Overview

This 3 bedroom house, nestled in a Nature Reserve on the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, has been our weekend escape from London for the past ten years. It is only 130 miles from London, and an easy drive via the A1, which has always been surprisingly empty of traffic on Friday and Sunday evenings. It’s always a wrench to leave after glorious weekends of walking and enjoying sunny barbecues in the garden. Even when the weather is not so great, there are plenty of secluded and dry spots to enjoy the garden from.

The house is not overlooked and is exceptionally private and quiet. It is one of ten cottages built in the 1950s by the Forestry Commission to house its workforce and subsequently sold off to private owners in the 1980s. The house has three reception rooms, three bedrooms and two bathrooms and the idyllic location is suited to the environmentally aware and those seeking a true rural escape. The property is surrounded by Crown land and offers a secluded and very safe environment. Planning permission has been granted for a self-contained 2 bed property in the grounds.

The landscaped garden is simply lovely, comprising a terrace, lawns, ponds, a meadow area and a mature orchard. It’s home to many, many varieties of birds and other wildlife, some of them quite rare. We frequently share the garden with deer, pheasant and partridge and the ponds are visited by toads, dragonflies and damselflies and sometimes ducks and moorhens. In fact, you can while away hours staring into the ponds – they’re teeming with life. We’ve seen hundreds of common and palmate newts and we think, a Great Crested lurking in the weeds. They seem to thrive despite the presence of fish. As I write this, tench are noisily rolling in the lilies. Several species of bats will emerge later tonight.

Originally the Manager's home, the house has been extended and upgraded with double glazing throughout with leaded lights to the front and fibre glass roofing to the sun lounge, car port and garage. During the ten wonderful years that we have owned the house, we have improved it a lot by adding a new contemporary kitchen, a family bathroom and a further wet room. We also updated and replaced the boring but important stuff: new circuit breaker unit, water heater, garage windows and solid oak flooring in the sun lounge. 

In many ways the house is designed for summer and winter. In the summer we’ve guiltily lolled days away in the sun lounge trying to read and failing. In the winter, the sitting room doubles as a cosy grotto. The amount of cheese and wine consumed by candlelight in front of a roaring wood burning stove verges on the indecent but it was worth it.

The Nature Reserve itself is nationally important and is famous for its wildlife; people travel from across the country for the butterflies. The bird life is simply astonishing. The night sky – the clearest and blackest you’ll see in England – is filled with the gorgeous sound of the nightingale and during the day the variety is impressive. An example of birds seen from the garden includes: tree sparrows (huge colony here), warblers (most of them!), woodcocks, marsh harriers, hen harriers, buzzards, sparrowhawks, barn owls, tawny owls, long eared owls, goldcrests, siskins, redpolls, long tailed tits, bullfinches, goldfinches, green and spotted woodpeckers, partridges, cuckoos, treecreepers, nuthatches, yellowhammers, wrens, reed buntings, spotted flycatchers ... I could go on but you get the picture.

Furry beasts that have paid us a visit in the garden include roe, fallow and muntjac deer (daily), badgers, stoats, weasels, dormice and voles.

The house can be purchased with furniture included by negotiation, so it can be a ready-made weekend escape.

 

The property in brief comprises:

Ground floor
  • sitting room with french doors, fireplace and multi-fuel stove
  • kitchen with walk-in storage area
  • dining room
  • sun lounge
  • boot/utility room
  • wet room
First floor
  • 3 bedrooms, one with french doors to flat roof
  • 3 piece family bathroom with power shower
  • airing cupboard
  • access to boarded and insulated loft
Outside
  • large double garage
  • car port
  • large gravel drive for several vehicles
  • large patio
Informal gardens
  • extensive lawns
  • fruit-bearing orchard
  • two natural ponds
  • numerous trees, shrubs and climbing plants
  • abundant bird and wildlife visitors