Beautiful country houses often come with price tags which put them out of reach for many – but delightful character properties can be found that are well within reach for most buyers, as these places demonstrate.
Powys — £260,000
A quite incredible opportunity for those who don’t mind a bit of work, this huge, six-bedroom house near Builth Wells was once a Victorian workhouse.
There are plenty of character features, most notably the fireplaces and staircases, though the four-poster beds in the rooms will also catch the eye of a house which also has the sort of set-up you’d expect of a B&B.
A bit of TLC is needed to bring it back to its full glory, but the space on offer at this price is astonishing — not least in the case of the huge games room that swallows up both pool and ping pong tables.
For sale with James Dean. See more pictures and details about this property.
Cornwall — £389.950
In the village of Latchley, in the upper reaches of the Tamar Valley, this picture-perfect cottage is full of charm, with a quirky layout and beautiful garden.
There is a large living room, dining room, kitchen and conservatory downstairs, while above are four bedrooms — and if you need more space, there’s an external workship that could be used as a summerhouse.
It’s also surprisingly easily accessible: London is just four hours on the train, with a single change at Plymouth. No wonder the vendors have owned it happily for 35 years.
For sale with View Property. See more pictures and details about this property.
Hampshire — £400,000
The absolute archetype of the English country cottage, this exquisite two-bedroom home is in the lovely village of Ringwood, on the fringe of the New Forest National Park and easily accessible from Southampton, Salisbury and beyond.
Inside there are all the character features you’d expect, with wooden floors, beams in both ceilings and walls and huge fireplaces.
The garden is in need of TLC from a green-fingered new owner, while there’s a separate garage and an off-road parking spot around to the side.
For sale with Hearnes . See more pictures and details about this property.
Scottish Borders — £70,000
Yes, that’s right: just £70,000 buys this delightful little A-frame cottage in Hassendeanburn, a village near Hawick, that would make a perfect holiday home.
From the looks of things the place was last decorated around the time that Charles married Diana, but even if you kept things as they are it’d have undeniable retro chic.
A living and dining space downstairs has a ladder-slash-staircase leading up to a twin bedroom, while on the ground floor there is a double bedroom in which the good news is that it’s impossible to roll out of bed during the night. But who’d worry about such things in a beautiful little spot like this, at roughly the cost of a specced-up Land Rover Discovery?
For sale with Geo Jas Oliver. See more pictures and details about this property.
Yorkshire — £150,000
A true project for the brave, this semi-detached, stone built cottage on the outskirts of Greenhow sits on a large plot with plenty of scope to extend, subject to the right permissions being granted.
It’s a three-bedroom home in which the entire interior needs re-doing completely, but there’s enough here — beamed ceilings and the vast garden, for example — to suggest that it could be a very lovely house.
The location in the Yorkshire Dales National Park is also a draw: Greenhow is close to Pateley Bridge, the famed Brimham Rocks and 15 miles or so from the lovely town of Harrogate.
For sale with Feather Smailes Scales. See more pictures and details about this property.
Staffordshire — £310,000
If it’s epic grandeur on a budget that you’re after, this magnificent edifice om Cotes Heath, near Stafford, will tick the boxes — the door alone is the sort of thing you’d expect to find at a great country house.
This converted factory on the Hatton Manor Estate has a huge 27′ living space with kitchen and utility off to one side, while upstairs are three bedrooms and a home office/study area.
Hatton Manor is a gated development with large communal gardens, and while it’s in a peaceful rural area there’s also easy access to the M6.
For sale with James Du Pavey. See more pictures and details about this property.
Powys — £300,000
For true country seclusion this detached house overlooking fields about 10 miles from Knighton will take some beating.
It’s a four-bedroom home with decent size living and dining space that opens on to a sun terrace overlooking the fields in this delightful valley.
There are no internal images available yet, but the agents whet the appetite by adding that ‘internal viewing is a must’. They actually used three exclamation marks too, so we’d expect something rather extraordinary with a sell like that.
For sale with Chancellors. See more pictures and details about this property.
Kent — £380,000
A hopelessly dinky cottage in the village of Hartfield, between Tunbdirge Wells and East Grinstead, that even has a pretty name: Primrose Cottage.
Grade II-listed, it’s full of character within and has been exquisitely well looked-after, as the pictures here show.
There are three bedrooms and a good-sized kitchen-diner in this village centre home, with the village shop, hall, doctor, tea room and tennis and cricket clubs among the many amenities practically on the doorstep.
For sale with Savills. See more pictures and details about this property.
Devon — £395,000
This three-bedroom period cottage oozes charm, with exposed beams and a feature fireplace.
There’s a terrace for alfresco dining and panoramic mature gardens.
For sale with Diamond Estate Agents. See more pictures and details about this property.
Newcastleton, Cumbria – £380,000
11 bedrooms in an equestrian facility for under £400,000 sounds unimaginable, but that’s just what you’d be getting with Bailey Mill, placed just 8 miles from Newcastleton in Cumbria’s beautiful Bailey Water Valley.
The first lot includes the main house and four self-catering apartments, as well as the formal gardens. For those really keen on living the countryside life, the second lot includes stables, a ménage, two further apartments and various plots of land. The choice is yours.
For sale with Rettie. See more pictures and details about this property.
Vale of Glamorgan – £399,950
There’s an astonishing amount of period character in this extremely pretty cottage, surrounded by a wraparound garden in a village not far from Barry.
A stone fireplace and door surrounds give an almost gothic feel to the place in parts, and it’s lovely to see those original details being preserved – the pretty stone wall in the bathroom being a case in point.
For sale with Watts & Morgan. See more pictures and details about this property.
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