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.
-
'I have lost a treasure, such a sister, such a friend as never can have been surpassed': Inside Jane Austen's Winchester home, the house where she penned her final words and drew her final breathJane Austen spent the last days of her life in rented lodgings in Winchester, Hampshire. Adam Rattray describes the remarkable recent discoveries made about the house in which she died.
-
An utterly charming island home in Scotland with gardens so beautiful they made the cover of Country LifeAn Cala on the Isle of Seil has a fascinating history that is only enhanced by its amazing setting.
-
An utterly charming island home in Scotland with gardens so beautiful they made the cover of Country Life
An Cala on the Isle of Seil has a fascinating history that is only enhanced by its amazing setting.
-
Soft tones and a sense of place: A Mayfair duplex that breaks the modern mouldA new designer-led residence at 60 Curzon in Mayfair reminds us that everything new doesn't necessarily have to look it.
-
'The very best North Yorkshire has to offer': The £25 million Kirkham EstateWith 1,103 acres and on the market for the first time in a century, we've got a new frontrunner for the sale of the year.
-
The reality of 20 years of house price rises in Britain, from the places that have had a charmed life to the spots where it's a struggle to move back homeAt first glance the ups and downs of the property market seem to even out over time — but dig in to the numbers and you'll see wild regional variations which paint a very difference picture. Annabel Dixon analyses new research which tells the story.
-
A historic Yorkshire hall, meticulously restored to its former 18th-century magnificenceWomersley Park is a masterpiece and one of Yorkshire's great historic houses. And it could be yours.
-
Rowing past dreams: An idyllic riverside home with a boathouse, croquet pitch and Olympic pedigreeThe Manor in Long Wittenham is a perfect Thames-side getaway. Comes with a free boat.
-
A bucolic Sussex home that's 'like stepping into a fairytale', yet just 30 minutes from central LondonFelmere House is a playground for nature and only 30 minutes from London.
-
Magnificent mansions across the Home Counties, from £3 million to £14 million, as seen in Country LifeA waterside dream home and a house and estate with over 1,100 years of history make our round-up this week.
