Teffont, Salisbury, SP3

Fitz House is a truly outstanding property that is steeped in history, dating back to mediaeval times. The property offers a tremendous wealth of character with original period features and now looks to welcome its next custodian for the first time in almost a century. The building is a stunning example of a 17th century farmhouse with Georgian and modern additions. Listed Grade II due to its special architectural and local interest, Fitz House sits within delightfully secluded gardens and grounds - once open to the public as part of the National Gardens Scheme - extending to around 1.8 acres within an idyllic and peaceful location. The property benefits from a tremendous 15th Century double-height, thatched, traditional stone barn, offering superb flexibility and could be converted into a wide range of uses (subject to the necessary consents). It also boasts its own separate cottage dating from a similar period.

Upon entering the property there is a spacious entrance hall with a beautiful wooden staircase and flagstone floor. The principal rooms retain an array of original period features including exposed floorboards, ceiling timbers, wood panelling, mullioned windows, stone fireplaces and original oak doors. The sitting room boasts the most exceptional 17th century large, open fireplace and a wonderful dual aspect, ensuring the room is unusually light for a house of its age. The drawing room, library and dining room boast further fireplaces and dual aspects. The kitchen is L shaped with skylights, enjoying direct access to the gardens. Completing the ground floor is a superb breakfast room and cloakroom.

On the first floor, there are four bedrooms. The principal bedroom benefits from an en-suite bathroom. There are two guest suites with further en-suites and a fourth light and airy bedroom with plumbing.

On the second floor there is another attic bedroom, storage rooms and a further bathroom plus easy roof access. There is also a full double-pitch, boarded loft.

The property is in need of complete refurbishment and renovation, a rare opportunity for a house of this character, size and age. It is a delightful house and one of the characteristics and charms of it is that almost every room has a double view of the garden and, weather permitting, sunshine can be seen at every hour of the day.


Historical Note

The house was lived in by the Fitz family from the early 1600’s through to the mid 1800’s. The main house is a t-shape, with the ‘cross piece’ originally being a wool barn until its conversion. The ‘stem’, originally a simple farmhouse, predates it by about 100 years.
The 15th Century thatched barn is the oldest of the buildings within this property.

In the early 1900’s the house was fully re-modelled by Lord Bledisloe and rented out to a local author; Edith Olivier, who wrote about her time there in her book “Without Knowing Mr. Walkley”. She describes the golden wagtails nesting in the boundary walls (still there to this day) and how she would watch the moon arc across the night sky from the master bedroom. In the house she entertained some of society's great and good including Cecil Beaton, John Betjeman, William Walton, Rex Whistler and the celebrated war poet Siegfied Sassoon who took on the house in the early 1930’s. It’s said that Sassoon wrote many of his famous prose in the round house of Fitz gardens, including the final book of his semi-autobiographical trilogy “Sherston’s Progress”.

In the early 1950’s, our vendors moved in and set about modernising and remodelling both the house and the gardens. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, they opened the gardens to the general public as part of the National Gardens Scheme, along with running a successful tea room in the cottage. The gardens were lauded as being one of the area’s most beautiful. Articles about the property have even been written about in Country Living on multiple occasions.

Outside

The house is set in gardens and grounds of 1.8 acres. There are formal lawns, a kitchen garden, herbaceous borders and orchards forming various ‘garden rooms’. They offer a very high degree of privacy and were once the envy of the village, now requiring some re-imagining to bring them back to their former glory.

There are a range of outbuildings including a thatched roundhouse where Sassoon wrote, the absolutely stunning Fitz Barn and Fitz Cottage, a detached one bedroom building with a sitting room and kitchen that can and has been used as a guest residence. The cottage is bordered on one side by the perennial Teffont chalk stream, with its source half a mile to the north.

There is driveway parking for a number of vehicles and access to a single garage.

Situation

The home is perfectly positioned in the heart of the pretty village of Teffont Magna, located in the Nadder Valley, some 10 miles west of Salisbury. The village is surrounded by some of the most unspoilt downland and countryside in this part of South Wiltshire (Cranborne Chase AONB), with footpaths and bridleways giving the opportunity for walking, riding and cycling all around. There are local amenities nearby in Dinton including a village primary school. The Compasses Inn is in nearby Chicksgrove and the large village of Tisbury is just over three miles away where there is a selection of shops, The Beckford Arms, and facilities which include a doctors surgery and a mainline railway station. The excellent Grovesvenor Arms and The Lamb in Hindon are also close by. Salisbury City centre is only a short drive to the East with its regionally recognised retail, cultural and educational establishments, a number of award winning restaurants and bars and a mainline train service to London Waterloo (86 minutes). Teffont Magna is also conveniently close to the A303/M3.