High Street, Stagsden, Bedfordshire, MK43

BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL 19TH CENTURY HOME, WITH ANNEXE AND FAR-REACHING VIEWS

Complete with separate 1-bedroom barn conversion, Manor Cottage is a wonderful, 4-bedroom stone home, the sheer beauty of which stops you in your tracks. With lovely gardens, gravelled parking for at least 4 cars and super views toward the golf course, it overlooks Stagsden village green and has planning in place to convert a second barn, which is currently a garage and workshop.

For a rural Bedfordshire village, Stagsden could barely be better placed, just 4.5 miles and 10 minutes from the County town, home to the world-renowned Harpur Trust private schools and from where fast trains reach London in under 40 minutes. You can zip round on the A422 to Milton Keynes in just 20 minutes and Luton Airport on the A6 and A421, just 25 miles away. The catchment schools in Bromham and Biddenham, both rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted, are only 2.5 and 4 miles away respectively.

Yet there’s so much in Stagsden itself, the sense of community emphasised by a wonderful village sign carved by a villager and surrounded by raised beds from where you can help yourself to herbs. There are thriving allotments and a village hall which hosts all manner of events, including pop-up pub.

The beautiful, Grade I-listed, 13th century Church of St Leonard is just across the lane, as is Brown’s Farm Shop where you can treat yourself to coffee and cake, and choose from a fine selection of meats, cheeses and vegetables. If you’re a keen golfer, the oldest course in the county, complete with 19th hole overlooking the18th Green, just happens to be in the village, less than a mile’s stroll from your front door. Moreover, the village is blessed with its fair share of wonderful, circular countryside walks.

Manor Cottage was once three, built in 1855 for workers on Manor Farm just across the lane. Each cottage had a scullery and living room downstairs and a large bedroom upstairs. Arches on the landing give you an idea of the thickness of the walls that separated them. The annexe and garage were then washrooms, coal stores and privies. How amazed those workers would be to see the superb family home that their cottages have become today.

MORE ABOUT THE PROPERTY

Take a moment to admire your new home - cast iron diamond-patterned windows set into rose-clad stone walls beneath the decorative rows of the old clay-tiled roof and its striking chimneys. So beautiful!

Step inside onto the original quarry-tiled floor which runs through a hall large enough to sit and wait, impatiently, with your dog, for tardy members of the family to be ready for that countryside walk; into the lovely room that’s itself waiting, maybe, to have its fireplace opened and, certainly, for many happy gatherings with friends over dinner; and through one of the many lovely, ledged and braced doors into a kitchen and breakfast room that stretches the entire depth of the house, with granite-topped island and hand-built Shaker furniture painted in Farrow & Ball, a room that, whatever changes you might like to make here, is always likely to remain the hub of the home.

Yet you also have, on the other side of the house, a similarly spacious, and very peaceful, sitting room, also with multifuel stove primed to welcome you back from that winter walk with a roaring log fire.

At the top of the staircase, itself distinctive, individual bedrooms that are everything you want – all a great size with oodles of character, some with Victorian, Falkirk fireplaces and all with a super outlook to wake up to, whether across the village toward the church or over countryside toward the golf course. And as well as the shower rooms, a beautiful bathroom, with wonderful, claw-foot cast iron bath in which to wash the cares of the day away.

And the beautiful, beamed and vaulted-ceilinged annexe? Ideal for an elderly parent, but perfect, too, for Airbnb, with particularly private courtyard for summer breakfasts and evening glass of wine, Jasmine-clad arbour at one end, fragrant honeysuckle arch at t’other, lovely rose climbers between - you’ll be fully booked. And the family can enjoy the wonderful outdoor space at the front, its bee-friendly borders, Hawthorn and Mirabelle Plum trees in one corner, Green Ash in the other, an unusual Japanese Dogwood tree to the side. Young apple trees on the green are ready to burst into blossom come Spring. A delightful garden for an exceptional home.