High Street, Greenfield, Bedfordshire, MK45

WONDERFUL TUDOR FARMHOUSE, PERFECT FOR MULTI-GENERATIONAL LIVING - WITH LOVELY GARDENS

An exciting, former farmhouse in a Bedfordshire hamlet close to Flitwick and Ampthill, on over a third of an acre and with more than 3000 ft2 of space, including at least 5 bedrooms and a gorgeous kitchen. A wing of the house could easily be a self-contained ground floor annexe, to add to the guest suite. The detached garage has an office above and there’s extensive gravelled parking. Peaceful gardens with summerhouse, pond and wonderful weeping ash tree complete a special family home.

Roses, Wisteria and Virginia Creeper climb the beautiful, timber-framed brick walls towards the old clay-tiled roof of a picture-perfect home that you have no need of the wall plaque to tell you it must be listed as of special interest. It seems a privilege to be shown around Greenfield Farmhouse let alone to own it.

Your new home is only 1.5 miles across the River Flit from Flitwick station, with its fast trains to London in just over 40 minutes, and just 3 miles from the lively market town of Ampthill, with its shops, restaurants and pubs. Ampthill Park was Henry VIII’s favourite hunting place – he loved it so much that he locked up Katherine of Aragon in the castle there, remarkably at about the same time as the farmhouse was built.

Greenfield is linked to the adjoining villages of Flitton and Pulloxhill, a few hundred yards away. Flitton and Greenfield share a village hall, recreation ground and multi-use games area. The lovely little primary school is just along the road, and the world-renowned private schools in the County town of Bedford are only 12 miles away. Two pubs are within a short stroll, the 17th century Cross Keys in Pulloxhill having been in the hands of the same family for over half a century. There are historic churches in Flitton, Pulloxhill and nearby Silsoe, to where visitors flock to the magnificent 18th century mansion and gardens at Wrest Park.

Not for nothing is the hamlet called Greenfield. It’s in the heart of Greensand Country and the Flit Valley, surrounded by landscape, woodlands and wetlands that are rich in wildlife, and a haven for cyclists and walkers. It’s an enchanting place steeped in history - much like Greenfield Farmhouse.

MORE ABOUT THE PROPERTY

Given the quality of the construction of Greenfield Farmhouse, it was built for a yeoman of high social status. Originally a hall house, it centred around an open hearth in a hall that is now your sitting room and main bedroom, with smoke dispersing through a thatched roof. A fascinating study of the house and its evolution comes with the keys to your new home.

That evolution has seen the Georgian extension and, latterly, the incorporation of the dairy and stables into the home. Sections of greensand stone could be from an even older farmhouse, but the walls and some floors are mostly of a variety of beautiful bricks, which were used by wealthier people of the day. Different heights and styles of door, under some of which you must duck (or grouse), are also a story of the ages. Wonderful timbers, many with carpenters’ marks engraved as assembly instructions, tell their tales too.

As well-to-do as former owners were, they could never have dreamed of today’s luxury, not least in the kitchen, with its underfloor heating, superb, solid wood furniture, high-end appliances, and gorgeous granite.

The kitchen was once where the lovely utility is today; at another stage it was where you can now look forward to cosy winter evenings around the inglenook stove. Where once was the parlour, you can today entertain friends to dinner, logs ablaze in a fireplace with Victorian tiles as pretty as the Minton tiles of the iron-roofed former front porch are beautiful.

You have lovely bedrooms upstairs, of course, but multiple options are opened up for extended family living, for home working, and for guests, paying or otherwise, by the dairy and stable conversions (with the other, beautiful, beamed and vaulted-ceilinged sitting room between), and by the room over the clematis-clad garage - all with independent access to outside.

Tuck into barbecued food undercover on the perfectly private terrace. Children can play on the lawns, while you relax beside the lily pond, damselflies flitting over the water irises. Lounge outside the summerhouse, birdsong competing with the trickle of the waterfall. Wallow with glass of wine in the hot tub. A wonderful family home, inside and out, for young and old alike.