The sounds of spring and stained glass in an Arts-and-Crafts masterpiece in Dorset

I am happy to announce, via the medium of the property pages of the Country Life website, that spring has sprung. There is more than one way to notice the advent of spring. Traditionally, it is when the sun enters the northern hemisphere. Some people like to wait for the first call of the cuckoo. I like to think it’s when the property photographers get out there and start taking nice pictures.

Here are some nice pictures of a house called Winterfield near Shaftesbury in Dorset. You might look at them and go ‘Oh, that’s a nice large house with a big garden and a pool and a tennis court’. You might also go, ‘Oh, surely that’s a defining example of the Arts-and-Crafts style designed in 1921 by Edward Turner Powell’. You would be right either way. £3.95 million with Winkworth and Jackson Stops.

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There is much to appreciate here. The property, which offers seven bedrooms, was constructed using the ‘finest locally quarried sandstone’ for the walls, with Delabole slate for the roofs and oak for the frame.

Approached through a gravel drive, the property’s accommodation is set over three floors, and features the aforementioned seven bedrooms, a reception hall, drawing room, dining room, open-plan kitchen/breakfast room and large family room. The bedrooms occupy the first and second floor, and there is also a library on the second floor.

The details of the interiors are impressive. Lots of space, period features throughout and I am a particular fan of having your own stained-glass windows. I also like the Frank Lloyd-Wright-esque doors.

Outside, things are also lovely. The property comes with about 35 acres of land, bursting with amenities such as an indoor pool complex, a separate gym complex, a garage with further accommodation above and a tennis court. There is also a separate three-bedroom cottage, named Burnbeck, which was built in the early 1980s.

The gardens themselves are a mix of formal and informal areas. A large expanse of lawn can be found at the front of the house, along with an area of wild garden flanked by box hedging and trees. To the west and rear of the house are a walled garden, further lawns and a terrace with views over the lakes. Paddocks fill out the rest of the land, ideal for equestrian use.

Train connections to and from London are serviced by Gillingham and Tisbury, while the market towns of Bath, Salisbury and Shaftesbury are all nearby, offering a wide range of amenities. All in all, enough to put a spring in your step.

Winterfield is for sale for £3.95 million with Jackson-Stops and Winkworth. Click for more pictures and information