If you were to design your dream home, what shape would it be? A simple square, with some reception rooms on the bottom and some bedrooms on the top? Functional yes, but perhaps not very creative.
Maybe you might be tempted by something rounder, something that demands flow between rooms as you circle a nice central courtyard? That courtyard could be the heart of the home, a nice open space to enjoy in the summertime.
Or perhaps you want both. Perhaps you want a home that resembles that Haribo Tangfastic that looks like a baby’s dummy. Well we have good news. Such a property exists and it’s named Milbourne Hall in Northumberland. It is for sale with GSC Grays for offers in excess of £3.15 million.
I have not seen a house that is both a square and a circle at the same time. It is not something I have ever thought about. Thankfully, someone did think about it, and that person’s name is John Paterson, the Scottish architect who designed and built Grade I-listed Milbourne Hall sometime in the early 19th century. Paterson studied under Robert Adam and the property was built for Ralph Bates, a member of a long-established Northumbrian landowning family.
The property enjoys many things. It has many acres (24). It has many bedrooms, so many in fact that I cannot count them all but there are more than 10. It has many stables for horses (6). Incidentally, gazing at the floorplan, it would seem that the rooms in the square part of the house are round, while the rooms in the round part of the house are square.
Shrouded in woodland while overlooking fine parkland, the property is an imposing manor house in one of the more pleasant parts of the English countryside. That elegance is mirrored within its stone walls, where the interiors have been renovated and restored to provide a mix of period charm and contemporary luxury. Here are some pictures.
It is, dare we use the word, a unique property that demands further inspection. Newcastle city centre is 12 miles away.
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