5 bedroom detached house for sale

A truly exceptional property that has been in the family for a lifetime. Parsonage House sits on a sizeable plot of just over half an acre and is an imposing period home steeped with history and original features. It has incredibly flexible living accommodation, a double garage, and outbuildings, and offers an exciting project for the next custodian to put their own stamp on and transform into a unique family home for all generations.

Upon entering, you are greeted by a hall with staircase to the first floor. To the front of the home is a dual aspect study with original shutters, a open fireplace, and bespoke built-in cupboards. On the other side of the hall sits a dining room, also with an open fireplace. To the rear is the playroom, utility room and kitchen which is fitted with an array of floor and wall mounted units and French doors into the garden. Completing the downstairs accommodation is a grand drawing room which is over 23 ft in length, and is exceptionally bright with windows spanning one side, further French doors out, and finished with parquet flooring and an electric fireplace.

Upstairs the sense of space continues. There are five double bedrooms, all of which benefit from inbuilt wardrobes and are serviced by two family bathrooms. A wooden loft ladder provides access to a vast loft room, with boarded floors and Velux windows. This room is currently utilised as a further bedroom / children’s den (although without a solid staircase cannot be classed as such).

Outside, the property is reached over a gated gravel driveway to the front. There is a detached double garage offering superb storage as well as a brick built outbuilding spanning over 27ft in length that was used once upon a time as Watchfield’s Working Men's Club. The walled garden is exceptionally private and sits at approximately half an acre. Laid to lawn there are large fruit trees, magnolia trees and mature hedging and borders. A gate leads through the stone wall at the rear into Watchfield’s sports ground behind.

Watchfield has a charming village centre with a church, village hall and public house, and a small shopping centre with a public house and a restaurant near the roundabout with the A420. The Defence Academy of the United Kingdom provides post-graduate level education for UK and overseas military personnel. Many students and staff live in the village and play an active part in community life. The excellent village primary school has children from several different countries, which makes for an interesting learning environment.

Together, Watchfield and Shrivenham make one of the larger village areas within the Vale of the White Horse and are located to the north east of Swindon (circa 5 miles) and to the south west of the market town of Faringdon (circa 5 miles). A bypass built in 1984 ensures that the rural atmosphere of both villages is preserved. Shrivenham also has an extremely active community. There is a lovely tree-lined high street with shops, restaurants, public houses, a doctors’ surgery, village primary school and an impressive church, parts of which date back to the 11th Century. There is also a golf course.

Both villages are ideally located for access to the M4 at Swindon and the A420 leading to Oxford and beyond. There is a frequent bus service from Swindon to Oxford and back.