House For Sale £700,000
Marchant House is a Grade II listed building set within mature secluded gardens with lovely views to Plymstock Church. It is understood to date from the early 1700s & built of stone with a slate hung facade, feature slate flagstone floor within the kitchen & slate sills. The house retains its original staircase and panelled doors. Beautiful secluded gardens offer an exceptional degree of privacy and seclusion and a gravel driveway provides plentiful off-road parking. Within the grounds a detached outbuilding provides garaging and a studio. The internal accommodation comprises a formal sitting room, study, beautiful kitchen with flagstone floor & Aga, generous walk-in larder, characterful rear hallway linking the old part of the house to the barn, a superb reception room which opens onto the rear garden. Also on the ground floor is the bake oven with a bedroom above. The upper floors host 4 further bedrooms, a large bathroom, separate wc and a nursery with an additional wc. This truly is an exceptional property and viewing is highly recommend to be fully appreciated.
Church Road, Plymstock, Pl9 9Bg
Accommodation
Front door opening into the entrance hall.
Entrance Hall
Doors providing access to the ground floor accommodation. Staircase ascending to the top floors. Consumer unit. Electric meter. Storage heater.
Sitting Room (4.70m x 4.19m (15'5 x 13'9))
A formal sitting room with a sash window with shutters to the front elevation. Fireplace with an open grate and feature storage either side.
Study (3.38m x 3.40m (11'1 x 11'2))
Sash window with shutters to the front elevation. Book shelving. Fireplace with a cast inset and stone hearth.
Kitchen (6.53m x 5.11m (21'5 x 16'9))
Slate flagstone floor throughout. Gas fired Aga heating the domestic hot water. Range of cabinets. Stainless-steel twin bowl single drainer sink unit with a window to the rear elevation overlooking the garden above. Table and chairs. Doorway opening into the larder/utility. Access through to the rear hall.
Larder/Utility (2.79m x 2.31m (9'2 x 7'7))
Range of built-in shelving and cupboards. Space for free-standing appliances and plumbing for washing machine. Window to the side elevation. Doorway leading to outside.
Rear Hall (3.78m x 3.20m (12'5 x 10'6))
Extended room providing access to the converted outbuildings. Fully laid sycamore floor. Window to outside and doorway providing access to outside.
Barn (6.27m x 3.58m (20'7 x 11'9))
An extended room with a feature vaulted ceiling. Coves with built-in shelving. Sycamore floor throughout. Glazed double-doors with windows either side overlooking and opening onto the garden. Additional window to the front elevation. Overhead window providing additional natural light.
Wet Room (2.24m x 1.57m (7'4 x 5'2))
Built-in shower system with wall-mounted controls featuring a fix shower head and an additional rinsing attachment. Wall-mounted basin and wc. Fully tiled walls. Fully tiled floor. Obscured window.
Bake Oven (4.34m x 3.53m (14'3 x 11'7))
A characterful room with the original bread oven and a large open fireplace. Storage heater. Sycamore flooring. Dual aspect with windows to the front and rear elevations. Staircase providing access to the bake oven bedroom.
Bake Oven Bedroom (5.05m x 3.84m (16'7 x 12'7))
Feature vaulted ceiling. Dual aspect with windows to the front and rear elevations.
Bedroom One (4.93m x 4.14m (16'2 x 13'7))
Sash window to the front elevation. Storage heater.
Bedroom Two (4.47m x 2.95m (14'8 x 9'8))
Sash window to the front elevation. Fireplace with a cast inset and storage to the side. Doorway opening into the bathroom.
Bathroom (5.05m x 3.25m (16'7 x 10'8))
A large bathroom accessed via bedroom two and from the landing comprising a bath and a basin set onto a cabinet. Plumbed with a radiator. Large hot water cylinder with shelving. Window to the rear elevation overlooking the garden.
Separate Wc
Fitted with a low level flush wc. Window to the rear elevation.
Bedroom Four (2.39m x 1.88m (7'10 x 6'2))
Sash window to the front elevation.
Nursery (5.31m x 5.00m (17'5 x 16'5))
A generous top floor room which could be used for additional bedroom space if required. Window to the front elevation. Skylight. Doors providing access to the remaining top floor accommodation. Storage heater.
