Dene Cottages, Ropley, SO24 0BJ

*OPEN DAY VIA APPOINTMENT ONLY SUNDAY 19TH APRIL - PROCEEDABLE BUYERS ONLY* The 1866 Family Home That Kept Getting Better - With Plenty Of Scope To Write The Next Exciting Chapter. The barn beams, log burners and south-facing field views are here. So is the gorgeous modern kitchen and funky 1950's dining room. So do you build something new at the side?

A fabulous family home like Dene Cottages happens because the right people keep arriving at the right time - each one adding something that lasts. Whether that's a 24ft sitting room lined with 1920s panelling salvaged from a Teddington laboratory library, or a sleek and stylish 2023 kitchen with quartz surfaces. 

The result is a house with genuine layers to it - and a character that no new build will ever replicate.

Truthfully, you probably won't want to change very much inside. But the 27m plot running to the side is worth a conversation of its own. 

There’s enough space to build something substantial. An annexe, a separate workspace or a new home entirely. Worth a chat with a planning consultant or the neighbours (who’ve done something similar on the other side) before you see this as “just” a four bedroom family home.

The sitting room is the warm and welcoming heart of the home. Barn beams run overhead, a log burner sits in the original brick fireplace, and the whole space stretches nearly 25 feet - long enough to zone comfortably into a proper seating area and somewhere for the pool table that currently lives there (which can stay, subject to negotiation). 

At one end, the original 1866 reception room - complete with its own log burner - makes a natural study or snug.

The kitchen is the kind of stylish space that stops the conversation when people walk in for the first time. Gloss dark cabinetry runs the full length, with quartz surfaces, an induction hob, plate warmer, two Lamona ovens and a dishwasher. 

There’s parquet flooring with underfloor heating running beneath it. And then through the oak-framed opening is the dining room -  with a 1950’s Americana black and white chequerboard floor, red retro chairs, coloured pendants overhead and three windows looking straight out over open farmland. 

It's bold, it's fun, and it works completely on its own terms.

Outside, the garden faces pretty much due south - with a decent lawn with a patio off the dining room, and those field views running away behind the fence. The farmer grows crops out there in the spring and summer and brings the sheep over in winter. 

Upstairs, the main bedroom is a good size with an ensuite shower room, and three further bedrooms, a second en suite and a family bathroom refitted in 2023. There's also a space on the landing currently used as a home office - with field views that might make it genuinely hard to concentrate. There is also a large loft which is part boarded.

Then there's the triple garage. Deep, powered, with an electric door on one bay - and sitting on that same generous plot that makes the development conversation so interesting.

You’ll find village amenities just up the road in Ropley - including a shop, post office, and community hall - whilst Alresford’s Georgian high street is only a 10 minute drive away. 

Ropley CofE Primary School is rated “Good” by Ofsted and is less than a 5 minute drive away. Older kids will have to travel a little further to the Perins School in Alresford (another “Good” school).

If you prefer independent, fee paying schools there are several nearby, including Twyford Preparatory School, St Swithun's School for Girls in Winchester, Winchester College and Bedales near Petersfield.

For commuters, Alton, Winchester and Petersfield all offer direct rail links to London - the train journey taking around an hour.

This is a traditional family home built up and adapted over 160 years, with a 2023 kitchen, solar panels keeping the electricity bills low, and a plot alongside that could make this an even more interesting purchase than it already is.

Get in touch to arrange a viewing - we're expecting plenty of interest.