Rural property with brilliant gardens

All right, so Robert Browning had not August but May in mind, but you get the picture.

We’ve come over all poetic for a couple of good reasons. Firstly, it’s a beautiful summer’s morning, awash with greens and golds, russets and reds. A gentle breeze is brushing the tree tops and the sun is dancing in a bright blue sky.

And in among this August glory, Townwell House is sitting pretty behind its sheltering hedges and dipping trees, gardens in full bloom, butterflies and blackbirds and not a blade of grass out of place. It’s a beautiful sight.

A North Yorkshire rural retreat at its very finest. “Well,” says Geoff Walker, “we’ve got a good day for it.”

Geoff and his wife Ann are the owners of this delightful house, tucked away behind all that greenery on Main Street in the village of Sand Hutton.

They’ve been here for 17 years and, says Geoff, “loved every minute”.

And why not? There’s a lot to love about Townwell House. It’s a hugely handsome property to look at. It has a long, sweeping mellow red brick frontage, curled here and there with gentle ivy, and with two panelled bow windows to one side of a distinguished red front door and a deep curved window to the other (character windows, as we are to discover are something ofa feature of this home).

The house faces onto the front garden with its shaped lawns, flowerbeds, mature trees and the well from which the house is named.

Around the side of the house, passing along a flagged walkway brushed by more flower beds, you come to the back where the space opens to a brilliant walled garden with raised lawn and patio area, masses of colourful flowers and shrubs.

It’s south-facing, sun-drenched, utterly private and utterly delightful.

“The gardens are a credit to Ann,”

Geoff says. “She has done a marvellous job.”

Indeed she has. But what about the house itself? Can the interior live up to the marvellous exterior?

Well, in a word, yes, as we are about to see.

Firstly, however, we should tell you this is a house with history; two homes in one, as it were, because when first built some time early in the 19th century it was made up of two workers’ cottages, before being created as one spacious home in the 1960s.

To appreciate what a fine and spacious home came from that compilation, let us follow Geoff as he takes us on a tour...

From the long flagged terrace at the back of the house we step into an inner hallway and dining area with a sitting room off to the left.

This is a room drenched in character with a feature brick fireplace at its centre, a bow window to one side and a unique, floor to ceiling, curved, semi-circular bay to the other. The overall effect is of a delightful, sunny, light and bright space.

There are more living areas to come – firstly in the shape of an elegant music room, with its piano and organ revealing Geoff’s love of music (he plays the organ in the village church). Then comes a smart conservatory, facing south and to the walled garden.

“And next,” says Geoff, all smiles as we step from the conservatory into another room, “is my little space.” This ‘little space’ is a grown-up boy’s treasure trove; a hobbies room which at the moment is occupied by a village.

Model village that is.

One that surrounds the tracks, stations and halts of a miniature railway, all built and put together by Geoff. And possibly to be inherited with the house.

“So what we need is a train-loving organist to come along,” Geoff laughs.

Before we head up stairs, we walk back along the ground floor to the pretty cottage-style kitchen and dining area, again with lots of light coming in from windows to two sides and super views over the garden and with a utility room and cloakroom off.

By now, having been so wowed by this house and home, we are beginning to wonder if the upper floor might – as can quite often be the case in period homes – be a disappointment. It wasn’t.

There’s much more character on show up here, beginning with a deep arched window that drenches the stairs and landing in light.

Geoff and Ann have invested wisely in the bedrooms, upgrading and renovating in recent months.

The master bedroom, for instance, has a new and elegant range of fitted wardrobes and a contemporary en-suite shower room, and there is an equally stylish house bathroom.

There is a single bedroom – Ann’s equivalent of Geoff’s big boy’s room downstairs as it acts as her sewing and workroom – followed by two further double bedrooms facing front and back and both with nice views.

So there you have it... quite a package.

We know we landed on “a good day for it,” as Geoff said. On a sunny summer’s day, Townwell House is something close to the idyllic North Yorkshire country property so many of us dream of.

But we get the feeling that, when the nights draw in and winter comes, this could also be an exceptionally warm and cosy home. Oh to be in England... at any time.

Townwell House, Main Street, Sand Hutton

Reception rooms: 4, plus conservatory

Bedrooms: 4

Bathrooms: 2 plus ground floor cloakroom

Gardens: Fabulous, beautifully styled and private gardens to front, side and back

Price: £585,000

Contact: RM English, 01904 697900