Station Road, Hindolveston, Norfolk

With its pastoral location and pretty façade, this light-filled three-bedroom cottage is a picturesque sight. Despite its Victorian heritage, there is a contemporary feel to its carefully articulated semi-open plan, finished in warm, natural tones. Despite its secluded feel, Hindolveston is a short drive from many of north Norfolk’s charming towns and outstanding coastlines, including the golden expanse of Holkham Beach.

Setting the Scene

Sitting pretty beneath warm terracotta pantiles, the cottage is in keeping with the local vernacular style, with its dollhouse-like rendered brick frontage and gabled dormer windows. It is something of an atypical Victorian cottage, however, with its generous windows and southern aspect that make the most of the broad surrounding landscape. It was this topography that inspired the proto-impressionist painters of the Norwich School, with its seemingly endless array of heaths, broads, beaches, woodlands and harbours.

Grand Tour

Originally a concise cottage built in the mid-19th century, this house on Station Road (which predates the now-defunct railway station that lends the street its name) has been the subject of a series of extensions and interventions that have expanded and rationalised the small, agricultural farm cottage. Modernisations have included the addition of double-glazing throughout the house.

Part of the 1980s scheme of works, the kitchen and dining room run along the western side of the plan. Here, shaker-style units are topped with a beech worktop, its warm tones echoed in the original Norfolk pamment floor underfoot. The dining area is grounded by basketweave parquet flooring and has French doors that open to the greenery of the garden.

The character of the original building is evident in the living room, where a fireplace dating to the 1850s has been fitted with a Heta woodburner. Large and south-facing windows brighten the space, sustaining a wonderful connection with the garden. This continues in the adjacent mono-pitched study, where the sudden height of the vaulted ceiling is broken up by exposed timber rafters. The refined palette of natural materials continues in the spacious bathroom, complete with a shower and utility area.

Upstairs are three equally bright and well-proportioned double bedrooms. The principal bedroom is lit by two elegant dormer casement windows with views over the rear garden and a large built-in wardrobe. The family bathroom has a generous free-standing bathtub and the same grey-painted timber floors that run across the first floor.

Great Outdoors

The cottage is surrounded by well-maintained and classically structured gardens. To the front, an area of lawn is currently home to a series of productive raised beds, a shed and a garden studio. This convenient and flexible working space, from Crane Garden Buildings, is insulated and wired and has wonderful views over the neighbouring field where cows graze in the summer months. When viewed from the house, this area of the garden is set against a backdrop of mature trees teeming with birdlife: woodpeckers, and nuthatches are regular visitors.

The space to the rear is broken up into a lawned area interspersed with mature apple trees plus plum and cherry trees. It is bound by borders of perennials and shrubs, with a more formal gravelled garden closer to the house. Here, beds are filled with agapanthus, lavender, clematis and jasmine that sprawls onto the house itself along with a well-established wisteria that dresses the rear façade with its lilac blooms come May. The shade beneath the branches of an ancient oak tree makes for a lovely reading spot.

Hedges run around the roadside boundary, creating a sense of privacy.

Out and About

Set on the outskirts of Hindolveston, the cottage benefits both from an utterly rural location and a close connection with a village community. The village hall hosts a varied roster of events including a weekly bar, coffee morning, yoga classes and the village cinema. A small honesty shop is well stocked with local produce including eggs, vegetables, cakes, and meat from the neighbouring farm. For those looking to explore on foot there are footpaths from the door in all directions, with convenient links to the neighbouring villages of Briston and Melton Constable, each serviced by their own fantastic butcher’s.

The elegant Georgian town of Holt is a 15-minute drive, well known for its independent shops and cafés, the most idiosyncratic of which, Bakers and Larners department store, has a wonderful food hall. Charming country pubs can be found at the Earle Arms in the pretty village of Heydon, or the Hunny Bell in Hunworth. A little further afield is the popular Gunton Arms, a traditional pub with rooms located in one of the area’s fine historic parks.

The north Norfolk coast is nationally renowned for its astonishing beauty and there’s a variety of beaches on offer within a 30-minute drive; the shingle of Cley-next-the-sea or the vast expanse of Holkham beach, with sheltered walks through Corsican pines and rolling dunes. A coastal stroll at Cley and a stop afterwards for some smoked prawns at the Cley Smokehouse is a perfect itinerary for a Sunday. For a more traditional seaside town offering, Sheringham and Cromer have promenades and fish and chips aplenty.

Some 40 minutes’ drive away is Norwich, with its diverse range of cultural, sports, dining and shopping opportunities. The Sainsbury Centre is home to a world-class art museum set within the University of East Anglia, itself a striking brutalist playground designed by Denys Lasdun, and home to the groundbreaking ziggurat accommodation blocks.

For further inspiration, why not explore The Modern House’s guide to North Norfolk?

Council Tax Band: D