Accommodation Downstairs

A very impressive porch and main entrance, flanked by slate benches, leads into a magnificent double height Dining Hall with natural slate flagged floor, exposed oak roof beams, stone mullioned window and huge open fireplace fitted with a traditional wood burning stove. There is seating for fourteen around the dining table.

To one side of the dining room is a large oak panelled drawing room which has rich rugs over an oak floor in front of an original 1860-designed cast iron gas effect fire. The cushioned window seats in the mullioned bays look out over the flower garden to the east. Complete with a well-maintained upright piano and a small library of sheet music, there is ample seating in here for fourteen people.

A concealed door in the panelling leads to a servant’s passageway into the kitchen. A door in the south wall enters a comfortable double aspect study looking out over the walled and hedged rose and herb garden. Equipped with a log stove and furnished with well stocked bookshelves, including a selection of jigsaw puzzles and board games, this is a cosy room to retreat to on a winter’s evening or after a day on the beach.  An oak staircase in the corner leads to a double bedroom above with ensuite bathroom.

The large family kitchen is at the heart of the house, centred around the farmhouse table. The kitchen is equipped with a gas hob, built in electric oven and four door oil-fired Aga. A big double-doored fridge freezer (with integral ice cube dispenser and water cooler), combined with a second fridge and cabinet freezer in the utility room, provides plenty of food storage space. Twin Belfast sinks are set into magnificent slate worktops, and there is a dishwasher. The kitchen is very well provided with everything required for catering on a ‘family’ scale and there is ample matching crockery, cutlery and glassware.

Beyond the kitchen is a family farmhouse-style sitting room with an enormous walk-in open fireplace, now fitted with a huge log-burning stove. There is an original bread oven set into the chimney breast here. A door leads out from the sitting room via a neat benched porch into the walled rose and herb garden – a perfect spot for al fresco breakfasts on sunny mornings.  

There is a downstairs loo and cloakroom, complete with a large granite ‘salting trough’ originally used for preserving sides of meat, and beside the back staircase is a utility room containing a sink, washing machine and tumble drier. The back door leads out into the courtyard, which is flanked by outbuildings formerly used as piggeries.