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Ivy House West Drove South | Walpole Highway | Norfolk | PE14 7RA MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ‘A sumptuous home full of decorative features And a rural oasis for equine creatures’ • An Outstanding Well Presented Double Bay Victorian Former Farmhouse • Approximately 5 Acres of Gardens, Grounds and Post & Rail Paddocks • Located In Norfolk on the border with Cambridgeshire, Approached Down a Treelined Avenue • Offering Five Reception Rooms Plus an Orangery, Five Bedrooms, Two En Suites & a Family Bathroom • Equestrian Facilities Consisting Yard, Six Stables, Tack Room, Feed Room, Hay Barn, Tractor Shed and Outdoor Rubber Manege • Former Coach House Consisting of One Bedroom Annex and an Attached Indoor Swim Spa Pool • Double Garage with Office / Gym Above, Three Open Bay Carports and Carriage Barn • The Main House extends to 3437 sq. ft. • The Coach House extends to 914 sq. ft. Just outside the little village of Walpole Highway and approached up a tree-lined gravelled drive flanked by paddocks, you arrive at a good-looking, double-fronted Victorian property in pale yellow brick. With attractive outbuildings on both sides, and further mature trees and hawthorn hedging forming a charming backdrop - and with everything in immaculate condition - you realise this is no ordinary place. Rural Paradise Ivy House stands on about a five acre plot surrounded by open fields on the edge of West Norfolk. Not only are there several outbuildings including garaging, a stable block, a groom’s cottage and an indoor pool, it also has a beautiful and private, sheltered garden, and has been a much-loved family home for the last nineteen years. “We came here in 1999,” says the owner, “and the drive was just a mud track up to the house. We planted the mixture of trees down the drive as soon as we came here; there are oaks, willows, acers, beech – all chosen to be horse-friendly. We removed some ugly leylandii and also planted the thick hawthorn hedging around the paddocks.” It is surprising how mature everything looks; the owners have certainly managed to create their own little piece of rural paradise. We replaced the entire windows in the house which are all double-glazed” Farrow’s Cream is the Farrow & Ball colour on the woodwork throughout the downstairs, and the wallpapers are all recent designs by Zoffany” No Expense Spared dining table easily seats twelve, over which hangs their It is obvious as soon as you walk into the hallway, that no sparkling crystal chandelier, on a dimmer switch. expense has been spared when decorating this solid and sumptuous Victorian home. Built in 1879 by a George Moving on through the hall you enter an inner hall with pale Edward Russell, the owners’ have a black and white rustic stone look alike flags, which adjoins a second sitting photograph of the owner and builder standing in front room or ‘snug’. A wide opening is hung with the owners’ of the house, hanging on the wall. Ceilings are high and heavy curtains, and a cast iron log-burner stands in a brick feature central roses and deep cornicing. Throughout, the fireplace. “The snug is wonderfully cosy in winter, and you walls are papered in the latest exquisite Zoffany papers, can see the fire roaring in the grate from the garden room,” complemented by Farrow & Ball paint, creating an extremely enthuses the owner. French doors lead through at the side rich and luxurious environment. The owner has a wonderful to the garden room, or you can step into another little snug talent for interior decoration and has chosen opulent up some carpeted steps to the right, which was created for wallpapers with expensive interlined curtains to perfectly the owners’ son as his chilling out room. It has a window suit the look. (N.B. Many of the curtains as well as light over the garden to the side, and a brick wall painted by the fittings and some of the furniture will be available under owner in a camouflage design. Underneath there are steps separate negotiation). “Farrow’s Cream is the Farrow & Ball down into a cool cellar with standing height and plenty of colour on the woodwork throughout the downstairs, and room for storing wine! the wallpapers are all recent designs by Zoffany,” attests the owner. “The whole house was re-carpeted only about a Two Sets of Stairs year ago in a special American one called ‘Mohawk’ which is Back on ground level, you find a set of carpeted stairs reconstituted corn-on-the-cob which you just cannot stain which twist up to the rear of the house. “The house whatever you throw at it!” Unlike an image that may come has always had two sets of stairs, and these would have to mind, this high quality wall to wall carpeting is extremely been the servants’,” says the owner. The room we call a thick and