Waterfall Farm, Thurleigh on approx 10 acres.

Waterfall Farm has been in the same family for twenty-three years. In that time the land has been divided into five paddocks and a four-acre field, the manège laid, the barn refurbished, and three separate gardens made and remade. What comes to the market is not a property with equestrian potential. It is a working yard that has already been finished, by people who used it daily. The house has origins dating to approximately 1630, with a Georgian frontage added around 1830, and extends to 1,972 sqft. Around it sit 3,571 sq ft of outbuildings, taking the total to 5,543 sq ft, across approximately ten acres with seven stables and a 40m x 20m manège. The feature that will decide it for the right buyer is simpler than any of those. There is direct access to the bridleway network without ever joining the road. Miles of North Bedfordshire countryside open up straight from the yard.

Ground Floor

The 1830 frontage holds two well-proportioned reception rooms, each a generous 13'2 square, both with sash windows overlooking the stables. The sitting room has a wood burner. The dining room, alongside it, is arranged for more formal entertaining. At the centre of the house is the kitchen and breakfast room, extending to over 17 ft, with room for casual dining alongside everyday cooking. Original beams, period windows and an AGA nook carry the age of the building without apology. A door leads directly out to the patio and garden, with a separate utility room off the inner hall. Beyond sits a snug, well suited to reading or quiet evenings, and then the garden room, a bright space with French doors onto the grounds. Skylights and exposed beams tie it back to the older fabric of the house. A ground floor WC completes this level.

First Floor

Stairs rise from the inner hall to a landing serving four bedrooms, a family bathroom and a study. The principal bedroom is a double with an en suite shower room, fitted with a rainfall head. Bedroom two, at 15 ft, is the largest room in the house, with original boards and views over the stables. Both sit within the Georgian front. Bedrooms three and four occupy the oldest part of the house, with exposed beams and garden outlooks. The two rooms interconnect, with bedroom four reached through bedroom three, an arrangement that suits a nursery beside a parent's room,a children's pair, or a bedroom with a playroom or dressing room alongside it. Bedroom three is a comfortable double at over 14 ft. A small study off the landing serves well as a dressing room or a quiet desk, with the detached office in the yard handling anything more substantial. The family bathroom serves the remaining rooms.

Outbuildings

At 3,571 sq ft, the outbuildings are the reason a certain kind of buyer will travel to see this. The stable yard provides seven stables and a dedicated tack room, arranged in an L around the yard for practical daily use, with a separate store on the yard for feed and equipment close to hand. A 32 ft workshop offers secure undercover parking, workshop use or substantial storage, with further rooms attached. A detached office sits apart from the house, giving genuine separation between work and family life. The timber-clad barn, refurbished in 2008, extends to nearly 36 ft by almost 17 ft. It is the most adaptable building on the site: hay and machinery storage, winter shelter, or a workshop of real scale. A summer house, a field shelter, and a well-appointed garden store with its own electricity and water supply complete the range.

Land and Outdoor Living

Approximately ten acres surround the house, comprising five paddocks and a separate four-acre field. Every one is served by water and electricity, which removes the daily labour that defines most yards of this size and makes year-round rotation straightforward. The 40m x 20m manège has a drained sand and rubber surface and a drive-in, drive- out entrance, so a lorry or trailer can be brought in and turned without reversing. A field shelter serves the land beyond. Three separate gardens have been created and improved over the years, each holding sun for most of the day and each offering a different place to sit. Established borders, mature fruit trees and climbing roses soften the front of the house. An electric gate opens onto extensive gravelled hardstanding with parking for well over twenty vehicles. CCTV covers the yard and approach.

Location

Thurleigh is a working village surrounded by open North Bedfordshire countryside, with a social club at its centre and a network of footpaths and bridleways running through the fields around it. Sharnbrook, five minutes by car, covers everyday needs: Co-op, post office, pharmacy and doctors' surgery, with The Swan with Two Nicks, The Mill and The Fordham Arms for eating out, Sharnbrook Deli Café during the day, and The Spice Tree for Indian. Families have catchment access to Thurleigh Lower School and Sharnbrook Academy, with Bedford School and Bedford Modern School within comfortable reach. Bedford station runs direct mainline services to London St Pancras. Bedford, Riseley and Rushden Lakes are all inside thirty minutes.