A sophisticated penthouse apartment for sale in a striking converted former tweed mill in Oxfordshire

(Image credit: Inigo)

published 21 October 2022

It’s not our most common saying, but in the 12th century, the words ‘in Europe, the best wool is English, and in England, the best wool is Cotswold’ were oft uttered.

Grade II*-listed Bliss Mill, in the rural outskirts of Chipping Norton, is a remnant of this fine tradition.

Built of Cotswold stone and Victorian brick in 1872 by Lancashire-based mill architect George Woodhouse, commissioned by cloth manufacturer William Bliss, the former tweed mill used local wool and, during the First World War, supplied fabric for uniforms and horse blankets.

The converted mill’s three-bed penthouse apartment is now on the market via Inigo Homes for £685,000.

Enjoying a view over the rolling AONB that the mill workers probably never had time to notice, a three-bedroom apartment on the top floor is available. Original features include cast-iron columns, brick vaults, arched windows and exposed brick walls, with modern additions such as an engineered-oak parquet floor and Farrow & Ball-painted bespoke cabinetry, plus a separate garage.

Mill residents all have access to an indoor pool, sauna, jacuzzi, tennis court, squash court and gym, and the six landscaped acres incorporate the old mill race. Historic England calls it ‘A remarkable opulent design in a park-like setting’.

Chipping Norton is a well-loved Cotswold market town within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Home to a wide range of fantastic independent shops – think dreamy interiors from Osborn Studio, delicious goods from Daylesford farm shop, art galleries, book shops, cosy country pubs, a cinema, theatre and plenty of restaurants — the town is synonymous with quintessential Cotswold living.

With great access to scenic walks, Soho Farmhouse just a short distance away, Burford Garden Centre and a number of National Trust Properties open to the public, there is plenty on offer in the area.

Local schooling is also excellent with The Ace Centre Nursery School, St Mary’s Church of England Primary School Chipping Norton, Chipping Norton School, Kitebrook, Tudor Hall and Bloxham.

The University town of Oxford (just over 20 miles to the southeast) is also home to The Dragon School and St Edwards, as well as many others.

The Penthouse at Bliss Mill is currently on the market via Inigo for £685,000 – see more pictures or enquire with the agent for further details.

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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