In the pretty village of Filby, this three-bedroom cottage has a unique selling point that really is something else: a pair of Sumatran tigers living on the other side of the fence.
‘The full Tiger King experience on your doorstep!’ reads a line from the details for Oak Lodge, in the village of Filby, within the Norfolk Broads National Park.
It’s not so much the design, the thatched roof or the lovely garden that makes it stand out, however; it’s what lies next door. The house backs on to the Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens — and more specifically the tiger enclosure. You can see the handsome beasts — a male Sumatran tiger named Kubu and a female called Dua — prowling through their wooded home, and hear the sounds of their roars as they call to each other through the trees.
The house is for sale with Minors & Brady via OnTheMarket at £365,000, the same sort of price as you’d pay for a similarly-sized (or perhaps slightly larger) house in one of the nearby coastal villages, such as Caister, which are a short drive away.
A large, open-plan kitchen-dining room is the heart of the single-storey home, while there’s also a separate living room and three bedrooms.
Thrigby Hall itself has an interesting history. Built in 1736 by Joshua Smith, it became a wildlife park in 1979 when a man named Ken Sims took it over. Ken had spent some time living and working with wildlife in Malaysia, and — inspired by David Attenborough and Gerald Durrell — he turned this Georgian house and gardens into a park which now has not only tigers, but also alligators, crocodiles, meerkats and several types of leopard, among others.
The cottage’s proximity to the coast, the Norfolk Broads and — of course — the tigers makes it jump out as an ideal holiday let, but it would also make a lovely permanent home. Filby has a primary school among its amenities, the busy seaside town of Great Yarmouth is within easy reach and Norfolk is just over half an hour’s drive.
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