Growing up in a half-German family, as one does, I spent a not insignificant amount of time in my youth visiting distant cousins and uncles and aunts in the exceptionally flat countryside of north-west Germany. What I always found interesting, beyond the unusual food, were the houses; perfectly functional dwellings that seemed obsessed with windows and large angled roofs.
It’s not often something comparable appears on these shores, but one such example might be Higher Kingswood, near Stogumber in Somerset, which is on the market with Humberts for £1.425 million.
On first impressions, there isn’t all that much to say about this place. It seems a relatively unusual family home set across two floors, that offers four places to sit, four places to sleep, and three places to go to the loo.
However, on the inside, things are quite different. A galleried entrance hall/garden room operates at the central hub of the home, with reception rooms opening out on either side. But much like those German/Nordic homes, there are windows; windows above, windows to the side, windows in front.
Throughout the property, whether it's the sitting room, the staircase hall or even the bedrooms, you will find windows to look out of, and that flood the home with seemingly endless amounts of natural light.
And it’s lucky that there are windows, as the home itself sits in an AONB with tremendous views of the surrounding Quantock and Brendon Hills. Not that you need them, as the 7.5 acre garden is itself something to look at, having undergone a ‘comprehensive and detailed re-design’ by the current owners. Sun terraces abound, as does a covered pergola, making this a sublime spot for hosting and entertaining, or just to sit and unwind.
The nearby village of Stogumber is one of the most desirable in the West Country and offers amenities in the form of a shop, post office, primary school, pub and cricket club, as well as a stop for the West Somerset steam train.
Credit: Strutt and Parker
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