High Street, Stagsden, Bedfordshire, MK43

FORMER COUNTRY INN, WITH WONDERFUL GARDENS, PADDOCK AND STREAM

A hugely attractive, 17th or early 18th century, Grade II-listed, 4/5-bedroom, detached and thatched cottage, with almost 3000 sq. ft. of space and over 2 acres of fabulous gardens and land stretching down to a stream, with countryside beyond. On the High Street of the historic, Bedfordshire village of Stagsden, with garage and extensive driveway parking, The White Horse is quite a place.

For a rural Bedfordshire village, Stagsden could barely be better placed, just 4.5 miles and 10 minutes from the County town, home to the world-renowned Harpur Trust private schools and the railway station from where fast trains reach London in under 40 minutes. Zip round on the A422 to Milton Keynes in just 20 minutes and, only 25 miles away, to Luton Airport on the A6 and A421. The catchment schools in Bromham and Biddenham, both rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted, are just 2.5 and 4 miles respectively.

Yet there’s so much in Stagsden itself, the sense of community emphasised by a wonderful village sign carved by a villager and surrounded by raised beds from where you can help yourself to herbs. There are thriving allotments and a beautifully restored 19th century village hall which hosts all manner of events, including pop-up pub.

Wander along the lane to the Grade I-listed, 13th century Church of St Leonard and to Brown’s Farm Shop, where you can meet friends for coffee and cake, and choose from a fine selection of meats, cheeses and vegetables. If you’re a keen golfer, the oldest course in the county, complete with 19th hole overlooking the18th Green, just happens to be in the village, less than a mile’s stroll from your front door.

Moreover, your dog will be able to take you on wonderful walks directly from your new home. Few are fortunate enough to have such open countryside as an extension to your extensive land. The White Horse enjoys an amazing setting.

MORE ABOUT THE PROPERTY

As a timber-framed home built of wattle and daub beneath a thatched roof, a George V letterbox inserted into the limestone wall of its late-!8th century, old clay-tiled extension, it’s little surprise that The White Horse has graced a postcard. Dripping in character inside and out, it has oodles of versatile space, that can be used just as you wish.

The salon, adjacent to the downstairs shower room, has been used as an elderly relative’s bedroom, for instance, and the parquet-floored, former kitchen could be an amazing entertainment and games room. The wonderful, beamed and vaulted-ceilinged room at the eastern end, currently used as an office and boot room, with its stone floor and amazingly wide, stable door, has ambitions to be something more.

How lovely to step into an oak-floored entrance hall that’s a room in itself, complete with an antique Esse Courtier that’s more a work of art than a working stove. As with the fireplaces in the lovely, beamed sitting room and the former kitchen, you could install real log burners or, perhaps, the latest electric or bioethanol stoves.

There’s no doubt about the hub of the home. Next to the dining room, your herringbone oak-floored kitchen, with its Shaker-style furniture complete with corner pantry, huge, walnut-topped peninsular and lovely window seat, is designed to take advantage of the most wonderful view beyond the doors that fold open to the extensive, Indian sandstone terrace. Fabulous for summer entertaining as well as everyday family life.

As are the upstairs rooms, some with wonderful, wide floorboards, original doors, and beautiful wall timbers, not least in your vaulted-ceilinged bedroom, all with a lovely view through eyebrow windows across the lane beyond the houses to countryside and woods. But come down for breakfast and you only need to glance out of the landing window to set you up for the perfect day.

For this must be the perfect family garden. Apples, plums pears, cherries to pick, veg. to grow, huge lawn for play, paddock for the alpacas, and a birdsong-filled, wooded paradise for children. Build dens amongst the willow, walnut and cedar trees, with a little bridge crossing the meandering stream to miles of open country. Wonderful!