Hannath Hall Hannath Road | Tydd Gote | Cambridgeshire | PE13 5ND AT HOME WITH THE PAST • A Beautiful, Elizabethan Farmhouse with Views Across Open Fields • Standing on a Plot of Approx. 1.5 Acres (Subject to Measured Survey) • Retaining an Abundance of Original Features with Immense Character and History Attached • Under 30 mins Drive from King’s Lynn with Direct Trains to London • Requiring Repair, Maintenance and Modernisation • Two Kitchens, Two Reception Rooms, Dining Room & Utility • Five Double Bedrooms, One Single Bedroom and a Family Bathroom • Adjoining Workshop, Stables with Adjoining Tack Room & Other Outbuilding • Large Mature Garden with Wildlife Pond at the Front • The Total Accommodation Approx. Extends to 3,400 sq. ft. With views across open fields on the borders of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire where it has comfortably sat for centuries is Hannath Hall, a beautiful, Elizabethan, red brick farmhouse, one that has been in the same family for four generations, one that still retains all the charm and character of its historic origins. Now being sold on a plot of about one and a half acres, it is surrounded by expansive lawns punctuated and bordered by mature trees, with paddocks and a fenland watercourse beyond, providing a delightful, bucolic setting. Historical Details Dating back to the late sixteenth century, the substantial farmhouse was an important building in its time. “The farm itself was exceptionally large in those days,” informs the owner. “It had five hundred acres, which then was very big, but of course over time most has been sold off so now there are just twelve left. Ten or so will be sold off separately from the house which will retain about one and a half acres. It was originally called Sparrow's Nest and would have been surrounded by water as this was before the Fens were drained, but it became Hannath Hall when a Joseph Hannath bought it in 1812 when the farm amounted to 245 acres; he died in 1868. The Church owned it for a period when my great grandfather rented it, and in the early 1900s he bought it, remaining in the family ever since. I was born here, but grew up in another house nearby, moving back in when I was twenty before bringing up my own family here.” Handsome Hall The house is very handsome with tall gable ends flanking the facade, brick parapets leading up to 'finials of rubbed brick' as the listing notes, similarly, the ground floor walls are particularly thick with an attractive 'rubbed brick string to the upper edge'. Interestingly, the roof at the back it is terracotta pantiles, whilst to the front it is slate, a likely nineteenth century alteration. The original footprint of the building appears to have been an E shape, with ostensibly, three wings projecting eastwards at the back. In the 1940s, perhaps sensibly, one section was filled in which provided a 'modern' kitchen with a family bathroom above, although the use of the old kitchen on the front corner rather sadly ceased thereafter. STEP INSIDE Original Features Inside the house you find four commodious reception rooms, indeed even the utility room is some size, two kitchens, and five bedrooms, three of particularly generous proportions. The entrance hall to the front, where the stairs ascend, has doors either side opening into a dining room on the right and a huge reception hall on the left, also accommodating a dining table. A fabulous room generating feelings of warmth and nostalgia, the floor is the original yellow herringbone brick, hefty black beams overhead, the inglenook fireplace, with its wide beam above, housing a decorative cast iron stove, whilst a built in cupboard to the left of the chimney breast is a repeated feature elsewhere in the house. Each downstairs reception room has a period fireplace and a large multi-fuel burning stove for warmth, as the owner declares, “the stoves are excellent at radiating heat and make the place very warm and cosy in winter - with the thick walls and the panelling in the sitting room it makes quite a difference.” The dual aspect dining room has a Georgian panelled door with old rim lock handle, a large casement window facing south and a lovely sash bay window to the west, with old floorboards underfoot and walls clad in its lovely old embossed Lincrusta or Anaglypta painted a calming green, up to the picture rail. Georgian Panelling A door from the dining room leads into the beautifully panelled sitting room at the back where south facing French doors with leaded and stained glass panels, also with old rim lock, open onto the rear garden. The carpeted room is entirely panelled – ‘circa 1730 raised and fielded panelling’ as stated in the listing – the