This 18th century watermill saved from the verge of collapse has become a spectacular 21st century home

The northern reaches of Essex are perhaps one of the best-kept secrets in the Home Counties. Gently rolling countryside, ancient woods and farmland stretching away beneath huge skies are a world away from the nightclubs and bling McMansions closer to London. There are rivers criss-crossing the landscape, breweries that have stood on the same spot for centuries, and ancient mills of the sort immortalised by Constable in The Hay Wain, which while painted in Suffolk, depicted a mill pretty much on the border with Essex.

Another of those mills is now for sale, and it's an idyllic place that's been the subject of a labour-of-love restoration. Strutt & Parker are handling the sale of The Mill House in Hartford End, with an asking price of £4.95 million.

This Georgian home dates to the late 18th century, with the buildings having long been recognised for their beauty and significance. The original house is Grade II-listed, while the watermill itself is Grade II*-listed — yet listing and condition don't always go hand in hand, and when owner Barry Mather bought it in 2013, it had been long neglected.

The main house was unloved rather than decrepit, but the watermill had lain essentially untouched for two centuries, with the roof said to be on the verge of collapse. Mather Barry brought in architects with experience of saving historic buildings, and worked with English Heritage to restore what could be saved and faithfully replicate what could not.

The result, as you see in the pictures here, is pretty spectacular.

The original Georgian house (on the right of the picture at the top of the page) and the brick-built watermill (on the left) were brought together as one building, more than doubling the floor space of the house. Inside, that means a change in character between one side — the traditional 18th century residence with high ceilings and beautiful windows — and the other, where the old mill's interior have been reimagined with modern fittings sitting alongside ancient beams and other original features.

Several of those original elements have been cleverly incorporated into the design. The white weatherboard lucam and winch — once used to haul wheat into the mill — are intact, as is a former hoist door in the centre of the the first floor façade. The latter is now in the principal bedroom, and a full-length glazed window installed into what would once have been a working opening, giving views of the River Chelmer from the bedroom’s sitting room.

The main bedroom is one of the house's real highlights — the agents describe it as 'having the feel of a five-star hotel — with its en-suite, two dressing rooms and seating area.

Equally impressive is the huge open plan kitchen, dining and living space below with ancient beams holding up the structure and giving huge character, particularly effective with the swish charcoal units setting off the wooden beams, exposed brickwork and white walls.

In total there are seven bedrooms in the house, and just under 7,800sq ft of living space. Almost all the rooms have views out over the river, though couple of bedrooms plus the sitting room and drawing room look out instead over the charming walled gardens.

What was once a hard-working mill has become a blissful country house, then; but this property is still also a hard-working spot, since the owners converted some of the many outbuildings into a series of office units.

It'd make the house an ideal place from which to run a small business — or they could potentially be repurposed for other uses. And if working from home is not for you, the benefit of being in Essex is that London is just over an hour away via road or rail.

The Mill House in Hartford End is for sale via Strutt & Parker at £4.95 million — see more details.