Church End, Biddenham, Bedfordshire, MK40

DELIGHTFUL STONE DETACHED HOME - OVER HALF AN ACRE - WITH ANNEXE AND LOVELY GARDEN

Set back from a quiet, no-through lane in the heart of Biddenham’s conservation area, a superb stone home with over 2500 squ. ft. of space, five bedrooms in the main house and one in its detached annexe. A home that all the family will love, from child to grandparent. A lovely, late Victorian, unlisted, home, with an extension that you cannot tell is an extension, with gravelled parking for numerous cars, and with a beautiful garden, next to the church, bordering fields, and large enough to have had a grass tennis court. It’s little wonder that this is the first chance for three decades to own this super family home.

It's little wonder too, that people enjoy living in Biddenham, a Bedfordshire village lying within a loop of the River Great Ouse, with picturesque surroundings yet on the edge of the County town and within easy reach of major road networks. Minutes from Bedford’s restaurants, supermarkets, shops, sports and health facilities, its world-renowned Harpur Trust private schools and outstanding Free School, and its fast trains to London and elsewhere, yet with an unusual number of facilities within the village itself.

Children can walk to highly thought of schools for all ages. Cricket, tennis and football are played at the Recreation Ground, and all manner of groups meet at the village hall. Wander through the garden gate to Sunday service at the magnificent, Norman, Grade 1-listed Church, or straight into fields and on to the village pond, and to the popular thatched pub. Stroll around the heritage trail and immerse yourself in the village’s rich history or step out with your dog along miles of public footpaths. Thirty years from now, you too will be able to look back and count your blessings that you have been fortunate enough to live here.

ABOUT THE PROPERTY

Aubrieta tumbles over a low stone wall opening to the lane at each end of the horseshoe driveway. Red, scented roses climb the beautifully pointed stone walls of the house, contrasting with golden jasmine around the porch, gorgeous, new double-glazed Crittall windows perfectly in keeping. What a welcome!

How welcoming too, to step onto the oak floor of the lovely hall, where you can sit and relax, or study, bathed in natural light, the taller than expected ceilings and picture rails adding to the feeling of space throughout. The whole house has a peaceful, warm feel to it, not least in the snug and the larger sitting room, irrespective of whether a log fire is roaring away in either fireplace. And in the kitchen too, with its bespoke, painted furniture, topped by solid oak and sitting on beautiful, handmade terracotta.

Rooms full of character, and room for everything, together or alone. This is a home for quiet reading as well as for happy family gatherings at the breakfast table and around the piano, for intimate dinner parties in the dining room as well as for summer shindigs.

And, to add to the lovely bedrooms, not least the main bedroom suite, it’s a home with a detached annexe for guests or, perhaps, for an elderly parent now or in the future. As with the kitchen and dining room, it opens through French doors to the stone terrace, to a place to eat, drink and be merry al fresco.

And to a wonderful garden, perfect for all the family - the budding footballer, the child in his den in the wooded area beneath the Atlantic Cedar and, of course, the keen gardener. Oh, and anyone for tennis? Or, perhaps, sit and relax on the bench circling the damson tree, serenaded by birdsong, and enjoy Hydrangea and wisteria climbers, the white-barked Heptacodium and Strawberry tree hedging. Creatively designed box hedging allows you through to the main lawn, the weeping plum, walnut, silver birch, lilac and other lovely trees. And through the English Yew hedging to the church and fields beyond. Delightful!

You’ll no doubt wish to put your stamp on your new home but there’s equally no doubt that, after many years, it’s a fortunate family indeed who will live here.