Westfield Road, Oakley, Bedfordshire, MK43

MODERN FAMILY LIVING WITH WONDERFUL COUNTRYSIDE VIEWS. IN A PEACEFUL SPOT OF A RIVERSIDE VILLAGE FULL OF FACILITIES

A superb, extended, 5 or 6-bedroom, modern home in an exclusive tree-lined, no through lane of the lovely, historic, North Bedfordshire village of Oakley, with a double garage and in-out driveway parking for numerous cars. Backing onto fields and with fabulous balcony and garden views of horse paddocks and countryside, Old Oaks must be many a family’s dream.

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. Both home and village are made for families.

MORE ABOUT THE PROPERTY 

Whatever the trials of the day, the moment you turn into the tree-lined lane that leads only to the farm at the end, it’s difficult not to feel uplifted. Pootling past other individual houses, old and new, to Old Oaks, welcomed by a pretty, pink Acer and an unusual, yellow Kowhai, unofficially New Zealand’s national plant, not to mention a magnificent neighbouring magnolia, that feeling is only enhanced.

Moreover, waking up in any of numerous bedrooms, the outlook makes you want to spring out of bed each morning. It’s one thing to look over to the nature-filled woods at the front, but at the back, not least in your main suite, it’s simply glorious.

This is a bedroom that’s large enough for a sofa; it has a shower room complete with twin basins; and it has a balcony – slide open the glass door and sit out awhile with morning coffee, birdsong filling the air, gazing out as far as the eye can see past one of the trees that gave your new home its name, to fields, manège and horses in their paddocks, and contemplate your good fortune. What a way to start the day.

Old Oaks must be one of the most versatile of homes. Two of the bedrooms are currently his and hers dressing rooms. Off the spacious, porcelain-floored entrance hall, a room designed as a study is currently used as a gym, the family room as a games and play room, and you still have a lovely sitting room stretching the entire depth of the house, with one end opening to the garden in summertime and with a modern inglenook to welcome you home from that long winter walk down by the river.

It’s your choice how you use all the rooms, yet there’s no doubt about the hub of your new home. Cook, dine and relax with the papers in the superb, open-plan kitchen, with its quartz-topped, handleless furniture, electronic Neff appliances and its hugely attractive, reassuringly expensive, Amtico oak floor. And fold back the doors to open the entire corner of the room for that summer party or to eat out on the porcelain terrace. Or pour an iced drink from the American fridge/freezer and simply relax here or on the decking by the 5-bar wooden gate at the bottom of the garden, while the children play on the lawn. What an environment this is for family life.