Main image: Saffron Walden, Essex £3,500,000
A gloriously located country house with walled garden and additional cottages. Wood Hall enjoys an exceptional elevated position with dramatic views over the village of Arkesden and towards Cambridge to the north. It is a handsome building with rendered and brick elevations set under a pitched and tiled roof with a stone pillared and porticoed porch and double oak front doors. Inside, a grand timbered entrance hall with an exceptional staircase leads to a broad galleried landing. The four reception rooms, all open off the hall and are ideal for entertaining. The accommodation is arranged over three floors, the third floor has been lightly used by the current owners but could provide an annexe, office, flat and additional accommodation. It is difficult to date the house from the outside, but the room proportions and features, particularly the hall and carved panelling over the dining room mantelpiece, the stone mullioned window with light and 17th century stained glass panels on the staircase, allude to a building of some age. The attractive brick stable building lies close to the house and includes a fine period stable and coach house block which has been converted to two self-contained flats. there is also an estate office, storage buildings and an indoor swimming pool with a plant room, sauna and spa. Wood hall stands well away from all roads. The main driveway to the house has remote controlled gates set on brick piers, a second driveway leads to the back of the house and to the neighbouring cottages. Outside, there is an extensive terrace to the south side of the house with wisteria, rose beds and a sweeping lawn, central sundial, shrubs and flower borders. The gardens lead down to a small lake and tennis court and a line of yew trees provide shelter from the west. There is also a separate partly enclosed lawn behind the house. The sizeable walled kitchen garden has extensive cultivated beds divided by grass pathways and a 48 yard rose walk. The garden includes asparagus, strawberries, fig tree, a soft fruit cage and two timber greenhouses with shelving and another with a sunken water tank and hand pump. (Mullucks Wells Bishop's Stortford)