Wareham House

We will be the first to admit that Wareham House stretches the definition. A detached, Georgian-fronted residence with sash windows, a symmetrical red-brick facade and three generous bedrooms is, is perhaps a little too grand to be comfortably called a cottage. But it is a beautiful house, and we loved it so much we were happy to make an exception, and besides, walk around to the rear and the flint-and-brick service wing has all the humble character of the Norfolk cottages it was built alongside. (For our musings on where exactly the line falls, see our journal article on what makes a house a cottage.)

Stibbard is a small village in the gentle farmland between Fakenham and Norwich: the kind of deep Norfolk where the sky feels endless and the light on a summer evening lingers. Wareham House sits in a private position on Guist Bottom Road, its front lawn screened by mature hedging and a gravelled drive sweeping round to the rear. The rooms have the proportions you hope for in a house of this age: a sitting room with a tiled fireplace and arched recesses, a dining room with a feature fireplace and built-in cupboards, and a kitchen and utility room that run the depth of the house. An office on the ground floor and a landing study upstairs mean you can work from home, though the view of the garden may test your concentration.

The interiors are ready for a new chapter: the layout and the bones are all there, and the right buyer will enjoy putting their own stamp on it. Upstairs, three bedrooms look out over the front garden, the principal room with its own dressing room. Outside, the plot is the real prize: lawned gardens, a greenhouse, a detached garage, two stone stores and, beyond a pedestrian gate, a grassed meadow bounded by mature trees. In all, the grounds extend to about an acre and a quarter. The north Norfolk coast at Wells-next-the-Sea and Holkham is half an hour away; Norwich forty minutes. Offered freehold.