Westfield Road, Oakley, Bedfordshire, MK43

SPECIAL COUNTRY HOME, WITH REMARKABLE GARDENS, POOL AND SEPARATE FLAT OVER EXTENSIVE GARAGING

An outstanding village home of nigh on 5000 square feet, surrounded by fields and around 2.5 acres of its own beautiful gardens, with 4 bedrooms in the main house and one in a lovely guest flat above a 4-car garage. Approached via a no through, tree-lined lane in the historic, Bedfordshire, riverside village of Oakley, and along its private, gated drive through one of the most delightful front gardens you’re ever likely to see, Fox Covert not only has a heated, outdoor pool, but a wonderful, walled pond, too. It’s little wonder that the same family has lived here for over four decades.

Despite living in such a beautiful rural environment, you’re less than four miles from the county market town of Bedford, with its world-renowned Harpur Trust private schools and fast trains to London in 40 minutes. You’re spared the traffic noise, but you can be on the A6 in a couple of minutes, and at Luton Airport, only 25 miles away, in less than 40. Moreover, Oakley is roughly 15 miles equidistant of Milton Keynes and Rushden Lakes Shopping Centres. A choice of supermarkets, as well as the Brewpoint Brewery, Taproom & Beer Garden, are just 3 miles away.

For a small village, however, Oakley has a remarkable number of facilities of its own. How lovely to be able to walk with the children to schools for all ages, from kindergarten to 6th Form, rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ in all areas; to pop along the lane to the Bedford Arms, a highly thought of 18th century inn and restaurant; and to the shop and post office. How delightful to wander to Sunday service at St Mary’s, to know that there’s always something going on at the village hall, and for children to meet up with friends at the scout hut or the playing fields.

Play golf and pick up the Sunday joint from the farm in the adjoining village of Pavenham. Bromham surgery is just five minutes away. The Ouse Valley cycle route is on your doorstep, and your dog will love to take you along the River Great Ouse beyond Oakley’s historic twin bridges. Fox Covert is quite something.

MORE ABOUT THE PROPERTY 

Many a person might have wandered down the quiet no through lane and cast an envious glance towards Fox Covert through its iron gates at the end of its long, granite sett and pink sorrel-lined, winding drive; at the sea of daffodils, bluebells and Glory-of-the snow, punctuated by wonderfully shaped and maintained roses, beneath magnificent bird-filled oak, sycamore, cedar and weeping silver birch trees.

Indeed, many children have been lucky enough to have been invited into its delightful fairy garden at the front, or even to exercise their imagination in ‘Ivy Cottage’ at the back. Passing a fox eyeing hens, all in topiary form, they’ve spotted wild ducks paddling across the pond and koi swimming languidly beneath the lilies, the waterfalls, fed in their sustainable way by rain from the roofs, cascading like the beautiful willow ever downwards.

These magical gardens, watered from their own borehole, are a joy for children, yet they’re designed for entertaining, too. Fox Covert has hosted many a function, with gazebos set up and guests wandering glass in hand past multiple, shaped box and yew, around the formal rose garden to the side and the parterre at the back, and beneath the beautiful, 100-foot-long, rose-clad pergola promenade towards the giant silver urn.

Pool parties, lit up at night, sheltered by surrounding glass that doesn’t hide the pretty roses, are enjoyed by adults and children alike, who change either in the stone and thatched pool house, or in the summerhouse - where there’s even a useful loo.

And if all that wasn’t enough, the house and gardens are surrounded by fields, an ever-changing landscape, sometimes of sheep, cows and horses, sometimes of gold, always wonderfully peaceful. Guests of any age love to come to Fox Covert. But what a place to live.

With such uplifting, joyful surroundings, and numerous peaceful arbours to enjoy them from, you’d be forgiven for missing quite how attractive your new house is, with its decorative tile detail and plunging roof lines, and roses climbing its lovely red brick walls.

Separate garaging, built in keeping of course, houses not one but four cars behind electric doors, while the lovely, vaulted-ceilinged flat above accommodates guests. It could even earn an income, and if you prefer it to be fully self-contained, there’s plenty of space for a kitchen. It would make a great office, too, or entertainment space - or both. It’s your choice how you use it.

You have plenty of versatile space in the main house, too. Your oak-floored sitting room stretches the entire depth of the home, natural light pouring through windows on three sides slung with expensively gorgeous silk drapes, its lovely, curved corner looking out over the rose garden and fields. In wintertime, swap the candles, perhaps, for logs and slump on the sofa in front of a roaring open fire.

Through an open arch, the dining table seats at least ten, the room extending through French doors onto the sandstone terrace, undercover and bedecked with pretty clematis. Whatever the weather, whatever the time of year, Fox Covert is made for entertaining.

Yet this is a fabulous family home first and foremost. Where your utility room is as large as many a kitchen – and comes complete with a full-height wine cooler. Where you can rustle up meals in your terracotta-floored kitchen, with its bespoke painted furniture, while chatting to hungry children around the breakfast table. And through another open arch relax with the papers in the day room. – or you can open it up as one, perhaps.

It’s a home where you can escape to the impressive study, with its handsome, bespoke Mark Wilkinson furniture - and outside coffee area. Where even the galleried landing provides a lovely, peaceful reading spot. And where you have super bedrooms, not least the prettily decorated, vaulted-ceilinged main suite, all with fabulous views to wake up to over those gardens and surrounding countryside. Just wonderful!