Silver Street, Stevington, Bedfordshire (with Garden Studio), MK43

PEACEFUL VILLAGE OASIS WITH AN OUTSTANDING OUTLOOK - ONLY 5 MILES FROM BEDFORD STATION

An energy-efficient, beautiful, oak-framed home, with incredible views and two gorgeous double bedrooms. A detached garden office can also be used as a guest bedroom, and wonderful, air-conditioned and underfloor-heated, open-plan living space includes a superb AGA kitchen. Stone walls enclose three sides of the gardens, the car port and extensive gravelled parking, and the third of an acre plot provides plenty of space for any future extension. Standing well off a quiet country lane within the conservation area of the delightful North Bedfordshire, riverside village of Stevington, Bull Barn is quite a find.

Stevington is within easy reach of main roads to make travelling a breeze, yet far enough away to escape constant traffic noise. The County town of Bedford, with its fast trains to London in 40 minutes and its world-renowned Harpur Trust private schools, is barely more than five miles away. Catchment schools are about 2.5 miles from your front door in Bromham and Oakley, both rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted. There’s a great bus service, including the Villager minibus, to various destinations, such as Olney market town.

Pop down the lane to the Royal George for a pint of real ale and their famous rack of ribs. Wander past the ancient cross to the Holy Well below the Saxon Church of St Mary, both alluded to in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Stevington is also home to Kathy Brown’s Gardens - “a cornucopia of British flora and fauna” - as well as an award-winning community shop in The Church Room, where you can stock up each day and occasionally meet friends for coffee and croissants. In the other direction, the playing fields and play park are at the village hall, which hosts the WI and other groups, as well as a popular cinema club.

Your new home is surrounded by beauty. Let yourself out of your side gate to a lovely field walk across little bridges to Stevington Windmill, the only complete windmill in the county, which you can see from your garden. On the other side of the lane a footpath takes you to paddocks of horses, alpacas and goats; yet another circular walk to the beautiful bluebell wood. And you can join the boat club, on a part of the Great Ouse that’s said to be “as beautiful as any stretch of river in England and very popular with fishermen”. Both home and location are simply wonderful.

MORE ABOUT THE PROPERTY

As your five-bar wooden gate slides open at the touch of a button and you turn off the country lane between immaculately lime-pointed tall, stone walls - complete with your own Elizabethan post box - any cares of the day melt away. Masses of sweet-scented lavender, along with beautiful wisteria, a young oak, an evergreen eucalyptus and a row of spring-blossoming plum and apple trees – all of which will mature to ensure even greater privacy - welcome you home as you pull under the car port.

Even a glance at the house, with its oak cladding and slate roof, leaves you wishing that all new homes were built with such care for design and beauty. For though it sits in perfect harmony with its surroundings as if it’s a conversion of an agricultural barn, all you would have seen here little more than ten years ago were cows – apart from a bull, the heavy, ringed stone that hung around his neck to keep him in order now taking pride of place in the front sitting area as a reminder of who gave your new home its name.

And as you step through the stable door into your boot room, with its oak bench storage, and onto the limestone flags of your fabulous, open-plan living space, you realise that, if anything, Bull Barn is even more beautiful inside.

This is where old-fashioned craftsmanship meets modern-day style. Where the oak and glass staircase leads to lovely vaulted-ceilinged, timbered, bedroom suites, with their stylish bathrooms; and where your beautiful, antique dressing table sits happily between bespoke wardrobes. Fall asleep beneath the stars and wake up to wonderful views from the glass Juliet balcony of countryside, copse and natural pond – and of the wildlife that shares it all with you.

The gorgeous, exposed oak frame is complete with carpenter’s markings echoing centuries-old timber-framed houses; and with protruding pegs, so pretty at Christmas strung with decorations, complementing three young Christmas trees outside awaiting the annual light switch-on.

Cook with the magnificent electric AGA, in the oak-topped, Shaker, painted-wood kitchen, with its double Belfast sink. Breakfast at the island. Dine with friends at the table. Relax in front of the stylish Jotul stove in winter, or in the area that opens in summertime through both French and bifold doors to the decked terrace; and to your outdoor office set within a southeast-facing, mini orchard of apple, pear and plum trees - with the most glorious outlook across conservation area fields to the windmill. A peaceful idyll.