High Street, Codicote, Hitchin

Summary:
Bryan Bishop and Partners are delighted to bring to the market this charming two bedroom, three bathroom house forming a substantial part of a beautiful 18th Century country house ideally located at the end of Codicote High Street. Pond House is Grade II listed and has a wonderful history worthy of note, including doing its part as a military hospital during World War I. This is a retirement property offered on a long lease with a minimum age requirement of 50 years old, and offers a multitude of age appropriate benefits. Onsite is a residents’ lounge, a guest suite for visiting family and an alarm system directly connected to a 24 hour emergency monitoring company, along with open access to the surrounding well maintained communal grounds. This is an excellent way to maintain fully independent living, with a flat walk of just a few minutes into the heart of the village, yet enjoy social contact and a warm community spirit in a secure and monitored environment.

Accommodation:

Pond House has a wonderfully attractive and quite imposing frontage, with the impressive chimneys and aura of unimpeachable permanence underscoring the hundreds of years it has been gracing the High Street. Number 2 takes the central part of the main house, which gives it the pleasure of the grand main entrance and is arranged over three floors. Every room is simply glorious, and just bursting with period charm, laden with original features that have been lovingly retained and preserved during its conversion to the current format. High ceilings with ornate cornices and decorative ceiling roses complement the beautiful original fireplace and join the absolutely stunning solid oak staircase and decoratively tiled entrance hall floor to create an elegant interior worthy of any fine residence, yet all modern conveniences are also present and correct, making this the absolute best of both worlds for anyone who respects and values the past yet wants to live in luxurious comfort very much in the present.

The grand front door opens into a neat entrance hall, which then further opens into a magnificent reception room that runs alongside the stairwell before opening through glass double doors into a delightful rear facing garden room, that in turn opens through a pair of French doors into the sheltered gardens beyond. This space is too large to be thought of as a hallway and is currently giving great service as a grand dining hall, a thoroughly appropriate role that it is eminently suited for and clearly revels in. From the reception room/dining hall doors lead into the rear facing living room and the kitchen/breakfast room at the front, as well as opening into a perfectly placed ground floor shower room that doubles up admirably as a guest cloakroom.

The kitchen/breakfast room enjoys all of the wonderful timeless architectural grandeur of the rest of the house but is presented in a wonderful, bang up to date way with a modern fitted kitchen making fabulous use of the abundant space available. The perimeter walls are lined with a comprehensive array of wall and floor mounted cabinets that ensure more than ample storage will always be at your fingertips, complemented by a full collection of modern, premium quality, appliances integrated within. This is a large room of well balanced proportions, and so there is still plenty of open floor space remaining to place a generous dining table for casual everyday use.

The living room is quite simply stunning, with three nearly full height windows taking up the whole of the rear wall, allowing the natural daylight to fill the room whilst simultaneously giving lovely extended views over the well maintained gardens beyond. The opposite end of the room features a beautiful ornate fireplace, with a real flame gas fire of cast iron and brass at its centre and a delicately tiled insert with an intricately detailed mantel and surround proudly celebrating the incredible craftsmanship on display. This is a large room, both in length and width, as befits a house of this importance when it was built, which allows you plenty of free choice as to how you configure and furnish the space. Certainly it is easily large enough for multiple, grand scale, sofas and chairs as well as a number of other items of furniture whilst still leaving plenty of open floor area to ensure an easy and free flow in and around the space.

Below the staircase a door leads to a set of stairs down into a good sized basement room, which would be ideal for storage.

Up on the first floor there is a fabulous galleried landing elegantly skirting around the outer wall above the dining hall, beautifully lit by large windows overlooking the rear gardens. The two bedrooms are accessed from here, along with a neat walk-in storage room. Both bedrooms are comfortable doubles in size and both come complete with built–in wardrobes and en suite shower rooms.

Exterior:

There is easy access from the rear of the house into the well maintained communal gardens, beyond which is Pond Court, a modern retirement complex co-owned and managed along with Pond House, which offers a residents’ lounge and a guest suite, along with a thriving social community of like minded people to be enjoyed if and when you wish to.

Location:
This superb home is perfectly placed to benefit from the great amenities within Codicote Village, being positioned within the village just a short stroll from the high street. This ideal location also offers excellent connectivity, with J6 of the A1(M) reachable within a few minutes drive, and Welwyn North, Knebworth, and Stevenage train stations all within a 15 minute radius, thereby offering a lovely semi-rural setting, yet still with exceptional links to both London and The North. The village itself boasts a variety of amenities, including a butcher's shop, restaurants, pubs, a chemist, convenience stores, dry cleaners and bakers. as well as the Codicote C of E primary school judged "Outstanding" by Ofsted.