James Fisher
Who doesn't love a good old medieval country home? We certainly do. This is basically a magazine built off the back of solid medieval masonry and the Arts-and-Crafts Movement. We will not be stopping now. Especially when they have interiors like these.
To mid Somerset, where Sarah Brown of Knight Frank has just overseen the launch onto the market of handsome Old Manor Farm, set in 10½ acres of gardens, paddocks and orchards in the quiet hamlet of Low Ham, two miles from Langport and 10 miles from Glastonbury.
For those who have come just to see the drawing room... behold.
She quotes a guide price of £2.65m for the historic country house, which dates from medieval times and was one of many manors owned by the powerful Glastonbury Abbey from Saxon times until the Dissolution. Home thereafter to a number of landowning families, Old Manor Farm was the residence of successive lords of the manor of Nether Ham and is commended in Pevsner’s Buildings of England: Somerset for the original quality of its architecture and workmanship.
These high standards have been well maintained in the course of sympathetic improvements carried out by recent owners, which highlight the building’s many original period details.
Notable features include the panelled drawing room (the former courtroom), a Hamstone fireplace, carved beams, original oak doors, flagstone floors and a spiral stone staircase. In all, Old Manor Farm offers 4,676sq ft of accommodation in the main house, including three reception rooms, a garden room, kitchen, office, six bedrooms and four bathrooms.
The outbuildings comprise two large cottages, a games room, modern barn stabling, a garage, store rooms and office. The formal gardens to the south of the main house are enclosed by traditional stone walls and thoughtfully planted to provide colour and interest throughout the year.
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