There’s something about the way a house is built into a landscape that I always find immensely charming. It’s that symbiosis between the built and the natural, I think, that moves the humours in a certain way. There is nothing wrong with a tremendous Palladian pile that dominates its landscapes. But the way a home can be sensitively inserted into a rolling landscape, elevating both, is to me the very pinnacle of good design.
Because homes, such as they are, are not natural but they are necessary. So finding a way to respect both the needs of the person (a roof, some electricity, a bit of heating, maybe a bed) and the earth is a skill and when executed well, create something of immense beauty. An example, and there is always an example in these bizarre ramblings of mine, would be the aptly named Rock Cottage near Turleigh in Wiltshire.
For sale with Hamptons for the sum of about £1.45 million, the property seems to spring out of the hill on which (in which?) it is built. Not only that, but as it is built in the local Bath stone, it resembles more of a geological protrusion than an assault upon nature. It also has four bedrooms and a roof and electricity and a bit of heating. All the boxes have been ticked.
Listed Grade II and situated within an elevated position in the village of Turleigh, the property is a perfectly liveable Georgian family home, with plenty of tasteful period touches throughout, such as fireplaces, flagstone flooring, exposed A beams and sash windows.
Set over three floors, the property boasts more than 2,800sq ft and comes with planning permission for a further reception room, if the three already on offer weren’t enough. The bottom two floors (lower and upper ground) you’ll find all the entertaining spaces, while the top (first) floor houses all three bedrooms, including the master suite, which is open to the full height with exposed A-frame beams and doors that open directly on to the gardens (remember that hill I told you about?).
Outside, the property sits in 1.7 acres of gardens and grounds with a wonderful parterre garden to the front. Two yew trees provide shade and privacy in the summer while a dining terrace sits right outside two of the reception rooms. The grounds also include a woodland and outbuildings.
Turleigh itself is a picturesque village with honey-coloured stone cottages and is close to the historic town of Bradford-upon-Avon. The next door village of Winsley benefits from a CofE primary school, two churches and a pleasant pub, while a popular farm shop is also nearby.
Rock Cottage is for sale with Hamptons for £1.45 million. For more information and pictures, click here
Credit: Strutt & Parker
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