6 bedroom house

A rare opportunity to acquire an attractive period rural property with various extensive buildings, all set in 11.96 acres.

Location
Highfields Farm is situated approximately 2 miles south of the village of Clifton Campville in south Staffordshire and about 5 miles north of Tamworth.

The farm is well positioned for Midlands centres, being approximately 5 miles from J11 of the M42 and 8 miles from J10, which intersects with the A5 trunk road for ease of travel east and west. The A38 is approximately 8 miles to the west and the cathedral city of Lichfield is approximately 12 miles.

Tamworth has mainline rail services to both London Euston (from 70 minutes) and Birmingham New Street (20 minutes) The nearest airports are Birmingham International (20 miles) and East Midlands (22 miles).

Description
Formerly part of the Thorpe Constantine Estate, the farm has been in the current owners’ occupation for 30 years, firstly as tenants of the Thorpe Estate and more recently as freehold owners. The farm has been home to a substantial herd of milking goats and the owners have produced high quality artisan goats cheese under the ‘Innes Cheese’ brand, marketed and sold through retailers such as Neal’s Yard Dairy in London.

Farmhouse
The farmhouse is Grade II Listed and dates from the early 1800’s, being built of brick under a slate roof. The accommodation is well presented but offers enormous scope for adding further value. The farmhouse offers an excellent layout and well-proportioned rooms with double glazed sash windows to the ground floor.

The kitchen is large and spacious with a range of kitchen units, double Belfast sink, space for a range oven or Aga and access to a substantial cellar. As well as a large living room, the ground floor also has a spacious dining room, a very cosy snug and a separate WC off the rear hall. The cellar is suitable for storage and is split into three chambers, being accessed via two staircases from the kitchen and reception hall. The first floor offers three double bedrooms, one with an en-suite bathroom, a single bedroom and shower room. The bathrooms have been thoughtfully fitted out, with a freestanding roll top bath in the en-suite, and bespoke wash basins. The entire top floor has in the past been laid out as a separate flat with its own kitchen, bathroom, two double bedrooms and a large living area. The top floor offers a superb space for a large family, being an excellent childrens/teenagers play area.

On its southern elevation, the farmhouse benefits from a large garden, predominantly laid to lawn, with a brick paved seating area for outside dining, plenty of mature fruit trees and a large vegetable patch. There is also a gateway from the garden through into one of the paddocks.

Buildings
In addition to the farmhouse, the property benefits from two attractive brick and tile two storey ranges which offer excellent scope for alternative uses. One of these has been used by the current owners for making cheese, and the ground floor rooms are fitted out to comply with food preparation standards. The upper floor offers ample office and storage space.

The second two storey range is currently unused but formerly housed the Thorpe Estate bakery.

There is a range of further modern agricultural buildings comprising:
-Brick and tile open fronted livestock shed
-Three bay Dutch barn
-Single bay monopitch building
-Five bay (22.70m x 19.00m) steel portal frame livestock shed with fibre cement roof and cladding and raised central feed passage
-Steel framed 5 bay lean-to (22.70m x 6.17m) housing former dairy and milking parlour
-Five bay (22.70m x 10.50m) concrete portal framed livestock shed with fibre cement roof and cladding to one side.
-Five bay (22.70m x 11.50m) steel portal frame livestock building with a raised feed passage, fibre cement roof and part concrete block walls.
-Eight bay (36.60m x 11.05m) concrete portal frame general purpose building with concrete floor, fibre cement roof and concrete block walls.
-Disused brick and steel framed milking parlour.

Land
The property extends to approximately 11.96 acres (4.84 ha) or thereabouts and comprises an attractive pasture paddock close to the house of about 1.74 acres (0.70 ha) and a further pasture field of about 7.33 acres (2.97 ha) lying to the north of the buildings. The paddock near the house has separate vehicular access to the drive and access through a timber five bar gate into the garden, and there is a smaller turnout paddock to the left of the drive.

The property is on a relatively quiet lane and there are a number of long rural bridleways in close proximity.

Services
The house and buildings are connected to mains water and electricity. Foul drainage is to a private sewage treatment system which comprises two brick settlement tanks and filtration beds to which discharge into the pond in the main field to the north of the buildings. There is no mains gas to the property. The house and the cheese building are centrally heated by a Twin Heat 80KW wood chip boiler located in the brick and tile range to the rear of the house. The boiler is automatically fed from a steel free standing hopper to the rear of the boiler house. The house and the cheese room both have a separate hot water cylinders fed from the boiler, as does the milking parlour.

RHI & FIT Payments
The woodchip boiler benefits from payments under the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) of about £9,000 per annum. There are also payments under the Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) for 14kw of roof mounted solar panels.

Council Tax
The house is in Council Tax Band F.

Fixtures & Fittings
Only those items in the nature of fixtures and fittings mentioned in these particulars are included in the sale. Other items are specifically excluded including, but not limited to, the live and dead stock, the cheese making equipment, bulk milk tank and milking parlour.

Tenure & Possession
The property is freehold and vacant possession will be given upon completion.

Easement, Wayleaves & Rights of Way
The Thorpe Estate and the owner of Highfields Cottage have a right of way over the existing track past the buildings shown hatched brown on the plan. This track is also a public footpath.

The property is sold subject to and with the benefit of all rights, including rights of way, easements and wayleaves whether referred to or not.

Basic Payment Scheme & Countryside Stewardship
No Basic Payment Scheme Entitlements are included with the sale. The land is not entered into any Countryside Stewardship or Environmental Stewardship schemes.

Plan, Area & Description
The plan, area and descriptions are believed to be correct in every way, but no claim will be entertained by the vendor or their agents in respect of any error, omissions or misdescriptions. The plan is for identification purposes only.

Local Authorities
Lichfield District Council
www.lichfielddc.gov.uk
Severn Trent Water
www.stwater.co.uk
Western Power Distribution
www.westernpower.co.uk

Method of Sale
The property is being offered for sale as a whole by private treaty.

Overage
The owners of the Thorpe Estate have an overage clause over the farm buildings reserving 30% of any increased value attributed to planning permission for any non-agricultural or non-equestrian uses.

Subject to the above overage clause, there is excellent potential for the conversion of the buildings to other uses including residential, holiday let accommodation, rural offices and storage.

Viewing Arrangements
Strictly by prior appointment via the agents, Howkins and Harrison Atherstone