Whitchurch, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP22

About The House cont'd

The house has approx. 5,887 sq. ft. of versatile accommodation arranged over two floors with a cellar. The entrance hall leads into the kitchen/breakfast/dining room. The kitchen area has stairs down to a basement kitchen/utility room, which leads to a wine cellar. The kitchen has further stairs up to the snug, which leads to a study/bedroom six, with an en suite shower room. The snug also has ‘servants’ stairs to the first floor. The kitchen area also has doors to the garden, the vestibule, and the drawing room. The latter leads to a corridor accessing a cloakroom and a store room, and emerges in the vestibule which leads to the sitting/family room. The entrance hall also accesses bedroom two, with a dressing room and an en suite shower room. The original staircase rises to bedrooms four and five and landings that lead to bedroom three, with an en suite shower room, and the family bathroom. Bedroom four has two doors leading to the principal bedroom with a dressing room (truncated)

Entrance Hall

The front door opens to a travertine floored entrance hall with the original staircase, which has a carved newel post, turned balusters, and a panelled side with storage space underneath. There is a small window in the roof over the landing above and a window in the façade lighting the stairs. A door opens to Bedroom two; an opposite door accesses the kitchen/breakfast/ dining room.

Kitchen/Breakfast/Dining Room

The dining room area has exposed 18th-century ceiling and wall timbers (the carpenter’s marks are still visible), and original leaded casement windows overlooking the front. There is an oak floor and the authentic brick fireplace, with a lintel above, has a canopy over an open grate. Vertical beams divide the dining area from the kitchen, which has a casement window overlooking, and a door to, the Italian terrace. The kitchen area has handmade, painted base and wall units, dressers and the chimney breast houses an electric Aga with tiles behind, a wooden mantel above and flanking cupboards. There is a breakfast island with a hob, space for seating, storage under and a granite surface, which matches the worksurface under the window with an inset butler’s sink. The floor has painted quarry tiles and there is space and plumbing for a dishwasher. Oak stairs lead up to the snug and more lead down to the basement kitchen/ utility room and wine cellar.

Basement Kitchen/Utility Room and Wine Cellar

Stairs lead down to the basement kitchen area, which has a leaded and barred window and the original farm flagstone floor. There are base and wall units with roll top worksurfaces and an inset butler’s sink. There is room for a range cooker and a fridge in a larder, and space and plumbing for various appliances. (More space for appliances is available in the laundry.) This area has a door to the wine cellar, with a concrete floor, an original window, and a cupboard.

Drawing Room and Vestibule

Accessed from the dining area, the drawing room forms the corner of the west end of the house with a casement window over the front and similarly leaded French doors to the side terrace, with flanking windows and wooden shutters. There is a moulded mantelpiece with a Victorian steel fireplace, deeply moulded cornices, and a wooden floor. A glazed door opens to a corridor with a shelved storage room on the left and a cloakroom on the right, with an original (now painted) wall. Polished stone flooring in the corridor continues through the vestibule, which has a window and glazed doors to the Italian courtyard and the rear terrace. The vestibule accesses the more modern west wing; it has a chimney breast with double decorative wooden mantels above and a wooden painted staircase that directly accesses the first floor accommodation on the west side of the house. Doors from the vestibule also lead to the kitchen and the sitting/family room.

Sitting/Family Room

Measuring over 37 ft. by 16 ft. and for most part two storeys high, the sitting/family room has a galleried mezzanine with the study above one end. A French door opening to the garden terrace has windows rising through the second storey, allowing expansive views over the garden and landscape beyond. A further set of French windows and two sets of windows overlook the stable yard, and two windows overlook the rear garden - all contemporary and double glazed. The room has a wooden floor and at the farthest end, beneath the mezzanine floor in what is now the seating area, is a contemporary brick fireplace with a lintel above. The dining area has a wooden floor.

Snug and Study/Bedroom Six

With tongue-and-groove panelled walls, a wooden floor and original ceiling beams, the snug has a casement window and two wooden storage cupboards. It also has a door to the original servants’ staircase (currently unused), that accesses the first floor. There is an American style fridge/freezer on the wall closest to the kitchen and a TV point. The snug opens to the study/ bedroom six, which has a window to the rear and a two piece cloakroom with a window.

Bedroom Two, en Suite Shower and Dressing Room

Used by the current owners as a guest suite, bedroom two, to the right of the front door has a recent wooden floor. Original 18th-century features include a casement window at the front, an exposed ceiling beam, and classical egg-and-dart cornicing. The open fireplace has a later Victorian style wooden mantelpiece housing a metal grate. The dressing room (in a later extension), has floor-to-ceiling fitted wardrobes and leads to a three piece en suite shower room with a window over the rear.

First Floor

The entrance hall staircase accesses bedrooms four and five and the family bathroom. A few steps up and under an arch, reaches a further area of landing with a storage cupboard, the top of the servants’ staircase, and bedroom three. The principal bedroom and the mezzanine study can be accessed through bedroom four, or via a second staircase from the vestibule, accessing the first floor landing, which has windows overlooking the front and rear. The landing leads to a corridor, which passes along the gallery above the sitting/family room and reaches the study, it also accesses the dressing room/bedroom seven. A further door leads back to the corridor which reaches the older bedrooms via the principal bedroom.