soft underfoot! snug would have been their kitchen and their bedrooms would have been at the back of the house.” Moving along Opulent Interior the inner hall and through a pine door, on the right is a Either side of the grand entrance hall with its original timber downstairs cloakroom with a shower cubicle, lavatory and floorboards, decorative old-style cast iron radiator, and corner washbasin. Painted matchboarding is to dado height, ‘Versailles’ wallpaper under a delicate Lincrusta frieze finger- terracotta tiles are laid on the floor, and a window again painted in gold, are the two main reception rooms, both overlooks the garden to the side. large and impressive and enjoying the big bays to the front. They are identical in proportions at over twenty-two feet Top Quality Kitchen long, and mirror each another. The sitting room to the left Directly opposite the cloakroom, a door opens into the is papered in textural Zoffany paper and has two windows fabulous kitchen which the owners have opened up at facing southeast so light pours in. At the far end, the original the far side and added a wonderful garden room. The There are ten chimney breasts with eight fireplaces in the dark grey marble fireplace surrounds an open fire, whilst squarish kitchen has original overhead beams, the ceiling property - all working although we have never needed to use most of them, three reproduction cast iron radiators heat the room. The punctuated with modern downlighters, and a large Racing but it’s lovely that they are there and original” curtains are full, heavy, and tapestry-like with matching Green Aga sits in the old chimney breast. “The Aga is pelmets. “We replaced the entire windows in the house electric programmable with a separate set of controls, and which are all double-glazed,” informs the owner. is brilliant to use. It is like a normal Aga on the right with two hotplates and two ovens below, and the module on the The majestic and very elegant dining room on the other left works like an electric cooker.” Classically-styled timber side has a completely different mood being painted in fitted kitchen units from Harvey Jones hand-painted in ‘Drab’ ‘Carriage Green’ edged in more gold Lincrusta frieze. The line the room with solid oak worktops, whilst a central original white marble fireplace also houses an open fire, island painted in Annie Sloan ‘Olive’, has a granite top. A and underfoot are timber floorboards. The owners’ massive very useful ‘housekeeper’s cupboard’ stands on one side which has lots of shelving behind doors above with an extendable tap, and further wall-mounted and bigger base cupboards below. A large butler units above. Space and plumbing is for a washing sink sits near a southwest window, and there is an machine and tumble dryer under the worktop. integrated Miele dishwasher under the worktops. There is also space, side by side, for the owners’ Luxurious Bedrooms and En Suites American style fridge and freezer. The upstairs of the property is as luxurious as downstairs, if not more so, and has been finished Superb Garden Room with the finest materials and fittings. As you The almost twenty-five feet long garden room is proceed up the carpeted stairs an original tall and open plan with the kitchen, having a continuation narrow stained glass and etched Victorian internal of the stone-like tiles, and was added by the window is a magnificent feature. The owner has owners about thirteen years ago. It has created painted the moulded surround in gold and has a fantastic living/eating/relaxing area which has fitted the back with a mirror and light producing a double doors onto the lovely south-facing terrace stunning effect, and ensuring the bathroom behind outside. “We spend most of our time in here,” is private. The chunky dark-stained pine staircase divulges the owner, who has a farmhouse-style is complemented by the plush soft furnishings, the table at one end and comfy sofas under their Zoffany wallpaper, and the landing’s big window wall-mounted television at the other. “It has been over the front, dressed with the owners’ heavy such a successful addition to the property. It was silk and velvet curtains. It should be noted that made by Town & Country and the roof vents are every window in the property seems to have thermostatically controlled. The frames were very a wonderful view of the surrounding grounds, recently re-painted in Marston and Langinger whether the pretty garden or the paddocks and ‘Drab’.” Top of the range French Pinoleum pleated mature trees. blinds completely clad the windows both in the pitched glass roof and around the sides, partially A door from the spacious landing leads into the The Aga is electric programmable with a separate set of controls, and is brilliant to use.

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