5 bed detached house for sale

Stockland, Honiton, Devon EX14

Townsend Farmhouse has a lovely, private position on the northern edge of the village that overlooks and backs onto completely unspoilt Devon countryside formed by the River Yarty flowing off the Blackdown Hills.

The house and its outbuildings are hidden from the passing village lane behind a tall hedge line with both the house and guest annexe looking southwest towards an idyllic rural landscape that drops gradually away down to the river. Built in 1250 during the reign of King Henry III, Townsend Farmhouse is steeped in architectural history and unsurprisingly is listed along with one of its attendant barns (Grade II* and Grade II respectively).

The house today forms an L-shape with walls of partly rendered local stone under a thatched roof with hipped and gabled ends. The exterior has huge character with a mix of stone mullion and timber-framed windows, front and rear open porches and a roof of local combed wheat reed, known as Devon reed, the underside of which is said to be smoke blackened in places from the smoke of the house's open fire before chimneys were installed. The inside abounds with original architectural fittings too including impressive inglenook fireplaces, chamfered ceiling beams, exposed roofing and wall timbers, window seats and section of plank and muntin screening adorning the through-passage connecting the front and rear porches.

The ground floor has three characterful and good-sized reception rooms plus a gorgeous farmhouse kitchen with a beamed ceiling, flagstone floor and a four-oven aga inset in a wide inglenook fireplace. There are two staircases to the first floor. The main staircase leads up to a central landing, off which are three bedrooms plus a large family bathroom. The secondary staircase leads up to two further bedrooms, which share a further bathroom. The two sides of the first storey are connected via a door between the principal bedroom and Bedroom three should through access be needed.

Townsend Farmhouse has an attractive group of attendant outbuildings. Closest to the farmhouse itself is a fine Grade II listed, stone-built threshing barn, which originally would have been roofed with thatch but is now roofed with corrugated iron. The main part of the barn has a threshing floor on two levels with double doors on one gable end. The other end has two storeys. Beyond are two further outbuildings converted in 2014 to an extremely high standard. The first and closest to the house incorporates an office/gym at one end with a kitchen, shower room and gardener's WC at the other, with a two-bay carport with integral workshop area between them.

The second is a former range of stables that now serves as a guest annexe (with potential for use as AirBnB holiday accommodation). This, like the main house, has immense character and consists of a living room, fully fitted kitchen, separate cloakroom and a good-sized double bedroom with en suite bath and shower room.

The property is accessed off the village lane via electric entrance gates that open onto a gravelled driveway leading to a parking area beside the house and to the guest annexe and cart barn.

The garden is laid out on three sides of the house with the outbuildings and parking on the fourth. The formal garden is restricted to the area immediately around the house and consists of areas of lawn fringed with colourful, richly stocked borders sheltering behind walling and hedging.

Beyond the formal garden is a pretty meadow part-bisected by a wide, gravelled path and bound by mature field hedging. In one corner is a spiral of clipped beech/hornbeam that provides shelter to a seating and barbecue area at its centre. The meadow is lined along one boundary by a linear orchard of different fruit-bearing trees and at its furthest corner is a copse of native, broadleaf trees. In all the garden and grounds amount to about 2.78 acres.

Townsend Farmhouse is situated on the edge of the small village of Stockland, which is surrounded by beautiful, completely unspoilt countryside within the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Despite its small size the village is a thriving community with a parish church, village hall, primary school and the highly rated, community owned King's Arms Inn, which is only a three minute walk from the house. It is also conveniently close to the lively market town of Honiton, which has a wide variety of shops and a thrice-weekly market along with a range of local businesses, including gp, dental and veterinary surgeries.

Local transport links are good too. The A30, A35 and M5 are all within easy reach and Honiton station provides direct rail services to Exeter (23 minutes) and Waterloo (3 hours). Exeter Airport offers a daily return service to London City Airport (1 hour) along with flights to a variety of UK and international destinations.

There are several accessible independent schools including Exeter School, Maynard's and the Cathedral School in Exeter and Blundell's School in Tiverton.