High Street, Whitchurch, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP22

An Overview ... Cont.

The east side of the entrance hall accesses the drawing room which in turn has a door to the study. Further doors off the entrance hall open to a cloakroom, the butler’s pantry, and the dining room. Both the dining room and the pantry have doors to a rear lobby which accesses the second staircase, the sitting room and the breakfast room, which is open plan with the kitchen. The kitchen area in turn leads to the adjacent utility room. Leading off the first floor landing from the main staircase are a short and a longer passage, the latter reached via shallow stairs. The short passage has two doors, one leading to the principal bedroom suite with a bedroom with access to eaves storage, a dressing area, and an en suite bathroom, the other leading to the guest suite with an en suite shower room. The longer passage accesses four bedrooms, a cupboard, and the secondary staircase. An additional short passage accesses doors to the airing cupboard, the cloakroom, and the family bathroom.

Entrance Hall

A distinctive feature of the house is the limestone flagged entrance hall, accessed from the front via the panelled Georgian front door, which has an open fireplace with an original elaborately carved Adam style wooden surround. From the hall, an exposed pine staircase turns round the square open well to the first floor landing with a window over the rear garden. The classically inspired Edwardian staircase is panelled to dado height and has turned balusters supporting a moulded handrail, forming a gallery on the landing. A step down from the entrance hall accesses a cloakroom with two leaded casement windows with plantation shutters overlooking the courtyard. A door under the stairs accesses steps down to the over 11 ft. by 8 ft. brick lined wine cellar (cellar 2) with lighting.

Drawing Room

Two steps lead up from the entrance hall to a galleried wooden platform forming the base of the staircase, which leads into the Edwardian nearly 34 ft. by over 27 ft. double aspect sitting room. A focal point of the ground floor, the L-shaped room is naturally lit by a row of three 12-pane sash windows overlooking the side garden and another similar row overlooking the front. A French door opens to the side garden which has the original working shutters, as do all six windows. Beneath the windows overlooking the drive is a line of removable metal gratings with radiators underneath. The room has a stripped pine floor, echoing the colour of the pine staircase, and an Edwardian neo-classical open stone fireplace with a finely carved wooden surround.

Study

A panelled door leads off the drawing room into the study which measures nearly 24 ft. by 15 ft.; it has a casement window overlooking, and a French door opening to the garden. The stone fireplace has an Edwardian neo-classical surround housing a period wood burning stove, which has a fully lined flue. Accessed externally from the courtyard, is the brick-lined cellar 1, which is under the study and houses the oil-fired boiler for the house and swimming pool.

Dining Room and Butler's Pantry

In the 18th-century part of the house, the dining room has a period casement window overlooking the front. There is a fireplace with a marble inner and a neo-classical carved surround, on the right of which is an original built-in barrel-back alcove cupboard. This typically Georgian feature has an arched top with a carved scallop shell motif over display shelving above a cupboard. The rear lobby has a Georgian door to the courtyard and rear garden and features a servant’s folding table attached to the lobby wall close to the secondary stairs. The adjacent butler’s pantry has a limestone floor and with an internal full-height drinks cupboard with baize-lined shelves and double casement windows overlooking the courtyard; it connects to the main entrance hall.

Sitting Room

The over 12 ft. square sitting room, also in the old part of the house, has three later casement windows overlooking the courtyard. Functioning as an intimate room, similar to a family room or snug, this room has an open marble fireplace with a metal grate and an Edwardian painted cast iron surround. There another, later, arched alcove cupboard on the left of the fireplace with double doors beneath. The room has an early exposed timber ceiling beam.

Kitchen/Breakfast Room

The breakfast area of the open plan Kitchen/breakfast room is in the Georgian part of the house and has two period windows overlooking the drive and a smaller side window. The kitchen extension was added in the 60s or 70s and has a modern version of the period windows overlooking the drive. The entire open plan area has limestone flag flooring laid when the current owners fitted the Chalon kitchen. This bespoke kitchen has painted base and wall units, including glazed cabinets and plate racks, and contrasting marble worksurfaces with an inset double Belfast sink. There is a central island with storage beneath a solid wooden worksurface and a suspended pot rack above with inset lights and butcher’s hooks on bars. (An extractor is in the ceiling above). A four-oven oil-fired AGA is set in a mantelpiece with a moulded top. Integrated appliances include an induction hob in the island, an oven, and a microwave – all Miele. There is space for an American style fridge/freezer.

Utility Room

A glazed door opens to the roughly 8 ft. square room with a window overlooking and a partially glazed door to the courtyard. With the same floor as the kitchen, the utility room has base and wall fitted units with a double ceramic sink (with a water softener below) and space and plumbing for a washing machine and tumble drier and a built-in cupboard. There is loft access above and an Edwardian style pulley clothes airer.

