Church Lane, Farndish, Bedfordshire, NN29

BEAUTIFUL 17TH CENTURY RECTORY, WITH 1.33 ACRES, ANNEXE, GARDEN SNOOKER ROOM WITH BAR, AND WONDERFUL VIEWS

A wisteria and honeysuckle-clad, Grade II-listed stone and part-thatched former rectory, with fabulous countryside views, at least 5 double bedrooms, a handmade kitchen and a superb, weatherboarded garden building that currently houses a full-sized snooker table and bar, and which could, if you prefer, become offices or a self-contained annexe. There are already rooms converted from a barn attached to the house that would make a great annexe, as well as rooms above the huge garage with ambitions to become a gym and shower room. On a no-through lane in the conservation area of the pretty village of Farndish, with over 5000 square feet of space in total and sitting alongside a beautiful, 12th century church, in one and a third acres of grounds, including a small paddock, Parsonage House must be many a person’s dream home.

Farndish is one of the area’s best-kept secrets. Tucked away on the Bedfordshire/Northamptonshire border, a quiet and peaceful, rural idyll that is nonetheless close to every facility and amenity, with easy access to major road and rail networks. Wellingborough station is just 4.5 miles away, from where fast trains reach London in 45 minutes. Rushden Lakes Shopping Centre is only 5 miles away. Podington Garden Centre and café and the famous Nags Head in Wollaston, a freehouse pub and restaurant where Rod Stewart and U2 once played, are less than 2 miles from your front door.

The lovely, little primary school, rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted, is also in Podington, with highly thought of private schools in Wellingborough, Kimbolton and Bedford. Not only is Farndish in the heart of beautiful walking and cycling country, it is also cider country. It is where the Saxby family press their award-winning range of ciders, with both a shop and taproom on their farm.

If it weren’t for Farndish, we might never have experienced the joy of the novels of H. E. Bates. It was here, on one of his nocturnal walks in the 1920s, that a light burning in a cottage window inspired him at the age of 19 to write his first novel, ‘The Two Sisters.’ Whatever one’s age, Parsonage House in this lovely, small village is an inspiring place to live.

MORE ABOUT THE PROPERTY 

Unused but still consecrated, St Michael and All Angels, with its pretty ironstone and limestone doorway, its font dating back to 1200 AD and its vibrantly coloured, stained-glass windows, watches over your new home.

Datestones suggest that Parsonage House was originally built in 1657 and altered in 1820. Many a rector has lived here since, including the Reverend Greville Chester, who was renowned for purchasing Egyptian antiquities for the British museum and Cambridge University’s Fitzwilliam.

This is the first opportunity for well over two decades for a new family to own what is thought to be the oldest house in Farndish. In that time, much work has been carried out, including recent rethatching and repairs, replacement and renewal of the wooden windows and the commissioning of the lovely, painted wood, handmade kitchen furniture, with its expensive Corian working surfaces, oak-topped island and underfloor heating, which runs throughout the kitchen and the hexagonal, timber and glass garden room.

And, of course, the fabulous, weatherboarded and pantiled, garden building, designed for the snooker and darts enthusiast yet, as with the room over the garage and various rooms in the house, it is your choice how you use it.

Create an annexe for grandparents there, if you wish, or in the converted barn, perhaps adding in the current dining room. You could make the snug, with its gorgeous inglenook, shutters, beams and panelling, said to have come from the church, into a dining hall; and still have the lovely sitting room, with its cosy woodburner. So many options.

From the illuminated, old bread oven aside the kitchen woodburner to the sloping-ceilinged guest bedroom and the current main bedroom suite, with its antique, cast iron fireplace, and up to the wonderful, beamed and vaulted-ceilinged bedrooms on the top floor, Parsonage House is brimming with character. Everyone has space to be alone, to work and study, yet there is so much family space, too.

This is a home that’s made for entertaining. It’s a home that’s exciting for children, inside and outside, to which they will be proud to invite friends. The southeast-facing gardens and paddock are teeming with nature and wonderful for animals, from dogs to ponies. Look forward to the beautiful spring blossom of the fruit trees and the spectacular courtyard cherry. Relax, with a glass of something alongside the roses, beneath the clematis and jasmine-clad pergola, gaze out at the glorious countryside, and toast your good fortune.