Bedroom Five, En Suite Bathroom and Family Bathroom

At the top of the original staircase is a small landing leading to the two similarly proportioned bedrooms on each side of the old farmhouse. Bedroom five has a casement window overlooking the front and a late 19th-century art nouveau cast iron fireplace. Turning right out of this room accesses the landings and bedroom three. Bedroom three is approached through a dressing area with built-in wardrobes, with the en suite bathroom with raised glazed panels borrowing light, and a contemporary three piece suite. Further steps reach the bedroom itself with a vaulted ceiling, exposed beams, and a casement window in the gable end overlooking the stable yard. A further door off the landing with the arch, leads to the modern three piece family bathroom, with a stone tiled bath panel and walls, and wood effect vinyl floor tiles.

Bedroom Four

Bedroom four is to the left of the landing at the top of the old stairs, it has a casement window overlooking the front and a Victorian painted iron fireplace, on the right of which is a built-in 19th century cupboard and on the left is a panelled door to a narrow corridor (the depth of the cupboard), with a door to the principal bedroom.

Principal Bedroom, En Suite Shower Room

Above the drawing room, the principal bedroom is a corner room with double aspect casement windows overlooking the front and the garden to the side. Two doors lead out of the room, one into a dressing room with a window overlooking the side and another into a small corridor which accesses, via double doors, what is in effect an antechamber to the en suite bathroom. The state-of-the art en suite bathroom with high specification fittings, has a stand-alone contemporary bath, a double shower, a WC and two basins set on a hanging wooden unit with drawers underneath. The window, overlooking the rear, has wooden shutters; there is wood effect vinyl flooring with underfloor heating and a modern, functioning fireplace. The walls are fully tiled, there is a heated towel rail, temperature control and down lighting.

Bedroom Seven/Dressing Room and Study

The landing above the vestibule overlooks the front and the back and there is potential for repurposing what is a significant area. From this landing, double doors open into what is currently a dressing room, the walls are lined with cupboards and shelving, but it could easily become bedroom seven, with windows overlooking the garden. A walk-through from the landing becomes the gallery of the sitting/family room and passes three sets of windows overlooking the back. The mezzanine study area, also galleried with turned balusters, overlooks the garden and the current position of the desk allows notable views across the countryside.

Laundry Room and Garage

A later, single storey, red brick barn with a slate roof, attached to the right of the house, has been partially used as a dressing room and en suite for bedroom two, but the rest has been converted to a laundry room and a garage, both accessible from the drive. With a vaulted ceiling and white painted internal brickwork, the laundry room has a Velux window, built-in base units with a roll top worksurface with space and plumbing for various appliances. The single garage, with a roller door accessible from the drive and a concrete floor, also has a Velux window in the roof and power connected.

Pub, Gyms and Barns

On the end of the west wing, joined by a covered brick floored passageway with wrought iron gates connecting the garden to the stable yard, are a series of period red brick stables with clay tiled roofs. Three stables are currently used for storage and are accessible from doors in the stable yard, but a central block has been converted to a pub with a door opening from the garden. With a vaulted ceiling with Velux windows, exposed structural timbers and an exposed brick end wall, the pub has a wooden bar with an integrated fridge and sink, and laminate flooring.

Pub, Gyms and Barns cont'd

In the stable yard are a series of weatherboarded barns. The lowest barn, accessed via double doors, is now a modern gym, with plain plastered walls, an artificial ceiling with light panels, and a soft floor suitable for gym equipment. An internal step up and a sliding door leads to another barn which has been used as a ‘boxing gym’. These barns, with power connected, could be repurposed as home offices, or used for other commercial enterprises, subject to necessary permission. These ’gym barns’ access neighbouring, larger, agricultural barns (both over 34 ft. by 19 ft.), with concrete flooring and doors to the stable yard. At the end of these barns is a door in the gable end of a further block of barns set at a right angle to the stable yard and overlooking another gravelled yard. Brick-built, under recently replaced slate roofs with multiple Velux windows, these barns (both over 48 ft. by 18 ft.), were built for agricultural use and have concrete floors and a double and single doors.

Gardens and Paddocks

In an AONB in the Vale of Aylesbury, the 17-acre grounds of Hurdlesgrove House naturally look southwest across open countryside for as far as the eye can see. The gardens, laid to lawn and scattered with a variety of mature trees, resemble parkland, and include a natural spring-fed pond which attracts wild ducks. The nature of the garden, with neighbouring paddocks and farmland beyond, attracts desirable wildlife to the area. Electrically operated gates open from the A413 and the block paved drive slopes down to the house with lawns on either side. In front of the house the drive widens to provide ample parking space. The property is sheltered from the road by areas of lawn, trees and indigenous hedging; the paddocks are divided and enclosed from the garden by post and rail fencing.

Terraces and Stable Yards

There is a paved terraced area outside the drawing room which has a retractable awning and is currently used as an outside kitchen. This terrace extends along the west wing, meeting a gravelled seating area outside the pub. A paved path winds to the timber summerhouse, which has power connected and is used for al fresco dining. At the rear of the house, is a partially enclosed paved seating area immediately accessible from the vestibule and kitchen, which is known as the Italian Terrace due to the container planting and sheltered position. This area overlooks the stable yard which was recently block paved by the current owners and opens to the various associated barns and accesses the gravelled yard outside the brick barns.

Situation and Schooling

Whitchurch has local amenities including a supermart/ post office, The Swan public house, a 13th century church, a beauty salon, a hairdresser and a combined school. The market town of Buckingham (10.4 miles) offers shopping, social and sports facilities. Stowe School and Swanbourne House Schools are 14 miles and 3 miles away respectively. Aylesbury has a mainline railway station (5 miles) with services to Marylebone in 62 minutes. Leighton Buzzard railway station (8.5 miles) has services to Euston in 30 minutes.