Country houses for sale

A fine Devon home set beside the river in acres of mature woodland

Penny Churchill takes a look at a fine house in Devon that sits within 14 pretty acres of woodland.

Up in tranquil mid Devon, the village of Washfield, centred on St Mary’s Church and the village hall, is a scattered farming community covering more than 4,000 acres of rolling pasture that looks across the picturesque Exe Valley, 2½ miles north of Tiverton and 17 miles from Exeter. It includes the outlying settlement of Lower Washfield, where Richard Addington of Jackson-Stops in Exeter is handling the sale of Worth House, an unlisted 1930s property built by one Roger Pilkington-Young on the site of a Georgian building previously owned by the Worth family, major landowners in this part of Devon until about 1840.

Mr Addington quotes a guide price of £2.3m for Worth House, which stands overlooking the Exe, surrounded by 14 acres of gardens and grounds, including a large walled garden and splendid mature trees — among them a tulip tree, a London plane, a Wellingtonia, a cedar and a liquidambar.

Well maintained by its current owner, who bought it in 2002, the house offers 9,170sq ft of well-proportioned living space, including four main reception rooms.

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There is a kitchen/breakfast room, a billiard room, a rear kitchen and an orangery.

Upstairs there are six bedrooms, and while not all are technically en-suite there is a bathroom for each: four of the bedroom suites have their own, while there are two further bedrooms and bathrooms.

Behind the house, on the other side of an enclosed courtyard, a former coach house provides garaging, storage, a workshop and stables, with stairs leading up to two one-bedroom flats.

As well as woodland the grounds include a walled garden and river frontage, with access to a bridge across the River Exe.

Worth House is for sale at £2.3m via Jackson-Stops — see more details and pictures.