Apperley Farm, near the village of Stocksfield, Northumbria, is a beautiful family home with plenty of space for both relaxing and entertaining. Penny Churchill takes a look.
Across the county border in Northumberland, Oliver Custance Baker of Strutt & Parker’s Country Department quotes a guide price of £2.2m for Grade II-listed Apperley Farm near Stocksfield, an impressive country house set in 12 acres of gardens, woodland and apple orchards, with excellent equestrian facilities, including a stable block, a floodlit arena and several paddocks.
In medieval times, the small township of Apperley comprised a compact, 428-acre estate in the ancient parish of Bywell St Peter, which had a population of 25 in 1891. Apperley Farmhouse stands close to the northern and western slopes of a range of hills that form the watershed between the valleys of the Tyne and the Derwent.
The house, which dates from the 17th century, looks southwards towards the chapel of Whittonstall, where the Boutflower family, who owned the Apperley estate from the turbulent 1600s to the 1760s, worshipped and were buried.
Following the death of William Boutflower in 1766, the Apperley estate was acquired by the Surtees family of Hamsterley.
In the 1930s, the farmhouse was extended and remodelled by Field-Marshal Viscount John Standish Surtees Gort of the Grenadier Guards, a distinguished soldier who fought in the two World Wars and was Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force that went to France in 1939. He died in March 1946.
According to Historic England, Lord Gort ‘re-used old material and architectural features from Newcastle and elsewhere’ to create the handsome stone house, which now offers 5,200sq ft of light and cheerful living space, including three large reception rooms, a family kitchen/breakfast room, five/six bedrooms and three bath/shower rooms.
The present owners, who bought Apperley Farm in 2012, have further improved the house, converting the second floor into a spacious master suite and installing a biomass boiler.
Apperley Farm is currently on the market via Strutt & Parker with a guide price of £2.2 million — see more pictures or enquire with the agent for further details.
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