Harmans Cross, Swanage, Dorset

If you’re looking for the quintessential English cottage (plus an oportunity to build an additional 4 bedroom house) set in stunning gardens in the heart of Purbeck, this could be the perfect home for you. As you explore one enchanting room after another, the views from every window are breathtaking.

Stepping through the front door into the hallway, your eye is immediately drawn to the flower-filled gardens and hills beyond. Ahead of you is the charming SITTING ROOM; a large double aspect entertaining space with a big bay window with leaded lights looking out across the lawns. Another window looks to the flower-filled beds leading to the lodge, meaning this room is filled with light throughout the day. Conversly, the cosy fireplace and fitted bookshelves framing the room make this the cosiest of rooms on a winter’s night. A door opens out from here to the stone terrace, with steps down to the garden beyond.

Stepping back into the hallway, it flows around to reveal the DINING ROOM, with double aspect windows and a log burner on a Purbeck stone hearth. The current owners have a sizeable dining room table in here as well as a traditional sideboard. From here, another door leads to an inner hallway, off which doors open to the utility room, a useful storage cupboard, and the front garden. A further door opens into the quintessential country KITCHEN. With light flooding in from south and west-facing windows, it has a spacious feel. There is room for a large dresser as well as all of the units and appliances needed for contemporary living. A gothic-style door leads out to the garden and a secluded seating area.

The sleeping quarters are primarily on the ground floor, with the PRINCIPAL BEDROOM overlooking the rear gardens and rolling hills beyond. A south-facing window ensures it is flooded with light, and there is plentiful space for wardrobes, a chest of drawers and even a sofa. This room benefits from an ENSUITE BATHROOM with wash-hand basin, WC, bath with overhead shower and, of course, more beautiful views across a different aspect of the garden. To the front of the house is BEDROOM TWO, a pretty twin/double room with traditional windows opening out to flower beds and allowing in their floral scents. There is also a pretty GROUND FLOOR BATHROOM with bath, WC and wash-hand basin, and lots of natural light flooding in from a window overlooking the front gardens.

Tucked away from the main hall, a spiral staircase invites you up to spectacular BEDROOM THREE, which could equally be used as the main bedroom. The spacious layout includes two windows, one set in the sloping ceiling with views across the far hills. The other surrounds a sunken seating area where guests often sit and enjoy tea and a good book. This room also benefits from an ENSUITE SHOWER ROOM with wash hand basin, WC and walk-in shower.

In the garden is ‘LAPLAND LODGE’, which the current owners use as an enchanting guest house. At the heart of this is a magnificent fondue kitchen, which offers you the chance to snuggle up year-round looking out across a private deck to the ever-changing scenery beyond.

Outside
From every approach to April Cottage, you are welcomed into a world of scents, trees and gardens, which meander from one ‘garden room’ to a seating area, around a corner to another and so on.

April Cottage also has planning permission for an additional architect designed, contemporary 4-bedroom house, currently named Monterey House, to be built within is grounds. Access to the new house would be at the end of the existing drive and so have minimal impact on April Cottage.


The beautiful garden is front and center of April Cottage. With plentiful parking to the front, the house is framed by a typical English cottage garden, which includes mature planting, roses and stone terraces. The main lawn rolls down to views of open countryside and is sheltered by the graceful boughs of the Monterey Pine, where a swing seat is a favoured spot for guests of all ages. The current owners often serve breakfasts and dinners on the main lawn looking out to the hills beyond. To add to the charm, the steam train chuffs past regularly on its way to the seaside town of Swanage.

The house can also be approached from a separate driveway and GARAGE towards the rear. From this side, a wooden gate opens to a raised seating terrace looking out across the gardens beyond.

Investment
MONTEREY HOUSE

April Cottage has planning permission for an additional contemporary, architect-designed four-bedroom home, currently named Monterey House, to be built within its grounds. Access to the new house would be at the end of the existing drive and, so, would have minimal impact on April Cottage.

The current plans allow for a large SITTING / DINNING room with bi-fold doors opening out onto the south-facing garden, taking in expansive views. The adjoining KITCHEN is designed to accommodate all modern kitchen requirements including a breakfast bar, separate PANTRY and further bi-fold doors opening out to the garden. The raised position will afford it particularly spectacular views. To the rear of the house is a STUDY, WC and UTILITY. While the main staircase leads to the first floor sleeping accommodation, an additional staircase next to the DOUBLE GARAGE leads to an additional HOME OFFICE. The first floor includes a spectacular PRINCIPLE BEDROOM with ENSUITE, DRESSING AREA and magnificent views across Purbeck. BEDROOMS ONE and TWO are both spacious doubles with ENSUITES sharing the same views. BEDROOM FOUR is a larger room still, again with the same views, and is adjacent to a FAMILY BATHROOM.

Location
Harmans Cross has everything you could possibly hope for from a small Dorset village. The two petrol stations each have a convenience store and one also has a post office (where one never has to queue!). A short walk away is the village hall, which doubles up as a cinema, wedding venue, concert hall and occasional pub, much to the delight of the locals. It's in the grounds surrounding this that the impressive summer fete takes place, one of the main events in the Purbeck summer calendar. Next to this, a steam train stop offers regular and magical transport links to Swanage and Corfe Castle.

Corfe Castle offers more Dorset charm along with a school, bakery, shops, tea rooms and one of the top 10 GP surgeries in the country. The Victorian seaside town of Swanage has a super tennis club, plus a bowls and croquet club. It also provides all the amenities one needs, including a dentist; another surgery; two supermarkets; a variety of independent shops and restaurants; even a theatre. Swanage has an award-winning sandy beach - with children’s activities - and Studland Beach, with its famous four-mile stretch of sand, is a 20-minute drive away or can be reached by foot, bicycle or even boat.

A school bus stops right outside April Cottage, taking pupils to the Purbeck School. There is also a wide selection of excellent schools in nearby Swanage. There are numerous enviable walks with fabulous sea views straight from the cottage, along Burrow Down to Swanage and Studland. One can also walk to the oldest pub in Dorset, The Square & Compass, and to Corfe Castle and beyond.

Directions
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