6 bedroom house

Built between 1830 and 1840 and Grade II listed, Beachborough is a charming example of a former rectory of the period. Virtually no modernisation had been undertaken when it was bought in an almost derelict state in 2000 by them current owners, who then undertook a comprehensive, yet very sympathetic refurbishment.

All of the original architectural features have been retained or, where necessary, sympathetically replaced including fireplaces, timber floors, tall sash windows and working shutters. The house has an elevated and south-facing position with lovely views across the garden towards the far side of the valley. The house has a wonderful feeling of light and space throughout achieved not only by its position and tall sash windows but also by the large, circular roof lantern that allows natural light to flood the galleried landing, elegant, sweeping staircase and the reception hall below.

The house has a four good sized reception rooms; the adjoining dining and drawing rooms both face south, the study looks out towards the front drive and the cosy snug is tucked away adjacent to the kitchen. The kitchen itself is fitted with bespoke painted timber units, a 2-oven Sandyford Cooker inset in the original fireplace and with windows on two sides including French windows opening to the atrium courtyard. Through the adjacent snug is a large, north-facing larder and there is a suite of cellars beneath the ground floor. The house has a total of six double bedrooms, all with en-suite bath/shower rooms. Two are on the ground floor created from former servants quarters and the remaining four are off the central galleried landing. The servants bedrooms on the first floor of the service wing now form a self-contained 1-bedroom flat.

Set back behind and to one side of the house are various fully restored period outbuildings that would be suitable for a variety of different purposes, subject to the appropriate planning permissions. Arranged around two sides of a concrete yard are the stable block housing three loose boxes and the adjacent former coach house with groom's quarters above accessible by an external stone staircase. The coach house itself is currently used as a fourth loose box. To one side and set well back from the house are two open-fronted Linhay, one of which is currently used as a wood store and the other as a workshop. Set further back is a traditional Devon two-storey bank barn, which provides a games and party house and has considerable potential subject to obtaining the necessary consents.

The house is approached through a stand of trees via a sweeping drive to a gravelled turning circle in front of the house with sufficient parking space for several cars, before continuing on past the stable yard to the garages and bank barn. The current owners have undertaken extensive landscaping to create a beautiful, tiered garden that is famed for its wonderful array of roses and is considered of sufficient merit to warrant a place on the National Gardens Scheme. The garden is framed by sheltered grounds planted with several mature specimen trees and extends out from the south side of the house. It comprises a paved terrace fringed with richly planted borders, with the land descending downwards through tiered borders retained by walls of local stone to a two-tiered lawn. Below the lawn is a delightful brook that flows into a large pond overlooked by a summerhouse with decking and bordering an orchard. Adjacent to the bank barn is a productive kitchen garden with greenhouse protected by mature hedging with a series of raised beds laid out around brick paths in the form of a cartwheel. At the other end of the grounds is a hard tennis court sheltered by several mature trees. Behind the stables is a gently sloping paddock of just under an acre. In all the garden and grounds extend to about 4 acres (1.62 hectares).

Kentisbury 1.3 mile , Barnstaple town centre 9.1 miles, (Exeter 1 hour 15 minutes), Woolacombe Beach 12.7 mile

Marketed by: Knight Frank, Exeter