WELCOME HOME A chocolate-box

A COTTAGE with CHARACTER

If you’re looking for a property with character, call off the search. Pudding Bag Cottage in Exton looks as adorable as it sounds and has masses of period charm from its thatched roof and beams to its pantiled floors and inglenook fireplaces...

Words: Rob Davis.

If you prefer your pudding over your starter or main course. If you enjoy the sweeter things in life. If you look at a cottage with a thatched roof and let out a satisfied ‘aaah,’ then this month’s featured property is right up your street and down Exton’s Pudding Bag Lane. Pudding Bag Cottage is every bit as idyllic as it sounds. If the children have flown the nest and you’re looking for a property that’s slightly smaller than Rutland’s wealth of monstrously large country houses or Stamford’s triple-storey Georgian piles, you might just find that this place is large enough to live in, small enough to manage and beautiful enough to fall in love with... at first sight!

Main/Right: The main reception room has a very unusual round rustic log burner. It’s one of two reception rooms, with a dining room adjacent. There’s a living kitchen, too.

Set back from the lane and along a private drive, the thatched cottage is approached up brick paths either from the drive where the double garage stands, or under a rose clad timber arch past impressive box topiary to the front entrance porch. Inside, as you might expect, it features thick exposed stone walls with nooks and crannies, window seats, an abundance of original overhead beams and quarry tiled floors. The oldest part of the property is made up of three large rooms on the ground floor with all the bedrooms and bathrooms up above. A single storey stone extension, totally sympathetic to this historical building, projects from the kitchen breakfast room accommodating a utility area and a downstairs lavatory, which in turn creates a sheltered walled courtyard at the back ideal for alfresco dining.

“The oldest part of the cottage is made up of three large rooms on the ground floor with all the bedrooms above...”

The living room features a rather spectacular inglenook fireplace, complete with a window overlooking the front, and has been fitted with a very unusual round rustic log-burner, whilst the kitchen breakfast room is not only large enough for a dining table but also a comfortable seating area where the stone inglenook cleverly houses the owner’s sofa. The kitchen is fitted with bespoke shaker style oak units, base and wall mounted which are underlit to illuminate the good amount of solid granite worktops below. Integrated appliances include a Neff eye-level double oven and an electric hob, concealed extractor over, dishwasher and a fridge. The adjoining utility room has more matching units, incorporating a second sink, under which is space for a washing machine.

From the spacious dining hall, dark oak stairs twist up to the first floor onto a central landing where natural seagrass is laid underfoot throughout and sloping ceilings and dormer windows are a trademark.

The master bedroom overlooks the south facing front and benefits fitted timber wardrobes and cupboards and a fully tiled, contemporary style en suite shower room through an archway.

The dual aspect second bedroom is also generous in size and has a wall of fitted panelled cupboards. >>

>> Bedroom three is a double and bedroom four is a single with both having built in wardrobes. The contemporary style family bathroom is fully tiled and accommodates a fitted bath as well as a separate shower. Outside, the beautifully maintained garden is sheer delight. The south facing front garden is lawned featuring numerous mature evergreens which have been neatly clipped forming an array of living sculptures lining brick paths and filling beds ensuring year round structure and interest. Outside the kitchen breakfast room windows, stone paving provides a lovely spot for sitting at a table in the sun. At the back, a door from the utility room opens onto a particularly private, walled, gravelled courtyard surrounded

by shrubs and where a pleached apple tree enjoys the sun on the rear wall, and a brick shed is in one corner. The beautiful conservation village of Exton is composed of pretty stone cottages, many thatched, the others with Collyweston slate roofs, surrounding a traditional picture book village green with a very attractive eighteenth century gastro pub, The Fox and Hounds, which serves excellent food. There is also a village hall in Exton as well as the multi-award winning Hambleton Bakery selling Julian Carter’s absolutely mouthwatering wares. With every desirable feature of a country property you might have on your wishlist, Pudding Bag Cottage is well-sized, yet easy to manage, with a huge number of period details and plenty of scope for changes to decor and layout should you desire. In every respect its as enjoyable and as delicious as any pudding you’ve ever tasted! n

PUDDING BAG COTTAGE, EXTON

Location: Exton, 5.1 miles from Oakham; 9.4 miles from Stamford. Style: Thatched cottage in local stone with four bedrooms and two receptions plus living kitchen.

Guide Price: OIEO £650,000

Find Out More: Fine & Country, Seaton Grange Barn Offices, LE15 9HT. Tel: 01780 750 200, or see www.fineandcountry.com.

Professional Interior Design Service Re-Upholstery and Soft Furnishings

MARKET PLACE · UPPINGHAM · RUTLAND · LE15 9QH 01572 823389 www.sarahhardinginteriors.co.uk • info@sarahhardinginteriors.co.uk www.facebook.com/sarahhardinginteriorsltd