7 bedroom house

Set back from the crossroads at the centre of the village, Thornbank farm forms part of a group of attractive listed buildings close to the village's beautiful, medieval church. Judging by architectural features within the house, it was originally built in the 16th/17th century before being extensively refurbished, rearranged and enlarged in the mid-19th century. Since then it has hardly changed architecturally and today is a lovely example of a farmhouse of the period and consequently is Grade II listed. It is built of painted and plastered local stone under a Welsh slate roof and has an elegant front façade with tall, ornate windows, square columned portico and original heavy front door. Behind it is a courtyard of period barns that were once used as the local cattle market/auction house. The interior is full of character and has retained many original architectural fittings including several impressive fireplaces including an inglenook fitted with a wood burner in the sitting room, exposed brickwork, ceiling beams and an elegant staircase and distinctive Minton tiled floor to the entrance hallway. It has excellent ceiling height throughout, good-sized rooms, has been sympathetically refurbished over recent years and is very well presented. The ground floor has four reception rooms including a large sitting room, smaller, more intimate dining room, a peacefully positioned study and a south-facing garden room overlooking the courtyard. The kitchen/breakfast is also positioned at the back of the house and is an absolute dream. It has a tiled floor and is fully fitted with a range of units and gas/electric-fired range cooker. Best of all it has ample room for both seating and dining areas making it a hub for the house as well as a wonderful space for entertaining. Upstairs off the L-shaped, central landing, which has a secondary staircase to the attics, are a total of five bedrooms and a family bathroom. The principal bedroom has an integral shower room, is large and airy and overlooks the courtyard.

Outbuildings & Garden

Immediately in front of the house is an area of garden bounded by stone walling with a pathway leading from the village lane up to the front door sheltering under its square columned portico. Immediately to the rear is a range of traditional barns built of stone and brick, which form an attractive courtyard at their centre that provides a sheltered outside seating and dining area as well parking space for two cars. Between the barns on the western side is an access gateway onto the lane and there are also three open bays/stores with an accompanying flight of steps that leads up to the large rear garden. This is situated to the south of the courtyard and consists of a lawn planted with a variety of shrubs and trees including several fruit trees and a magnificent walnut tree.
The garden which is South facing and its boundaries sit outside of the Grade two listing status. It is a part walled garden and the boundary wall and a very small area of land to the top corner is owned and maintained by the Church but allow gated access into the top of the garden. There is a simple licence arrangement to cover this.
This part of the garden is partly walled with the church owns the wall beside the lane side. Also sited within the rear garden is a two-bedroom, mobile annexe which is currently used as hosting family members. In all the gardens and grounds extend to just under half an acre (0.2 hectare).

Thornbank Farm is situated in Culmstock, a beautiful rural village in the Blackdown Hills AONB. The village has good amenities including a medieval parish church, café/store, pub and primary school rated by Ofsted as 2 (Good). The neighbouring village of Uffculme has additional local amenities including a post office/village store plus other shops, a library and two schools, of which the secondary school is Ofsted rated as 1 (Outstanding). The nearby town of Cullompton is handy too with a Tesco Superstore and a selection of local shops and businesses including GP, dental and veterinary surgeries. Local transport links are also good with the M5 10 minutes away and a regular train service running between Exeter and Cullompton. Tiverton Parkway and Honiton stations offer regular train services to Paddington and Waterloo respectively and Exeter International Airport is also just a 25 minute drive away. The local area also offers a wide choice of schools both from the independent and state sectors including Exeter School, The Maynard and Exeter Cathedral School, which are all in Exeter itself, along with Blundell's School in Tiverton.

Uffculme 2.9 miles • Junction 27 M5 4.9 miles • Tiverton Parkway station 6.7 miles (Paddington 1 hour 54 minutes) • Cullompton 7.4 miles (Exeter Central 23 minutes) • Honiton/A30 11 miles (Waterloo 2 hours 54 minutes) • Tiverton 13 miles • Exeter Airport 19 miles (London City Airport 1 hour) • Exeter city centre 25 miles (Distances and time approximate)

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