Barford Road, Blunham, Bedfordshire, MK44

MODERN FAMILY HOME, WITH SUPERB KITCHEN EXTENSION, IN RIVERSIDE VILLAGE 3.5 MILES FROM SANDY STATION 

A 4-double bedroom home with super, open-plan kitchen and living space that leads out to a canopied terrace and lovely, peaceful garden. Extended just a few years ago, your new home was built on an old orchard that once belonged to the lovely Victorian house next door. Set well back from the road in the sought-after, Bedfordshire riverside village of Blunham, with garage, driveway and front lawn, it’s now ready to welcome a fortunate new family for the first time in 40 years.

It's little wonder that Blunham is sought-after. This lovely village is within minutes of the A1, under 25 miles from Cambridge and just 7.5 miles equidistant of the charming market town of St Neots and the county town of Bedford, from where fast trains reach London in under 40 minutes. Sandy, just 3.5 miles away, is home to an even closer railway station, as well as to the catchment secondary school. The world-renowned Harpur Trust private schools, as well as the outstanding Free School, are in the county town.

The historic village of Blunham was visited regularly by one of our greatest poets, John Donne, after whom the little, thatched village school and nursery is named. He served as Rector of St Edmund or St James, the village’s magnificent medieval church - the only one in the Country bearing the names of two saints.

Along with church and school, the village hall, shop, the C18th Horseshoes Inn, and the playing fields and pavilion where once the world’s longest cricket match took place, all play an important role in village life.

The area is perfect for walkers and cyclists. You can pick up Route 51 of the National Cycle Network here. Wander along the River Ivel, keeping your eyes open for otters. An old railway line takes you past a nature reserve to Willington Danish Camp. And the fields behind your new home lead to the Anchor Inn at Great Barford, on the banks of the beautiful River Great Ouse. Wonderful surroundings and every facility on the doorstep too.

MORE ABOUT THE PROPERTY

As soon as you step into the hall, you catch a teasing glimpse through glazed oak doors into the garden beyond the dining area’s strikingly peaked, floor-to-ceiling window, and you have a sense of spaciousness, enhanced by height and natural light bouncing off immaculately painted walls.

There’s oodles of flexible space throughout. Two of the four upstairs bedrooms have been children’s rooms, but they happily take double beds and, if you wish in the future, you could even re-activate plans to extend to the side over the garage. From your main bedroom, look forward to waking up and flinging open the curtains to views over the gardens and fields beyond.

You have a guest bedroom upstairs, of course, but your study, next to the downstairs shower room, has also been used for friends staying overnight. Your new home is designed for entertaining, whether for intimate dinner parties or major gatherings, when your main living space can extend both outside and, through glazed oak doors, to the lovely sitting room. But what’s great for entertaining is the hub of everyday family life too

A huge space, certainly, flooded with daytime light from not one but two roof lanterns, but a space full of interest too, with distinct areas separated by pillars and varied ceiling lines. A space where everyone can come together to prepare meals, breakfast, dine, or simply relax with a film, cafetiere replenished from the hot tap, beer plucked from the huge fridge, or a bottle pulled from the wine cooler. There’s space for milling around without anyone getting under each other’s feet, for young children to beaver away at supervised homework, and for perching at the island with glass of wine chatting to the cook, who has every appliance to make life easy.

And bifold doors open it all to the solid wood terrace, part of which is beneath a removable canopy strung with LEDs and heaters, so you can eat al fresco come day or night, come rain or shine. How lovely and peaceful it all is, clematis climbing the beautiful, old orchard wall, bees and butterflies flitting from roses to hardy geraniums, from tall speedwell to kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate. The flowering cherry vies for attention with the weeping silver birch and the pretty sugar maple. Delightful!