The 'best of both worlds' in a 16th century house with Georgian façade and sprawling grounds with lake and stables

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All houses change a little over their lifetimes — and some end up unrecognisable as the centuries pass. Penny Churchill takes a look at one such example: The Old Rectory at Brandsby.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the country’s richest landowners and industrialists underlined their status in Society by building impressive country houses in the fashionable Palladian, neo-Classical or Regency style of their day.

The less well-off — but still unimaginably rich to the man in the Industrialisation era street — sought to achieve the same effect by tacking a grand Georgian façade onto a less imposing building from an earlier period — and that’s what happened at today’s property. Launched onto the market earlier this month with a guide price of in excess of £2.95 million through York-based Blenkin & Co, Grade II*-listed The Old Rectory at Brandsby, North Yorkshire, offers the best of both worlds.

Described in Country Life back in March 2012 as ‘a house in two parts’, the original rectory dates from 1565, when it was built by the then incumbent, the Revd Robert Wilson. That house was partially thatched and, some 240 years later, in 1809, one very rich rector, the Revd William Smith, added the fine Georgian front in ashlar stone.

He also created four grand Georgian rooms — the present drawing room, dining room and master and guest bedrooms — in front of the more informal 16th-century rooms at the rear of the house.

Sold away by the Church in 1938, the landmark former rectory stands in some 22½ acres of gardens, paddocks and woodland on the edge of Brandsby village, which lies south of the North York Moors, surrounded on all sides by the undulating wooded countryside of the scenic Howardian Hills, four miles from the Georgian market town of Easingwold and 14 miles north of York. A further 18¼ acres of adjoining grassland is available by separate negotiation.

Successive recent owners have significantly improved the charming main house, which offers more than 7,000sq ft of light-filled living space. This includes entrance and staircase halls; three main reception rooms, including the two elegant Georgian rooms, which boast elaborate plasterwork, fine panelling and tall sash windows overlooking the gardens and grounds.

There is a country kitchen fitted with high-spec modern units and part open-plan with the breakfast room, which together create a splendid family living space.

There are two Georgian bedroom suites and three smaller bedrooms in the older part of the house. The latter is connected to the first floor of the attached cottage annexe, now vacant and in need of renovation.

Further accommodation is provided in the modernised two-bedroom Rectory Cottage. Swathed in roses, it stands alongside a yew tree behind a low wall and a pretty front garden, with an enclosed private garden looking over the hills to the rear. It is currently let on an assured shorthold tenancy.

The detached former coach house has been converted to a substantial annexe, which could accommodate a live-in carer or be turned into two separate dwellings. Outbuildings are arranged around the stable courtyard and include three stables, garaging for three cars, a recently refitted workshop/studio and a large general-purpose building.

The front of the house overlooks parkland gardens towards an all-weather tennis court enclosed with a ha-ha. A traditional walled garden houses two conservatories, a sunny paved terrace and a formal herb garden.

The orchard is part walled, with a variety of fruit bushes, trees and raised beds. A stream-fed wildlife lake beyond the ha-ha comes with a summerhouse and pontoon and beyond the gardens are areas of grassland and wildflower meadows, an avenue of black poplar trees and a section of woodland on the southern boundary under-planted with bluebells.