Church Road, Colmworth, Bedfordshire, MK44

A MAGNIFICENT FORMER RECTORY AND SEPARATE COTTAGE ON A PART-MOATED SITE, WITH GORGEOUS GARDENS AND WONDERFUL VIEWS

An impressive, Grade II-listed, 6-bedroom, former rectory, which comes with the separate Coachman’s Cottage, barns, stables - complete with their original stalls - double garage and glorious south-facing gardens backing onto fields. With 3,700 square feet in the main house and on a part-moated 1.6-acre site, The Old Rectory is approached through electric gates and a circular drive that sweeps around a magnificent cedar tree, with the hexagonal spire of the Church of St Denys forming a remarkable backdrop.

The timber-framed cottage, which is, presumably, older than the main house, together with the gardener’s barn and the former coach house and stables, currently used as stores and workshop, is on the opposite side of the main house to the church. As beautiful inside, with its heavily beamed and vaulted ceiling, as it is outside, the cottage provides all manner of options - for family, for renting out, or as an amazing business premises.

Set in the heart of beautiful countryside, it’s easy to forget that Colmworth is within minutes of the A1, only 25 miles from Cambridge, and handily placed about 7 and 8.5 miles respectively from St Neots and Bedford, for fast trains to London from as little as 39 minutes, and for the county town’s world-renowned Harpur Trust private schools. Kimbolton School is just 7.5 miles away. The village is within the catchment area of the popular Kymbrook Primary School (rated Good by Ofsted) and has its own outstanding Puddleducks pre-school and nursery.

The Old Rectory’s next-door neighbour, the Church of St Denys, is at the heart of the friendly community, which is fortunate too in their village hall, playing fields and children’s play area, not to mention their lovely, community-owned country park and pond – a delightful amenity that’s just a couple of minutes away through your 5-bar gate and the fields at the bottom of your garden. Serious golfers have a challenging course on their doorstep too; the less serious can pitch and putt or simply relax at the 19th hole.

Set out along one of the ancient paths, passing pond and lake, stream and brook, to the medieval dam and the 15th century Plough at Bolnhurst - one of the finest inns and restaurants in the county within a Sunday stroll of one of its finest houses.

HISTORY

The Old Rectory, built of yellow Gault clay brick under a hipped slate roof, stands in its wonderful grounds in Church End, one of several ‘Ends’ within the ancient parish of Colmworth. The tree and hedgerow-lined Church Road forms a lovely approach, with fields on the west side and the historic centre of Colmworth to the east, with many of the other impressive, individual houses also being listed as of special interest.

The Old Rectory is to one side of the beautiful, Grade I-listed Church of St Denys (Manor Farm, parts of which are Jacobean, is on the other), to which it was, of course, linked for so long, probably until 1975. The Church was built in four years between 1425 and 1429 by Sir Gerard Braybrook, whose family seat was Colmworth. It is unique, with the tallest spire in Bedfordshire at 156 feet, and an alabaster and black marble monument to Sir William Dyer, engraved with Lady Katherine Dyer’s extraordinary love poem. Your new home has fine views of the church from many of its rooms, as well as from its gardens.

The exact date of The Old Rectory is not certain, but it’s on the site of other rectories, the previous one having been demolished in 1822. Moat House, as it was then called, was probably begun shortly afterwards, although a reference to it in 1839 stated “The Glebe House quite new, and nearly completed.”

Part of a moat remains as one of the boundaries to The Old Rectory; it’s interesting that the peak period for moated sites was between 1250 and 1350, the majority intended for prestigious residences as a status symbol rather than as a military defence. In 2016, the Rectory Society was formed by Lord Charles Moore and other famous rectory owners to celebrate “the highest standard of ordinary domestic architecture, and often of gardens, of any genre of buildings in the world.” Your new home is no exception.

MORE ABOUT THE PROPERTY 

As soon as you set eyes on the handsome main house, under the watchful gaze of the church, it’s clear that The Old Rectory is an exceptional property. And the moment you step beneath the portico and its balcony, through double doors into the hallway, its beautiful, tiled floor stretching the entire depth of the house, and the elegant staircase rising to the lovely landing, there’s no doubt that inside is as special as the outside.

The house has seen changes, its domestic quarters having been re-fashioned, but tall skirtings and corniced ceilings, Georgian architraves and internal doors complete with rising butt hinges, remain throughout. Natural light pours in through tall, sliding sash windows, many with their original shutters, and with opening panels below those in both sitting rooms, which extend the rooms out to the terrace.

It's no coincidence that the house has its formal rooms on the side from where you can see the church. Whether or not you open the sitting and dining rooms to each other, you can entertain in style.

Guests will be only too happy to stay in beautiful bedrooms, each with a lovely outlook, and one with a balcony that you might not be able to resist keeping as your study. The bathrooms, with their expensive, Bateig stone and high-end fixtures, and the kitchen, with its granite-topped, in-frame, Shaker furniture, Siemens appliances and Jerusalem Gold limestone, refuse to outshine their surroundings yet ooze understated style.

Like the second sitting room, with its cosy woodburner, the kitchen, with its rare, refurbished AGA, is a joy to spend time in come wintertime. And on summer days, it’s impossible to imagine gardens that you’d rather be in, too. Lawns and wooded areas will keep children amused for hours and keen gardeners can exercise their green fingers to their heart’s content. There can be no better place to eat al fresco than on the wonderful terrace, beneath the vine-bedecked pergola, surrounded by sweet-scented lavender, with roses and clematis climbing the beautiful, old garden wall, wisteria adorning the house, and the stunning church in the foreground. Quite some setting. Quite some home.