Looking at this beautiful house just outside Salisbury – on the market via Strutt & Parker for £799,950 – you’d imagine it to be several hundred years old. And you’d be half right.

The beautiful castellated walls and tower of The Gate House – formerly part of the Compton Estate – date back to 1658, and give this four-bedroom home a glorious feeling of character that is only enhanced by the delightful woodland setting.

Rather incredibly, however, the extension that turned those features into house is barely a generation old: it was constructed in the 1990s, but has been so cleverly done that the whole thing feels like it might always have been conceived of this way.

The stone mullion windows contain double-glazed glass, while the corniced ceilings and stone fireplace also all add huge amounts of character.

The centrepiece of the property is the large central courtyard, with many of the rooms looking in on it as well as outside into the pretty wooded gardens.

Inside, there are several rooms which make the house all the more livable: there is a library with bespoke shelving, a study, and a utility room, while the kitchen-breakfast room has access out onto the terrace.

The house itself is in the small village of Compton Chamberlayne, which boasts a couple of dozen houses and a cricket club – while Salisbury, just seven miles down the nearby A30, is one of the country’s finest cathedral cities.

The Gate House is for sale at £795,000 – see more details, pictures and a floorplan.