There are people in the world who are against the gentrification of the Glastonbury Festival. Who insist that unless you sleep in a tent, survive on a diet of alcohol, fried food and, er, pharmaceutical supplements, that somehow you're not experiencing the 'real Glastonbury'.
It's a bit of a ridiculous argument, to be honest, akin to saying that you haven't been to Venice until you've had your handbag snatched, or that you haven't been to Paris until you've been charged £13.40 for a tiny coffee by a sneering waiter.
Thankfully, most of us now understand that this is total rubbish. Things don't have to be bad to be good, and the blossoming of charming, beautiful and elegant spaces at festivals like Glastonbury is both a logistical marvel and a very welcome development.
One of the finest of those spaces to appear at Glastonbury in recent years is At The Festival, a pop-up version of a charming hotel/restaurant/bar in nearby Bruton called At The Chapel. And the designer behind the conversion and decoration of this former church is now selling her own Somerset home for £3.25 million — and it's even more lovely than you could imagine.
Except that you don't have to imagine, because of the gorgeous pictures on this page.
The house itself is a picture-perfect Georgian manor house in a village called Hinton Blewitt, about five miles from Wells in the Chew Valley. It's a huge home: over 9,500 sq ft, with seven bedrooms and four acres of gardens. That makes it big enough for the biggest of families, or perhaps multi-generational living: the tick-shaped floorplan mean that this is very much a house of two halves, while there's also a summerhouse, barn and converted stables, the latter currently set up as a home office.
The agents call the house a 'masterclass in understated luxury, blending historic architecture with contemporary comfort', and that really does seem an apt description here. It's modern and cool without losing its homely feel, and it's simultaneously characterful and traditional without ever seeming old-fashioned.
The kitchen is a prime example: an Aga sits happily next to dark units that could be in a swish metropolitan restaurant, while the view through the huge sash windows, or out of the glazed door, reminds you that this is very much a country house.
The dining room and other reception rooms have a similar feel.
Upstairs, the bedrooms and bathrooms are spacious and bright.
It's also a house built for fun, with a cellar converted into a cinema room.
It's hard to think of a box they haven't ticked here: everything just feels right. And it's further proof that sometimes, like a posh festival experience, you can have the good things in life without having to compromise.
The Manor in Hinton Blewitt is for sale at £3.25 million — see more pictures and details.
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