Detached house for sale in Northampton NN6, 6 Bedroom

An exceptional country house in a superb village
location.

Situation
Creaton Lodge is perfectly situated just off the village green on the northern edge of Creaton, a highly coveted village located amidst picturesque Northamptonshire countryside. This area of undiscovered beauty hosts a wonderful range of country amenities. Pitsford and Hollowell Water and also Ravensthorpe Reservoir offer sailing, fishing, birdwatching and endless walking. The village abuts the Cottesbrook Estate with its award winning gardens. Althorp Estate, one of the most beautiful stately homes in England is only a few miles away. Kelmarsh Hall and Gardens, Lamport Hall and Holdenby House are all within easy reach. There are golf courses at Brampton, and Northampton Golf Club near Althorp.

Lying about 9 miles north of Northampton, Creaton has a useful range of amenities including a Post Office/Village Store, a Church, Public House and an active Village Hall. A number of large towns and cities including Market Harborough and Leicester are within easy access. Communication links are very good, with the A14 providing a quick link to the M1, M6 and the A1. There are a number of Railway stations within easy reach including Market Harborough, Kettering, Daventry, Rugby and Northampton with direct links to London. Airports are at Birmingham, about 38 miles away and East Midlands Airport about 43 miles away. There are a number of well-regarded schools within easy reach in the area, including Maidwell Hall and Spratton Hall and then Guilsborough, Rugby, Northampton Grammar School, Wellingborough, Oundle and Northampton High School for Girls.

Description
Creaton Lodge is a very special property in a superb location, being at the heart of the village yet also offering a high level of privacy and truly excellent views. The house owes its architectural style to a variety of periods but is predominantly a Georgian house with significant Victorian additions. Creaton Lodge now presents and a handsome country house in the Victorian vernacular.

The construction is principally of Ironstone ashlar block and mellow red brick under slate and tile roofs. Relief is provided by painted casement windows in the original parts of the house, and by sash windows in the Victorian sections. On the south west elevation, there is a full height cantered entrance porch with bay over, and a handsome box bay window. The south-east elevation is particularly attractive and has symmetrical cantered bay windows surmounted by stone balustrades on the ground floor with dormer windows on the first floor flanking a full height projecting porch.

Internally, there are beautifully proportioned rooms, high ceilings, attractive carpentry and some very good chimney pieces. The property would benefit from a programme of refurbishment and development.

Attached to the western side of the house is a garage, tack room and store. The integrated flat sits above. To the north west is the Coach House, a two-bedroom cottage of brick construction which is attached to part of the stable yard. Beyond the stable yard is a useful range of barns and outbuildings.

Creaton Lodge stands in wonderful grounds and gardens which serve to create a very attractive setting for the house. There are formal gardens, ribbons of woodland and a lovely informal garden with a lake and former swimming pool. Beyond the gardens to the north-west and the north-east there is attractive undulating pasture and a small wood surrounding a lake.

The property extends in all to about 16 acres.

Accommodation
A handsome timber door set into a cantered porch opens into a spacious reception hall. From the hall, there is access to the principal reception rooms to the south and east and a family room and the working parts of the houses to the north and west. The library offers wonderfully generous proportions and with a handsome cantered bay looking south east over the lawns and a box bay to the front. It has an attractive intricately carved timber chimney piece. The library connects to a staircase hall with a handsome dog-leg staircase with octagonal newel posts, turned spindles and a carved handrail. Beyond the library, the drawing room which has windows on two elevations looking over the gardens and a marble chimney piece. The dining room can be accessed from the hall, the drawing room, or the kitchen and it opens into a garden room.

The kitchen overlooks the gardens and is fitted with a range of cupboards and a four oven Aga. From the kitchen there is access to a back hall where a secondary staircase is situated. The back hall provides access to the sitting room, store rooms and the scullery. The sitting room has a fireplace with an inset gas fired log burner.

There are six bedrooms and four bathrooms on the first floor. Two of the bedrooms share a Jack and Jill bathroom, and one of the bedrooms has an en suite. The secondary staircase continues up to the second floor where there are two attic bedrooms, a bathroom and a store room.

The integrated flat has its own private entrance, but can be accessed from a connecting passage. The flat has two bedrooms, a generous sitting room, a kitchen and a bathroom.

The Coach House
Situated adjacent to the stable yard, the Coach House has a sitting room, a kitchen and a cloak room on the ground floor and two bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor. To the front of the Coach House there is a terrace and steps leading up to a private garden. An apple store can be accessed to the side of the cottage.

The stable yard, outbuildings and barns
The traditional stable yard consists of three brick stable blocks set around an attractive cobbled yard. The blocks on the southeast and north-west sides of the yard initially mirror each other in providing four loose boxes, then one of the blocks provides a a further loose box and the other a log store. At the north-east end of the yard, there are 6 further traditional boxes creating a total of 15 loose boxes. The wood panelled tack room is situated at the entrance to the stable yard.

Beyond the stable yard there is a range of barns in various states of repair providing a hay barn, a brick under slate tractor shed, two potting sheds and a timber shed with open stalls, clad in corrugated sheets. Nearby is a small glass house.

Gardens and grounds
From the village green, wrought iron gates on tall stone piers with stone finials open onto a tarmac driveway that leads under a mighty horse chestnut, past the lawns and then sweeps around towards the yard and also to a generous parking and turning area in front of the house.

There are carefully considered borders immediately in front of the house and of particular note is a delightful mature wisteria clinging elegantly to the south west facing elevation.
Wonderful gardens extend around the south and east of the property with gently tiered lawns and stone steps between the levels. A belt of woodland runs around the south and east boundaries and displays a fantastic range of choice conifers, mature trees and rhododendron.

On the lower lawn there are two truly magnificent copper beech trees with a third specimen on the east lawn. Beyond the east lawn, a mature bed of trees and shrubs bank down towards a delightful irregular pond with a willow arching gracefully over the water. A disused swimming pool is located close to the pond.

Nearer the house, the upper lawn is walled and shows an impressive display of herbaceous perennials intersected with carefully chosen specimen shrubs set in deep borders. Adjacent to the house is an attractive stone terrace interplanted with a range of low shrubs and alpines. A pretty display of climbing roses are trained around the bay windows and porch.

Pasture and woodland
Extending to the north and west, the undulating old turf pasture is divided into four fields. At the northern edge of the property, there is a mixed woodland set around a lake and then a further belt of woodland dividing the gardens from the pasture.

In all, the gardens, grounds and pasture extend to just under 16 acres.