It's hard to say which of the counties of the Cotswolds is the finest, but Gloucestershire could certainly try to claim the crown.
It is there where Ed Sugden of Savills is handling the sale, at a guide price of £7.5m, of imposing Waterton House, a substantial country home set in some 25 acres of wooded grounds and parkland on the edge of Ampney Crucis village, three miles from Cirencester and 15 miles from Cheltenham.
Built in 1901 with Elizabethan-style stone quoins and large mullioned windows by the Cripps family, major local landowners and politicians who owned the nearby Ampney Park estate from the 19th century until the late 20th century, Waterton House, which is unlisted, has been renovated throughout by the current vendors in the course of their 25-year tenure.
Approached over a private tarmac driveway through a grand stone-pillared gateway with wrought-iron gates, followed by a second secure set of wrought-iron gates, the house and its well-timbered grounds provide a peaceful and secluded setting, bordered by a stone ha-ha, with a plantation and parkland beyond.
An entrance porch with double oak doors leads to the grand staircase hall and the principal reception rooms, which boast large open fireplaces, stone hearths, oak-panelled walls and south-facing bay windows.
Beyond the dining room is the inner hallway leading to the main kitchen with its essential Aga, to the side of which is the breakfast room with its original iron cooking range. The lower-ground floor comprises a wine cellar and storage area.
The house offers 11-12 bedrooms of varying sizes over two floors, the first floor reached via a large wooden staircase from the main hall. The master bedroom suite on the first floor comprises a sumptuous double-aspect bedroom with a large fireplace, a bay window seating area and a vast bathroom with a separate walk-in wardrobe.
There are four further bedrooms, two of which are en-suite, and two further family bathrooms. At the opposite end of the landing is a billiard room and a stylish cinema room, from which a staircase leads down to the breakfast room and main kitchen area. A staircase continues to the second floor landing and the sixth bedroom, and onto two separate, self-contained flats, which provide a further five/six bedrooms in all.
In addition to its impeccably maintained formal gardens, Waterton House offers an excellent range of leisure and sporting facilities, including a heated indoor swimming pool, hard tennis court, barbecue area, croquet lawn and stable yard with six loose boxes.
Existing planning consent allows for the construction of a 6,000–7,000sq ft, two-storey, Cotswold-stone building to provide further domestic offices and residential accommodation.
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