Packers Hill, Holwell, Sherborne, DT9

Coombe House has a lovely, private setting as one of a small group of house, set back about 40 yards from the passing lane behind a belt of trees. The core of the house dates from about the time of the English Civil War when it was built as a “plague house” entirely separate from the original part of the village, which had succumbed to an outbreak of bubonic plague. The house was enlarged and remodelled in 1901 at the dawn of the Edwardian era and has retained many of the architectural fittings from that time. These include a charming front porch with an original Victorian tiled floor, two bay windows, one of which is fitted with a window seat, several feature fireplaces throughout the house and an open, working fireplace in the study. The house has two storeys plus a suite of converted attics and is built of painted brick under a plain clay tile roof. It has served as the much loved home of the current owners for the past ten years and has sufficient and flexible accommodation to handle a large family. The ground floor has four reception rooms enabling both parents to work from home. It also includes a good sized and centrally positioned sitting room equipped with a wood burning stove that sits adjacent to the large kitchen/breakfast room to form a wonderful family hub at the centre of the house. The kitchen is well-lit by natural light flowing in through a rooflight and through bi-fold doors that look out onto the garden. Upstairs there is a total of five double bedrooms, all of which look out across the grounds to the surrounding countryside beyond. The four bedrooms on the first floor are supplemented by a central, walk-through seating area that can double as an occasional sixth bedroom if required. Also on the first floor is the family wet room equipped with a freestanding bath and separate shower. The attics have recently been converted to create a fifth double bedroom plus an adjacent wet room.

The property is approached via a gravelled driveway that opens out into a good-sized parking area immediately in front of the house. It then continues along one side of the house and emerges to a further parking area behind. On one side of it is an attached outbuilding with through access to the garden and incorporating a garden store, machinery store/workshop plus two further store rooms. The rest of the garden and grounds extend out on the other side of house and attached outbuilding. The garden and grounds around the house encompass a level lawn fringed by two areas of decking, one of which is beside a small lily pond, several fruit trees, a further brick-built garden store and a grassed area with a greenhouse bound by tall, mature hedging for shelter that was formerly a kitchen garden. Between the garden and the front parking area is a hard tennis court that has been resurfaced with tarmac to provide an enclosed, hard surface play area but would need to be resurfaced again with an appropriate material if required for its original purpose. The current owners were considering converting this to an all-weather manège. Beyond the garden is a level paddock of about two acres bound by stock proof fencing. Beside it is a small pole barn incorporating two further lean-to stores, one of which currently serves as a log store.

Coombe House backs onto unspoilt countryside and is set back off a lane passing through the small village of Holwell, which has a parish church, village hall and nursery school. The village lies between the larger villages of Bishops Caundle and King's Stag, which both have a pub and garage and the former also has a village shop/post office and popular, highly rated primary school. The Abbey town of Sherborne is only about fifteen minutes' drive away for nearly all day to day needs, with a wide selection of shops and local businesses including Sainsbury's and Waitrose supermarkets. For wider requirements the larger towns of Yeovil and Dorchester are both within a reasonable driving distance. Local transport links are good with the A303 and A30 main arterial roads are both close at hand, Sherborne has a direct rail service to Waterloo taking about two and a quarter hours and Bournemouth International Airport and Exeter Airport are both about an hour's drive away with flights to UK and international destinations. The local area has a wide choice of schools from both state and independent sectors. The house is within the defined catchment area for the well-regarded Gryphon School in Sherborne for state secondary education and there are several popular independent schools within the wider local area such as Leweston, the Sherborne schools, Milton Abbey, Hanford and Clayesmore.