Emma Jackson is another feisty lady who enjoys a challenge, and when she married, she converted the huge derelict barn adjoining her 18th-century mill cottage at Middle Woodford near Salisbury to create a large, rambling, family home.

Since her divorce four years ago, Mrs Jackson has continued to live at Woodford Mill with her two ?free-range? sons, Jake (6) and Harry (4), at the same time as running the house as a Wolsey Lodge guest house. Now she plans to move west towards Shaftesbury, where the boys are already booked in at Port Regis school from next September, and Woodford Mill, listed Grade II, is for sale through Savills (01722 426820) at a guide price of £1.75m.

The Mill stands right on, or rather in, the water for it more or less divides the river, of which part runs underneath the house, and part wraps round it. Many of the original mill workings have been retained in the house which spreads over three floors, with the ground floor of the original miller?s cottage currently used as a separate one-bedroom flat.

The new part of the house takes full advantage of the unique setting: both the kitchen and the master suite above it overlook the garden and the river beyond. In all, the main house has three reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, seven bedrooms and five bath/shower rooms; as added bait, the 3.2 acres of grounds include single and double-bank fishing on the Hampshire Avon.