There are some properties which come to the market which can't help but provoke a strong, emotional reaction. Private islands for sale, romantic castles and thatched cottages all seem to hit the spot, but there's one class of property which also manages to do so which isn't even really a home: the windmill.
Buying a windmill can mean you have to compromise in the size and shape of your rooms, put up with a lack of privacy (generally each floor inside a windmill is a single room with a staircase, making installation of doors tricky) and tackle all manner of maintenance headaches that come with tall, old buildings.
The gains, however, are wonderful. Few things are more romantically stirring than a windmill — particularly if it still has its sails — and there's also a quirkiness which absolutely appeals to British eccentricity.
One such windmill has just come to the market via Strutt & Parker in the pretty Norfolk village of Cley-next-the-Sea. Cley Windmill is a true local landmark that has been standing here since the 18th century (it's Grade II*-listed), and which has served as a home since it stopped milling in 1921. The person who decided to make that conversion was Mary, Duchess of Bedford — aka the Flying Duchess — and it later became the childhood home of singer James Blunt.
In recent years it's been run as a boutique guest house and wedding venue, with the 11 bedrooms having the standard of interior decoration that you'd expect on that basis: there are four-poster beds, beautifully-finished fixtures and fittings and a wealth of original features.
There is also a restaurant and a number of outbuildings — including a converted dovecote and the 'Old Cart Shed' — for the new owner to do with as they wish. There's certainly a fine lifestyle business to be run here, for someone with the appetite to do so.
Cley itself is a very pretty village that was once a prosperous port before a combination of land reclamation and silting in the River Glaven changed the nature of the coast in this spot.
As such the windmill is a mile of so from the coast and the river is navigable only in small boats — but it's all the more charming for that.
Eight irresistible thatched cottages for sale, from under £450,000
The romantic appeal of an English country cottage with a thatched roof never fades, as these wonderful homes show.
-
The pine marten is a predatory force to be reckoned withThe pine marten may have a taste for jam sandwiches, but its razor-sharp claws and appetite for eggs and grey squirrels makes it a predatory force to be reckoned with.
-
An ancient manor where a millennium of history and a medieval moat meet a swimming pool and party barnA medieval manor that was birthplace of one of Henry V's generals, Hempnalls Hall blends fascinating history, enormous character and 21st century comfort.
-
An ancient manor where a millennium of history and a medieval moat meet a swimming pool and party barn
A medieval manor that was birthplace of one of Henry V's generals, Hempnalls Hall blends fascinating history, enormous character and 21st century comfort.
-
One of Scotland's last untouched private islands, with a 'cave house' of your own and dolphins for neighboursInsh Island, off Scotland’s west coast, has no buildings except a ‘cave house’, zero light pollution and even fewer inhabitants. It is on the market with Savills.
-
The catch-22 holding back the property market in Britain — and the clever idea that could take the handbrake offThere's a growing swell of opinion that a Stamp Duty tax break for downsizers could unblock the impasse in the property market. Annabel Dixon explains.
-
Inside the Cotswolds farmhouse that's had 'a restoration of rare artistry and scale', now being sold by Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de RossiEllen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi swapped California for a Cotswolds farmhouse just a year ago, and are already on the move — meaning that their Oxfordshire home, Kitesbridge Farm, is on the market.
-
A rare glimpse into a wonderful country home being sold off-market, set in a picture-perfect village and with a vast natural swimming poolIt's rare that we get permission to write about houses being sold off-market — but we have just that with a house called White's, in one of Kent's most beautiful villages.
-
A cosy cottage in Durham where Oliver Cromwell drank mead and dreamt of glorious uprising is for saleBlagraves in Barnard Castle, Co Durham, is a dreamy home by the River Tees which is the second oldest building in the town.
-
Model Kate Moss’s former London home in leafy St John’s Wood is up for saleKate Moss’s former London home has only had one owner since she sold it in 2012 and moved to the Cotswolds.
-
A dozen fine homes across Britain, from Cornish cottages to a vast Highland estate, as seen in Country LifeOur look at some of the best homes to come to the market via Country Life includes a gorgeous south coast home.
