen/breakfast room has Cotswold limestone flags with underfloor heating (both also in the dining and utility rooms), contemporary oak ceiling beams and original vertical timbers. New, hand-built oak windows in the east end gable overlook the garden and the view beyond; there are three further high-level windows in the north wall. The kitchen has oak fronted bespoke base and wall units (some glazed), with granite worksurfaces and splashbacks (extended over the hob), and an inset stainless steel sink with taps. A central island with further storage drawers has a matching worksurface. The double oven Britannia range cooker has six gas hobs and an extractor fan above; further integrated appliances include a Bosch dishwasher and a full-height fridge freezer. There is ample space for a breakfast table seating at least six people.

Utility Room

Adjacent to the kitchen, the utility room accesses a cloakroom and has the main external side door and a door to the dining room. There is a raised window over a granite worksurface with an inset butler’s sink, with space and plumbing for appliances below, and a wall cupboard.

Dining Room and Family Room

Accessed via the utility room, the over 19 ft. long dining room has contemporary exposed ceiling beams and windows comprising four floor-to-ceiling glass panels in oak frames overlooking the side of the barn.The family room has a pair of oak framed windows overlooking the south and a hand-built modern oak and steel spiral staircase with deep, single plank steps. As well as horizontal supporting rails, the staircase has an SAS rope used as a banister.

Sitting Room

On the south side, this 42 ft. by 21 ft. room rises through three storeys to a vaulted roof, with the internal structure exposed, revealing the tie beams, purlins, curved braces, and rafters of the original timber framing. Once an important farm building, crucial for storing the grain harvest, the structure has been converted into a galleried, double storeyed living space. Oak framed windows and French doors fill the double height barn entrance, now allowing light into the sitting room and the galleried landing above. These are flanked by two further ground floor pairs of oak framed windows. A modern oak staircase with chamfered balusters and capped newel posts rises to the first floor and continues, creating a galleried landing. Centrally, beneath the landing, is an area of sunken, brick-edged French oak flooring, forming a seating area around the fireplace. Following a traditional pattern the brick fireplace has a timber lintel with herringbone brick infill above; there is a bioethanol fire on the Cotswold limestone hearth.

Snug

Under the staircase, a door opens to the over 17 ft. by 13 ft. snug with two sets of four-paned windows which overlook the garden, the paddocks and view beyond. The room has original timbers beneath the modern windows and horizontal wall beams.

Study/Gym/Bedroom Six and Shower Room

Steps from the corner of the family room rise to a small lobby with a door to the study/bedroom 6, which has a window overlooking the drive at the front of the house. Known by the family as the bike room, and doubling as a gym, it has built-in cupboards with double oak doors, hanging space and shelving. A further door from the lobby opens to the integrated double garage.The shower room, accessed directly from the family room, has a tiled floor and mosaic tiles behind the shower, which has a glass cubical and a shaped solid marble base. This has a matching hand basin, a WC, and a raised window in the north wall.

First Floor

The first floor can be accessed from the staircase in the sitting room or the spiral staircase in the family room, both routes join from opposite ends of the galleried landing. The landing is the same length as the sitting room and deep enough along its entire length for seating areas, which are interrupted by the curved roof struts. In the centre of the landing, the central gable of the cart entry creates a vaulted space which has been turned into a library, with two of its walls lined floor- to-ceiling with oak bookshelves and a window in the gable. There are three built-in oak storage cupboards.

Principal Bedroom and En Suite Bathroom

On the corner of the east end of the barn, accessed from the main staircase, the 24 ft. by 14 ft., double aspect principal bedroom with original exposed wall beams, has two windows in the south aspect and two more in the gable end, with views over the garden and beyond. There is a double doored oak wardrobe as you enter and further wardrobes and shelving line the north wall. A handmade oak staircase rises to the en suite bathroom.The second floor en suite bathroom has a pair of modern, glazed, flat-topped lancet windows which look across the barn’s 40-ft. vault towards identical windows in the seating area of bedroom five at the other end. At the highest point in the barn, the vaulted bathroom with exposed rafters and purlins, has a window in the east gable which gives the best vantage point of the view, visible from the bath. Free-standing and double ended, the Italian bath, with centrally-placed taps and a shower fitting, is made of beech wood and rests on a cedar base (chosen due to its weight and resilience to water damage).

