HISTORIC HOUSE USED IN FASHION SHOOTS - A FAMILY HOME WITHOUT COMPARE 

From bakery to wonderful home beloved of interior and fashion agencies as of generations of families - beautiful elements from the 18th to the 21st centuries combining in one 3500 square feet, five-bedroom, unlisted, family home, with AGA kitchen, stunning studio, lovely walled gardens, and driveway parking. Oh, and with an attached former onion barn which is ripe for development. Simply superb!

Built of Bedfordshire’s Blunham brick, made a few hundred yards away, Wisteria House is separated by a wall of some three feet thick from the shop that was once where its bread was sold and is now the village stores. Its Georgian extension was testament to the thriving bakery business and served to entertain local landowners in fitting style, with large added bedrooms freeing up others for servants. Nearly two hundred years later and the dough room, the washroom, the stables and cart garaging, were converted to add to what was already an impressive home.

You can just pop across the road for a pint of real ale at an historic inn which was probably built at a similar time as Wisteria House in the late 1700s. Wander to Sunday service at the glorious medieval church, which has the distinction of being the only one in the Country that couldn’t decide between two Saints for its name. Walk the children to the popular little nursery and primary school. Your dog will, no doubt, walk you for miles along ‘Kingfisher Way’ on the lovely River Ivel. Sports enthusiasts are catered for at the local playing fields and pavilion.

Blunham is surrounded by beautiful countryside, just 7.5 miles equidistant of the County town and St Neots, with their fast trains to the Capital in under 40 minutes and world-renowned private schools. The village is close enough to good road networks to make travelling a breeze. A super home in a super location!

ABOUT THE PROPERTY

Around 1820, the ‘then very exotic and fashionable’ wisteria was planted on the new extension to make a statement. It still does. But inside too, so much catches the eye. Few homes can so effortlessly switch between styles, never detracting from each other, and always evoking a feeling of peaceful contentment.

Never more so than in the bedrooms, which demand to be seen, not least the main bedrooms in the Georgian wing, with their high ceilings, and today’s lovely main bedroom, with its bath and dressing rooms and vaulted ceiling, old and new designed to look over gardens and thatched cottages towards the church.

Not for nothing is one bedroom known as ‘the Sewing Room’. Warming herself in front of the delightful ‘Bonny’ cast iron fireplace, which adds to beautiful marble fire surrounds elsewhere, it was there that, in the days before electric light, the lady of the house sat in front of the large east-facing, Georgian, sliding sash window to sew in the morning light. Inspiration has been taken from the 1820s in the conversions, huge floor-to-ceiling windows flooding the home with light.

The original quarry tiles of the study, the oldest room of the house, sit happily amongst old wooden floorboards and up-to-the-minute, underfloor-heated, resin floors, perfect for rampaging children and dogs, who have all the space in the world, not to mention a choice of cosy woodburners and open fires to slump in front of following long winter walks.

Gorgeous original doors, picture rails, tall skirtings and old panelling are, of course, a joy, but even in more modern parts, Wisteria House never lets you forget its heritage, with lovely, exposed stone and limewashed oak beams, said to be old ships’ timbers, contrasting beautifully with contemporary interior design.

A fireplace, perfect for a woodburner, remains in the snug where once a copper stood in what was then the washroom. Here, once a week, the linen was washed, followed by the adults, then the children – in that order. Today, you have stylish shower rooms and bathrooms, with beautiful freestanding baths and space to sit and relax.; not to mention a utility room.

Villagers once brought their Sunday joint to cook in the bakery’s ovens – you can still see where one was between the kitchen and the utility. Now, you have an electric AGA for winter cooking and a top-of-the-range Fisher & Paykel for the rest of the year.

In days gone by, one can imagine visitors being impressed as they were shown past the elegant staircase in the spacious reception hall and into the comfortable drawing room, a warming winter log fire set in the hearth, the lovely French doors open to the garden in summertime. Today, you’re likely to welcome guests into the kitchen, but they will be no less impressed.

It's not just that the kitchen is so striking, with its handleless furniture topped by beautiful, fossilised limestone, all storage pulling out for easy access, not one but two sinks for ease of preparation, it’s that the space is as perfect for entertaining as for family life in general – in all seasons - extending outside during the summer months. The studio, similarly, opens through huge sliding glazed doors to the garden terrace.

And the gardens, surrounded by lovely old brick walls, have something for everyone. Kick a ball around on the lawn. Sit and relax, taking in the sweet, spring scent of the Syringa, pluck quince from the old tree, delight in the dahlias and roses in the private garden outside the sitting room. Eat and drink under the arbour. Have you ever known a garden with an open fireplace and chimney? So many stories to be told.

Not only is Wisteria House a superb family home like no other, its 3500 square feet of space is uncommonly flexible, and its barn provides unusual scope for adding significant value and for earning an additional income. Some opportunity, indeed!

Joint Sole Agents: Artistry x The Modern House