2 bedroom detached house

With stories of smugglers and a carving of a skull with flintlock pistol in the stone wall, Spout House Cottage is an historic property and the location is absolutely stunning. I don't think I have ever had the pleasure of marketing such a unique property. Not for the faint hearted! -- Sarah Holgate, Valuer and Head of The Villages.

#TheGardenOfEngland

A completely unique detached character house in an absolutely stunning location and with extra land included with Nissan Hut (on 2 separate Titles). The property is now in need of complete renovation having 2 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, lovely gardens wrapping around the property, an enormous amount of character and historic interest coupled with the most amazing panoramic far reaching views towards the sea.

Property details written by the vendor:-
“Spout Cottage dates from the 16th century when smugglers flourished around Romney Marsh selling wool to the French in exchange for duty free contraband for which the death penalty was introduced in 1602. Notorious amongst these
were the Ransley brothers whose tombstone can be seen in nearby Ruckinge Church yard.
Spout House Cottage is said to be so named after the ‘spouted oil lamp’ used by smugglers to signal warnings of the presence of horseback Excise patrols at night. The Cottage has
a small bricked up window facing the Channel understood to have been used for that purpose.
The property sits on two distinct levels separated by a 100ft bank which is well treed with beech, ash and sycamore subject to preservation orders and further protected by reason of the conservation area designation covering the surrounding land. Management of these is carried out in concert with the District tree preservation officer providing fuel for the wood burning stove sited in the cottage living room.The property comprises two parcels of separately registered
land reflecting the two different levels. The Cottage below, originally bought by me in 1961 and what we know as ‘the land at the top’ containing the Nissen hut which I purchased
some years later. The Cottage and garden stand 100ft below the Saxon Shore Way public footpath which runs through the property, the rear
garden being approximately 50yds deep by 80yds wide with a tiled barbecue hut in need of repair at its rear. The garden at the front having similar proportions but slightly smaller. The Cottage and garden are accessed by a rough steepish footpath running down from the land at the top and
the Saxon Shoreway public footpath. The Nissen hut with its surrounding land could provide sufficient space for a two or three bed cottage and garden. Old OS plans show the two
‘Daisy Cottages’ which once stood on the Shoreway footpath the foundations of which are still clearly visible where I park my car.
There are two bedrooms, one large one small, each with a dormer window at the rear with sufficient roof space for an additional bedroom.
The bathroom could be moved upstairs and built into the roof space in which case space immediately adjacent to the rear of
the kitchen would provide for another living room or study. I had plans drawn up some years ago for this but have mislaid them. The fireplace in the living room was once an inglenook with a
bread oven to one side bricked over before I bought the place but reinstateable without too much difficulty. The south facing back room and cat slide roof are in a poor state of repair but
I have a comprehensive collection of original Kent Peg tiles enough to provide for restoration.
A permanent potable ice cold spring fed by the Kent North Downs aquifer runs into a tank in the rear of the garden, never having slackened even during the 1970s drought when standpipes were needed in the street. Spout House Cottage overlooks Portus Lemanis, a Roman maritime fort a few hundred yards away. Historians visiting the
property believe the land on which the cottage stands would have been the site for the fort commander’s residence in the 2nd/3rd Century when it was being built and occupied. The
presence of the natural spring and sections of early foundations upon which Spout Cottage main walls were constructed appear to predate its recorded construction date circa 1775 lending
credence to that belief. Roman tiles and other detritus from that period litter the garden”.

Our Ref: AEA190091