Penny Churchill takes a look at The Elms at West Pennard, a beautifully-restored home that sits in fine gardens.
The Elms at West Pennard is a 19th century joy in an ancient part of England, sitting as it does close to Glastonbury, Wells and the Isle of Avalon. It’s one of three large Victorian family houses in the village mentioned in British History Online as being built in the Victorian Gothic style and worthy of note. The Wells office of Fine & Country is handling the sale of this fine home, and quotes a guide price of ‘excess £1.75m’.
The Elms, which stands in three-quarters of an acre of mature gardens on the edge of the village, with views over Glastonbury Tor, has been completely renovated by the present owners, who bought it in 2014.
In the past 18 months alone, the house has — deep breath — been re-roofed, rewired, replumbed, had a new central heating system with new radiators and boiler, and windows swapped out for high specification replacements.
For all the work that’s been done, the house still retains such classic Gothic Revival features as stone mullion windows, marble and cast-iron fireplaces, fine plaster cornicing, stained-glass windows and, of course, servants’ bells.
The village of West Pennard itself, which sits halfway between Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet in the Mendip district of Somerset, was granted to Glastonbury Abbey by the king of the Mercians in 681 and was held by the abbey until the Dissolution in 1539.
The village, which lies between Glastonbury Tor to the west and the equally dominant Pennard Hill to the east, takes its name from the Old Welsh for ‘high hill’ — these being something of a rarity in these parts.
Although country house prices in the area are generally less daunting than elsewhere in the county, the village boasts excellent mainstream connections, being 24 miles from Bath, 26 miles from Bristol and eight miles from the cathedral city of Wells.
The Elms at West Pennard is for sale at £1.75m — see more details and pictures.
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