First Floor

Principal Bedroom Suite

Shallow landing steps lead to a reading area with built-in bookshelves and then via an archway to the dressing room with two walls of floor-to-ceiling built-in wardrobes with hanging space and overhead storage. Further doors lead to the bedroom or the en suite bathroom. A panelled elliptical arch in the bathroom frames a bay of ceiling-height sash windows overlooking the rear garden with plantation shutters. In the bay is an authentic free-standing roll top bath with claw feet. A converted Edwardian chest of drawers has a marble top inset with twin oval basins. The WC and bidet are in keeping and there is a walk-in shower with a glass screen and stone effect tiles. The nearly 18 ft. by 16 ft. bedroom has a bay of three sash windows overlooking the rear. There is a Delft tiled fireplace with a neo-classical Edwardian cast iron surround and a built-in wardrobe from the same period. A window overlooks the side and a low door accesses extensive eaves storage.

Bedroom Two and En Suite Shower Rooms

These rooms also serve as the guest suite. Like the principal suite, the bedroom is in the Edwardian part of the house with associated high ceilings, and has two sash windows overlooking the garden with plantation shutters. The room measures nearly 18 ft. by over 11 ft. and has a period fireplace with built-in cupboards in the left alcove and low built-in shelving. A door leads to the en suite shower room which is partially tiled with a low-level WC, a matching pedestal basin, and a heated towel rail. There is a raised dormer window over the screen of the corner shower.

Bedrooms Six, Five and Four

These three bedrooms are in the Georgian part of the house. The smallest, bedroom six, measures nearly 11 ft. by over 9 ft. and has an early leaded casement window overlooking the drive above the front door. There are a corner wash basin and a period closed fireplace. Accessed off the passage, bedroom five, is slightly larger and measures over 14 ft. by nearly 8 ft. It has a pair of casement windows overlooking the rear garden and a built-in wardrobe with double doors. Bedroom four is a double room, on the opposite side of the passage from bedroom five and has casement windows overlooking the front. There is a wash basin set above built-in cupboards and a built-in wardrobe with double doors.

Bedroom Three and Family Bathroom

At the end of the passage, bedroom three, again in the 18th-century part of the house, has casement windows overlooking the front drive and measures 16 ft. by over 13 ft. It has built-in wardrobes along the end wall interrupted by a wash basin over low storage cupboards and under a decorative arch. The family bathroom makes interesting use of the space created by a dormer window overlooking the garden. Under the window is a WC with cupboards accessing eaves storage on each side, the area is reached via two steps, the lower of which creates a platform skirting the panel bath which has a curved hinged screen and a shower over. There is an outsize hand basin on decorative legs, a heated towel rail, and the walls are partially tiled.

Outbuildings

Old Stables Annexe

The brick under slate Victorian stable was converted to an annexe by the current owners in 2006. A stable door opens to the open plan, wooden floored kitchen/sitting room. The kitchen area has a circular window in the garden gable end above a stainless steel sink set in a granite worksurface with bespoke units beneath and an integrated fridge. The sitting area, currently used as a gym, has a fold-down pine table, reprising the table in the lobby, and two sets of folding doors which open the ground floor to the courtyard. A fully tiled shower room, with a walk-in shower, matching WC and basin, and a heated tower rail is next to a boiler room with a separate oil -fired boiler for heating and hot water with a quarry tiled floor. Modern stairs lead to the old hay loft bedroom with a vaulted ceiling, a casement gable end window overlooking the garden, and three dormer windows.

Potting Shed

Attached to the Old Stable annexe is a brick-built potting shed with a stable door, heating, lighting, and power connected.

Garage

At the front of the property is a purpose-built oak garage with a pitched roof and two sets of double doors opening to the drive. The garage has one internal space with a concrete floor, an area of boarded storage, and light and electricity connected. On the left is an open area under an extended roof for log storage.

Swimming Pool and Tennis Court

Set in the lawn of the rear garden is the approximately 20 ft. by 40 ft. swimming pool which is surrounded by block paving and has winter and summer covers. The timber pump house overlooks the swimming pool and contains the controls, the filter, and the pump; the pool heating runs off the boiler for the house in Cellar 1. The hard tennis court lies beyond the Mulberry tree and across the side lawn towards the copse.

Gardens

The house is approached via double gates in a stone wall which open to a gravelled drive leading to the garage and the front of the house. A second entrance off the lane has a block paved approach to double wooden gates, and a personnel gate, which open to the courtyard between the house and the annexe. The stone wall becomes a high period brick wall enclosing the garden from the lane. A York stone patio is adjacent to the rear of the house with a slate roofed shelter outside the butler’s pantry and over the Georgian garden door. This patio extends into a courtyard garden which is accessible from the annexe folding doors and is enclosed by a serpentine brick wall which retains established shrub beds and has steps to the lawn. As well as the wall, the lawned garden is enclosed by fences or hedging and the area is planted with trees, ensuring privacy in the swimming pool, one side of which has a bank planted with shrubs and perennial geraniums. The Georgian façade has (truncated)