Burton Street, Marnhull, Sturminster Newton, DT10

The Grange is a striking and fully refurbished family home offering six double bedrooms, each with an ensuite or adjoining bath/shower room, a self-contained ground-floor annexe, garaging, a heated swimming pool and a hard tennis/pickleball court.

By the mid to late 19th century, Marnhull had become a favoured destination for prosperous returnees from the colonies, and the village developed an unusually high number of substantial houses. Set just off Burton Street, The Grange is one of these distinguished properties. Built of local sandstone with characteristic Ham stone dressings, it rises over two main storeys with a superb suite of attic rooms above and a cellar beneath the kitchen. The home has been with the current owner for 15 years, during which time it has been comprehensively refurbished to a high standard. Today it offers an inviting, light-filled interior with generously sized, well-proportioned rooms. The two principal reception rooms, the kitchen/breakfast room and five of the six double bedrooms all face south-west, looking out over the grounds towards open countryside.

Inside, the house features several fine fireplaces, quality joinery, moulded coving, window seats, and beautiful stone and timber flooring. Storage is plentiful, with numerous fitted wardrobes and cupboards, and the kitchen is a standout space, fitted with handmade painted timber units and a four-oven AGA. The first floor contains four double bedrooms, with two further doubles in the attic. Each bedroom has its own ensuite or adjacent bath/shower room, and the main bedroom also includes an ensuite dressing room that can double as an occasional bedroom.

The property has four entrances from Burton Street: two vehicular, giving access to parking at the front and rear; and two pedestrian gates, one leading to the service courtyard beside the boot room, the other providing dedicated access to the ground-floor annexe. The gardens and grounds extend to just under 2.75 acres, wrapping around three sides of the house and backing onto unspoilt countryside, which ensures a strong sense of privacy. Created and landscaped from scratch by the current owner, they now form an ideal setting for the house.

A broad terrace with a fountained lily pond runs along the rear façade, offering an attractive space for outdoor entertaining or quiet summer afternoons. From here, wide stone steps lead up to a level lawn, framed by a sequence of ?garden rooms?. These include a heated swimming pool and pool room set within a hedged crab-apple orchard, an arboretum of specimen trees, a small wildflower meadow, an apple orchard, a hard tennis/pickleball court, a hornbeam avenue, a kitchen garden with store, raised beds and a soft-fruit cage, a stand of cedars featuring a tree house, and a row of mature willows marking the rear boundary.

The Grange is situated on the edge of the village of Marnhull, which is an active community with excellent amenities including three churches, village hall, two primary schools, GP surgery/pharmacy, garage, two pubs and several local shops (see day to day needs can be met in the nearby towns of Sturminster Newton, Gillingham and Shaftesbury. There are direct rail services from Gillingham to Waterloo (2 hours) and from Castle Cary to Paddington (90 minutes), with Bristol, Bournemouth and Exeter airports all within a reasonable driving distance. Dorset, particularly the local area around Marnhull, is renowned for its wide choice of excellent schools from both the state and independent sectors. Gillingham School for secondary education is highly regarded attracting many privately educated Sixth Form students and there are many independent schools nearby. Those within a 10-mile radius include Port Regis, Clayesmore, Hanford, the Sherborne schools, Knighton House and Bryanston.