Listing of the Day
Location: Cranleigh, Surrey, England
Price: £3.45 million (US$4.5 million)
This almost 700-year-old country house on the outskirts of a quaint English village is looking for a new lord or lady of the manor.
Known as Barhatch Farm, the Grade II-listed house is a "seriously historic house," according to listing agent Lottie Geaves of Savills.
It began life as a medieval open hall house, thought to have been built just before 1500.
A hall house was typically a one-room building with a single hearth in the middle of the floor for cooking and warmth.
The property remained modest until it was extended and upgraded in the 17th century and then again in the 18th century, with the addition of a wing on each end of the house, according to the listing.
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The current owners have been in residence for the last 30 years, and this is the first time the home has been on the market in that time.
"About 15 years ago, [the owners] did quite a big renovation," Ms. Geaves said. Among other things, they added on a glass-walled room with wooden beams that holds a hot tub. One of the owners, serving as the handyman, "sourced all those beams locally," she said.
Stats
The 6,034-square-foot house sits on five acres of land. It has seven bedrooms and four bathrooms. There is also a separate cottage, a period barn built in the late 17th century and a triple garage.
Amenities
The owners have recently renovated the detached cottage. It has a vaulted living room with a log-burning stove, plus a kitchen, a bedroom and a shower room.
Meanwhile the home’s almost two-acre formal gardens have been open to the public as part of the National Garden Scheme for many years. The scheme was founded in 1927 in England with the aim of opening impressive and noteworthy gardens to the public for charity.
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Talking Point
The rockery in Barhatch Farm’s garden was once a cockerel fighting pit, said Ms. Geaves.
Neighborhood Notes
Self-proclaimed as "England's largest village," Cranleigh has a population of around 11,200. It’s found in the south of the county, around 10 miles south of Guilford, Surrey’s largest town, and about 50 miles south of Central London.
Once upon a time, the property had 134 acres, however a substantial proportion of the land was used by the previous owner of Barhatch Farm to form the adjacent Cranleigh Golf and Country Club.
Agent: Lottie Geaves and Clive Moon, Savills