dado with more embossed wallcovering painted in a rich and warming red, and an elegant Adams style mantelpiece surrounds another decorative cast iron stove. Another door opens into the main hall off which both the ‘new’ kitchen and the utility lead to the back. The kitchen is lined with mainly base level units providing extensive worktops, incorporating an electric Lacanche range style cooker in between, and the stainless steel sink is positioned under a trio of windows to the east with views over back with trees beyond. Next door, the capacious utility area has a rear entrance, electrics and plumbing for a washing machine, and plenty of space for coats, boots and dogs! Old Bread Oven The original old kitchen leads off an inner hall from the main hall, that runs front to back, with a door to the outside. The old bread oven and a range from the 60s or 70s is still in situ, as are the original old bricks laid on the floor. Beams above have been boarded over, but a restoration project could resurrect this wonderful, dual aspect room. Generous Bedrooms Venturing up the stairs, you reach an exceptionally wide landing with doors leading off into all six bedrooms and family bathroom. Everywhere still retaining its characterful lime plaster walls and ceilings, a chunky floor timber needs a step over and down to enter one of the back bedrooms. The adjoining spacious bathroom has a tongue and groove ceiling, and a black and white theme. The fitted, panelled bath has a shower over, there’s a pedestal washbasin, and in the corner there is a traditional, high-level cistern lavatory. The dual aspect master bedroom is almost seventeen foot square and has a fireplace within vertical timber panelling, something evident in many places upstairs. Behind this is another very large bedroom with a beautiful Georgian cast iron grate in its fireplace. Both rooms have old, built in cupboards. At the other end of the house an even larger, dual aspect bedroom is currently used for storage. There are two further double bedrooms. The sixth bedroom is the only single, and incorporates the top half of a chimney breast. A sizeable loft is accessed from a hatch in a fitted cupboard in one of the bedrooms. STEP OUTSIDE Adjoining the back of the house, on ground level and clad in an evergreen climber, a lean-to workshop, once the coal store, is reached from the outside. It may be a replacement for something older that originally stood here, agrees the owner. Also added on to the back is a useful, functioning outside privy! There is a number of outbuildings to the side and back of the house, largely timber including two stables where the owners’ horses reside when not out to pasture, with an adjoining tack room presently housing a tractor. At the end of the front drive, there is a brick built barn which the owner thinks would be likely to get planning consent for conversion or development, as perhaps a granny annex, studio or office. A further entrance is along the northern boundary fence, useful as separate access to the paddocks and land behind. “The garden is fantastic for colour in the spring and summer,” the owner exclaims. “There are snowdrops and aconites in February, that I remember as a child, followed by daffodils and bluebells. We have reduced the flower beds considerably for easy maintenance, but there are still roses and perennials in beds along the back of the house, where we sit and enjoy full sun.” Here, York stone slabs make a lovely area directly behind the house where you can appreciate the property’s tranquility watching birds, wildlife and admiring a fantastic monkey puzzle tree that the owner remembers planting twenty-five years ago. There are many mature trees such as a Wellingtonia or redwood (fashionable in early Victorian times for their extraordinary stature and height), and a weeping ash both at the front where there is also a wildlife pond home to frogs and newts; more ash with sycamore are at the back, and ash and oak are on the drive. The Location Hannath Hall lies only about half a mile from Tydd Gote, a hamlet on the A1101 to the West, and about a mile from the village of Tydd St. Giles to the East, with a wide, drainage watercourse that joins up with the River Nene a little further West, along the rear boundary of Hannath Hall’s land. “It’s a very good area for both walking and riding, with lots of footpaths and so on,” confirms the owner. Tydd St. Giles is quite an active community with a primary school, a good village pub, The Crown and Mitre, and the popular Golf Club and Leisure Centre based in a very attractive building, which has a delightful golf course, a cafe, a restaurant, a gym, a pool and sauna, and lots of fitness classes.