We have seen many different kinds of conversions come sliding across the Country Life Property Desk desk. Typically they are barns. I grew up in a barn conversion, so I have a soft spot for them, even though our great lord and saviour Nicky Haslam has now decided that they are common. He gets everyone eventually.
Churches, windmills, watermills, courthouses, old post offices, schoolhouses, water towers, lighthouses and so on. If it is a building, it can be converted. If you stand still long enough, it is very likely that Kevin McCloud and whichever hapless couple is on the brink of a divorce will come and convert you into a house. It seems odd, then, that it has taken so long for me to come across a converted bank. After all, they are on most high streets. And yet!
But now I have one. Or at least have seen one. It’s in Shipston-on-Stour, predictably on the High Street (where banks live), and offers four bedrooms. It is for sale with Hamptons for offers in excess of £900,000.
I like Shipston-on-Stour. I went there once, a few years ago. It’s pretty. It’s in the Cotswolds, but not the bit that everyone hates. It has lots of nice pubs and good shops. And a river. It’s about as English a town as you could hope to ever find. This house is bang in the middle of it.
As discussed, it used to be a bank. Banks come with vaults, traditionally, and this home is no different, except the vault is used for storing wine rather than gold or coins. The renovation of this home, the name of which I cannot find, was undertaken by the current owners, who have created a terrific blend of historic character and modern convenience.
That character shines through in the details of the interiors, and also their layout. The property, on the market for less than £1 million, offers a large kitchen/breakfast room with island, a ‘retail space’, a vault/wine store, utility room, office, home gym, library, family/garden room. All of which are on the ground floor.
On the first floor, you’ll find two bedrooms, a vast bathroom, a drawing room, and a study, with two further bedrooms on the second floor. Outside, a coach house offers additional storage space in the walled garden. A reminder that this house is in the heart of one of the Cotswolds’ best towns.
This bank, the first that I’ve seen, is very worthy of joining the pantheon of great conversions. May we endeavour to see more.
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