A riverside home that's Victorian country house on the outside and five-star boutique hotel within

Sometimes you come across a country house where you'd love to be able to whisk the original inhabitants forward in time from their own era, to see what they made of the place as it is today. Never have I felt that more than in the case of Hill House in Bramerton, for sale via Sowerbys at £3.75 million.

This elegant riverside home was built in 1897, at a time when the Tudor Revival was hugely fashionable, and this house is a great example of the style. Towering red-brick walls, a wealth of octagonal chimneys, castellated towers, the rows of windows and a grand, arched entrance porch all fit the pattern, and at first glance give the house the feel of a mini-Hampton Court. As indeed does the setting: like Henry VIII's great palace, it's Hill House is set right beside the river.

Step through that grand entrance, however, and you're catapulted forward in time hundreds of years.

The pictures here tell much of the story: the present owners, who came here in 2020, changed the entire place beyond recognition. Walls have been pulled out, rooms reshaped and Crittal windows installed everywhere you look.

The living space on the ground floor is now dominated by a bright, open, L-shaped kitchen-dining-living space at the heart of which is — and there really is no better way to describe it — a kitchen island that looks more like a City wine bar than the sort of thing you'd order from Neptune.

On the side looking out over the river, huge french windows open onto a terrace that runs the length of the home — a wonderful place to sit out and watch the sun setting in the huge, Norfolk skies.

The downstairs does still have a discrete sitting room and dining room, but both look out through internal windows onto the main space. The interlinking allows everyone to enjoy one of Hill House's other most striking features: the 'floating fireplace' incorporated into centre of the floorplan, hanging from its own flue which — we presume — heads directly up through one of the aforementioned chimneys. It's the sort of thing you'd expect to find in a stylish converted warehouse; the effect in a late-Victorian home is dazzling.

Upstairs, there are more such touches — particularly in the master suite, with a huge glass wall at one end, a balcony and an en-suite made in floor-to-ceiling marble, with a deep, free-standing bathtub as well as a hotel-style built-in shower cubicle.

Families with older children will be particularly pleased to hear that there's another floor above, with the attic space having been turned in to a sort of two-bedroom suite that feels ideal as a teenagers' escape.

It's not the only unexpected extra space. Hill House also has two lower ground floor areas which contain utility room, boot room, boiler room, wine cellar and — because it's 2026, and everyone seems to want one these days — a sauna.

Within the seven acres of grounds you'll find a pool house (plus a pool, naturally) and a series of outbuildings that include a 1,271 sq ft barn, as well as lawns and woodland. There's even some of the land on the opposite bank of the Yare, ideal for punting across to have a picnic.

Finally, for those looking for a project, permission is already in place to revamp the old stables and the pool house with the same glass-wall aesthetic as you'll find in the main house. We can't wait to see what happens at Hill House next.

Hill House is for sale via Sowerbys at £3.75 million — see more details..