Beech House

Listed Grade II, Beech House is a handsome stone house originally dating from 1580 and subsequently extended between the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. The house has dressed stone elevations with the majority of windows having attractive stone mullions, and with the principal reception rooms being arranged around the elegant hall and main staircase. The accommodation has nicely proportioned rooms, with all the principal reception rooms having a southerly outlook over the gardens and grounds and down to the River Stour. Attributes worthy of a particular mention include elm flooring in the hall, elm ‘plank and muntin’ in the hall and the landing between ground and first floors, fireplaces in the drawing room and snug. More recent works include the addition of the dressing room and bathroom to the master bedroom, re-plumbing and electrical re-wiring in 2003, overhauling the roof in 2005/06 and installation of a new boiler in 2019.
Approached off Bridge Street onto a gravelled drive, Beech House is well screened from Bridge Road by a variety of evergreen shrubs, trees and close boarded fencing. The gravel drive leads up to the front and to the rear of the property, leading to a wide parking area adjoining which is the garaging. There is an attractive brick and tiled former stable building (with potential for ancillary accommodation, subject to the usual consents) and which comprises a tack room with partitions dividing the space into three separate boxes. Behind the stable block there are timber sheds with light and power.
The gardens lie principally to south and east of the property. To the south they are to well tended lawn, while the façade is clad with wisteria and flanked by well stocked flower and shrub borders. To the east, the gardens are again to lawn with beech hedging and at the rear two separate areas of lawn divided by laurel hedging. There is a hard tennis court. The gardens provide wonderful back drop to the house with a variety of mature trees including beech, copper beech, pine, eucalyptus and weeping willow and extend to about 2.8 acres.
To the south of the house there is a paddock leading down to the River Stour, approached off Bridge Street with separate access and with a footpath that runs from south west to south east; this is screened from the house by a variety of tall trees and shrubs and extends to about 4.13 acres. In all about the land extends to about 6.93 acres.
Beech House lies on the southern fringe of the popular market town of Sturminster Newton, which has a weekly market and lies in the heart of the Blackmore Vale. In recent years it has undergone considerable regeneration with an active arts centre, a doctors surgery, supermarket, traditional butcher and delicatessen, cafes, pubs and dental practices. The county town of Dorchester lies to the south and offers a wide range of facilities and other towns in the area include Shaftesbury, Blandford Forum and Sherborne. Gillingham has a mainline station to London Waterloo (approximately 2 hours).



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