5 bedroom detached house for sale

Surrounded by unspoilt farmland and with no immediate neighbours, Lyes House has a truly enviable setting. The house itself is set back off a country lane and backs onto an exquisite and sheltered garden. It is believed to have been built around 1720 as the farmhouse at the centre of a smallholding and displays many of the characteristics of what has come to be regarded as perhaps the most elegant period of British architecture.

The original house had a perfectly symmetrical front incorporating tall, wide casement windows, with its exterior faced with mellow red brick under a roof of long straw thatch.

The house was transformed about thirty years ago when an adjacent barn was rebuilt and incorporated into the house using matching brick to provide a graceful drawing room on the ground floor and a superb principal bedroom suite above. It is Grade II listed and was bought by the current owners as their family home in 1996.

In the intervening period it has been further improved, retaining flagstone floors, exposed wall and ceiling timbers and a lovely
inglenook fireplace in the sitting room. Today it is beautifully presented and has clearly been much-loved and well maintained.
There are four reception rooms on the ground floor with the drawing, sitting and dining rooms all facing south looking out onto the parterre rose garden. The study is at the back of the house, looking out at the rear garden and orchard. The dining room has a wide opening through to the kitchen breakfast room, which is fitted with handmade units and a two-oven AGA.

Upstairs are a total of five double bedrooms. The principal bedroom suite incorporates a dressing room with ensuite basin and WC, separate ensuite bathroom, whilst the bedroom has a vaulted ceiling and wonderful views out over the surrounding countryside. Two further double bedrooms have ensuite shower rooms and the remaining two bedrooms share the family bathroom.

Lyes House is approached via a short, gravelled driveway leading to a good-sized parking area with a turning circle at its centre. To one side and adjacent to the house is an outbuilding incorporating a double carport, garden store and workshop. Beside it is a timber stable block of two loose boxes, one of which contains two kennels with an attached dog run. In front of the house is a beautiful parterre rose garden with enclosures of clipped box surrounding a mix of roses, lavender and irises , separated from the passing lane by low stone walling and lonicera and hornbeam hedging.

Most of the garden extends out at the back of the house and is enclosed by tall hornbeam hedging that provides complete privacy plus protection from high winds and inclement weather. On the eastern side of the house is a conservatory and a paved terrace leading to the hard tennis court, which is overlooked at one end by a further paved area and a summerhouse. The garden encompasses a large, level lawn fringed by a productive mixed orchard at the far end, raised beds and by deep borders along the sides that provide a tapestry of rich colour and shape throughout the growing season.

Trent 1.5 miles, Sherborne (Waterloo 2.25 hours)/A30 4 miles, Yeovil 4 miles, A303 5 miles, Castle Cary station (Paddington 90 minutes) 11.5 miles, Taunton/J25 M5 30 miles, Bristol Airport 38 miles, Bournemouth Airport 42 miles.
(Distances and time approximate).

Lyes House is set amid unspoilt countryside close to the small, pretty village of Trent. Much of the village and the 2,100 acres of rolling farmland surrounding it are protected by the Ernest Cook Trust and the village has a CofE primary school (Ofsted
rated Good), The Rose & Crown Inn (Tripadvisor rated 4.5) and a church.

The property is conveniently close to the abbey town of Sherborne, which has a wide selection of local shops and businesses including GP, dental and veterinary surgeries and
Waitrose and Sainsbury's supermarkets. For any other requirements, Yeovil and Taunton are both within easy driving distance. There are good, local transport links too with the A359, A30 and A303 at hand plus rail services from Sherborne
to Waterloo (75 minutes) and from Castle Cary to Paddington (90 minutes). Bristol, Bournemouth and Exeter airports are all about an hour's drive away.

The local area also offers a wide choice of excellent schools from both the state and independent sectors including the Sherborne schools, Hazelgrove, Leweston and Perrott Hill,
which are all within a 10-mile radius.