Bedroom Four and En Suite Shower Room

In the west part of the house, bedroom four, like bedrooms two and three, is accessed via the spiral staircase or from a corridor from the landing. It has a window in the gable end overlooking the drive and exposed original timbers. A door accesses the three piece en suite shower room (with an extractor fan), which has exposed timbers, a stone tiled floor and a tiled wall behind the corner shower.

Bedroom Two, Three and Family Bathroom

In the west part of the house, bedroom four, like bedrooms two and three, is accessed via the spiral staircase or from a corridor from the landing. It has a window in the gable end overlooking the drive and exposed original timbers. A door accesses the three piece en suite shower room (with an extractor fan), which has exposed timbers, a stone tiled floor and a tiled wall behind the corner shower.

Bedroom Five/Guest Suite

The guest suite is accessed from a continuation of the spiral staircase, which opens to a vaulted seating area with exposed purlins and rafters, built-in oak eaves storage cupboards, and the distinctive matching lancet windows (described previously in the principal bedroom en suite). There is an adjacent two piece cloakroom. Three steps up and under a tie beam is the over 15 ft. long bedroom which has a continuation of the vaulted, beamed ceiling. Like the principal bedroom en suite, it is situated at the highest point of the house with a gable window, but in the opposite end, overlooking the drive.

Gardens and Paddocks

The barn is approached via a lane through a gap in mature, clipped leylandii hedging which leads to electric gates and a gate to the gravelled drive at the west end of the barn. (Timber gates in the drive open to the neighbouring house.) The leylandii continues along the border of the south side of the barn, sheltering the lawned garden, which has an inset herringbone brick path and planted borders along the barn walls. A gated, gravelled path from the drive drops five steps and follows the north wall of the barn to the garden. It is enclosed by a retaining brick wall with a laurel hedge and picket fencing.The main, easterly garden, accessed from both sides of the barn, overlooks the paddocks below and to the south and takes in the bucolic view across the valley beyond. The garden is laid to lawn with boundaries enclosed by beech hedging and shrub borders with post and rail fencing. There is a stone seating area designed for a firepit – and the view.The L-shaped paddocks, in which the current owners have planted a copse of assorted trees, can be approached via vehicular access from the lane. They are enclosed by post and rail fencing and indigenous hedging, including holly and yew. The garden has a hidden dog proof fence.

Swimming Pool

The 32 ft. by 16 ft. swimming pool, surrounded by stone paving, is discretely enclosed on two sides by new and old flint and brick walls, with a mature magnolia and raised herbaceous bedding, and on the garden side by gated post and rail fencing. The east end has a decked seating area, partially enclosed by clipped box hedging, which also screens the brick pump room, housing the gas boiler and the air source heat pump. An electric pool cover has a pump to remove surface water.

Two Double Garages

Accessed from the drive, the integrated double garage is in the brick-built bay at the east end of the house, with electric roller doors in the gable end. Internally insulated, it has built-in storage shelving along one wall and power and light connected. This garage houses the hot water tank and the gas boiler for the central heating.Also opening onto the drive, the second garage is a detached English Heritage oak framed building resembling an agricultural structure with a pitched, clay- tiled roof. It is accessed via a pair of timber double doors, and has a concrete floor, an alarm system and power and light connected. (The climbing wall is not included.)

Situation and Schooling

Amenities in Naphill include a village hall, a post office/ store, public houses, and a tennis club. The property is in catchment for Naphill and Walters Ash School (Ofsted rated Good), as well as grammar and private schools in High Wycombe. High Wycombe (2.9 miles), has shopping and social facilities, the Wycombe Swan Theatre, tennis and cricket clubs, a sports centre, and a mainline railway station from which the fastest journey time to Marylebone is 25 minutes.