A delightful thatched cottage on the outskirts of the Stour Valley with charming period features and a flourishing country garden

(Image credit: Winkworth)

published 22 September 2021

Peeping from under its eyebrow dormers, this pretty thatched cottage sits on the outskirts of the village of Great Henny, on the county boundary with Suffolk in the rolling Stour Valley.

Old Fenners — currently on the market via Winkworth at a guide price of £950,000 — has an acre of south-facing mature gardens that are lovingly cared for and in bloom throughout the year — currently scattered with phlox, Michaelmas daisies and delicious greengages; quince will be ready for jellying in about a month and there are cherries in the summer.

Elsewhere, rambling roses, wisteria, clematis and honeysuckle combine to fill the air with their sweet, floral notes. The garden benefits from mature hedging to create a private, sunny oasis.

Grade II-listed and dating from the 15th century, this former hall house was once two cottages and now contains five bedrooms and lots of character, with attractive fireplaces and walls and ceilings so criss-crossed with beams you could almost call them striped.

All the bedrooms are surprisingly bright, and flooded with natural daylight, no least the principal suite, which has double aspect windows, with far-reaching rear views out over the surrounding rolling countryside, and the garden to the front.

Old Fenners is currently on the market via Winkworth at a guide price of £950,000 — see more pictures, or enquire with the agent for further details.

Great Henny: What you need to know

Location: Near Sudbury, in the Baintree district of Essex on the west of the Stour valley. The market town of Sudbury is approximately 4 miles away, which has a rail station offering Great Eastern mainline services to London Liverpool Street.

Atmosphere: 'Charming and tranquil,' the hamlet has a picturesque riverside pub and restaurant with further amenities found in Sudbury and Bures.

Things to do: Enjoy the fabulous country walks on offer in the surrounding countryside — the inspiration behind many of Constable's and Gainsborough's paintings. Paddle boarding and rowing is also available on the River Stour.

Schools: Pot Kiln Primary School and Thomas Gainsborough School are both rated 'good' by Ofsted.

See more property for sale in the area.

Credit: Strutt and Parker

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Annunciata grew up in the wilds of Lancashire and now lives in Hampshire with a husband, two daughters and an awful pug called Parsley. She’s been floating round the Country Life office for more than a decade, her work winning the Property Magazine of the Year Award in 2022 (Property Press Awards). Before that, she had a two-year stint writing ‘all kinds of fiction’ for The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, worked in internal comms for Country Life’s publisher (which has had many names in recent years but was then called IPC Media), and spent another year researching for a historical biographer, whose then primary focus was Graham Greene and John Henry Newman and whose filing system was a collection of wardrobes and chests of drawers filled with torn scraps of paper. During this time, she regularly gave tours of 17th-century Milton Manor, Oxfordshire, which may or may not have been designed by Inigo Jones, and co-founded a literary, art and music festival, at which Johnny Flynn headlined. When not writing and editing for Country Life, Annunciata is also a director of TIN MAN ART, a contemporary art gallery founded in 2021 by her husband, James Elwes.

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Great Henny: What you need to know

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