Bedroom Three (4.47m x 3.78m (14'8 x 12'5))
Window to the side elevation providing lovely views towards Plymstock church. Skylight.
Top Floor Landing
Storage. Window to the rear elevation. Skylight. Access to the secondary staircase. Doorway opening into the top floor wc.
Wc (2.06m x 1.63m (6'9 x 5'4))
WC with a high flush cistern and a basin. Skylight. Storage cupboard.
Detached Garage/Studio (7.80m x 4.88m (25'7 x 16'))
A detached building constructed beneath a pitched roof with exposed roof timbers. The studio has polished floorboards throughout. Skylight windows to 2 elevations and a Velux walk-out window. Pedestrian access door to the side elevation. Staircase linking the garage with the studio. The garage has bi-folding doors to front elevation providing vehicular access if required. Triple aspect with windows to the front, side and rear elevations. WC and wash handbasin (not working).
Outside
A gravel driveway runs between the studio and main house and provides access and off-road parking. The gardens offer an exceptional degree of privacy and seclusion and includes a storage area along with an array of mature planting including a large Ilex tree, a Catalpa (Indian bean tree) and a Mulberry To the front of the property is an enclosed garden with a chipping pathway leading to the main front entrance together with an area laid to lawn with bordering shrubs and a winter-flowering Mimosa.
Further Information
History
Marchant House is listed by Historic England for its special architectural or historical interest. The entry may be seen here. The house is understood to date from the early 1700s. The house is built of stone with thick external walls. It is slate hung with slate flagstone floor in the kitchen and slate sills. It retains its original staircase and panelled doors.
The earliest documentary evidence for the house so far uncovered is the tithe map and list of 1842.
Detail from Plymstock Tithe map 1842
Marchant House is shown as 793 with 794 and listed as Merchants and Andrews Tenement, House etc, Garden. At this time is was owned by His Grace the Duke of Bedford and occupied by Elias and Jacob Hodge. In the 1841 census for Plymstock, Jacob Hodge (25) is listed as a farmer. Elias Hodge (30) is listed as an agricultural labourer with Sarah Hodge (25) and Jacob Hodge (1).
In the 1901 census, The Parsons family were living at Marchant House. Charles Parsons is listed as a 49 year old builder, an employer, who was born at Kingswear, Devon. His wife was Harriet Parsons, aged 52 originated from MaryTavy, Devon and there were three daughters: Meta, aged 24, a dressmaker; Alice, aged 22, a Milliner and Bessie, aged 18, a school mistress. Meta, Alice and Bessie were all born in Plymstock. Ten years later, in the 1911 census, all five are still there. Charles is listed as a carpenter, Meta and Bessie are still listed as dressmaker and school teacher and Alice without an occupation. In the 1939 register, Just Elizabeth Parsons is listed at Marchant House, again as a school teacher, together with Florence Burgoyne, domestic help.
The Bone Family
In 1960 Quentin and Susan Bone acquired Marchant House and moved in with their young son Matthew. Quentin was an eminent marine biologist who worked at the Marine Biological Association’s laboratory on Plymouth Hoe. Quentin and Susan lived at Marchant House for over 60 years and raised a family of four boys here.
Susan remembered Olive Polkinghorne, neighbour at Louville, 100 Church Road next door, speaking of a school teacher who had lived at Marchant House, presumably Elizabeth Parsons. There was also a story that at one time in the earlier 20th century there had been a sweet shop in the house and that in the second world war a bomb dropped opposite causing slates to come off Louville.
Susan recalled that they bought the house from a builder who had converted the top floor into a flat. When they first moved in there was a naval couple living in the top floor flat and for a short while Susan’s brother Paul lived there. The flat became a children’s nursery and bedrooms.
Soon after they moved in, Quentin made the fireplace surround in the ‘Drawing Room’ and terraced the sloping garden to make an upper, middle and lower garden.
Quentin and Susan extended Marchant House in 1974 linking the main house at the back with an outbuilding, ‘the Barn’, and the adjoining ‘Bake Oven’ range. During the building works, the dovecote holes in the side of the Bake Oven wall were revealed. In the 1970s they also added the circular stone table under the large ilex tree in the garden and the gas-fired Aga range in the kitchen, which also heats the hot water. In about 2000, Quentin and Susan converted the outbuilding facing Church Road to make a studio above with a workshop below.
The house was rewired in about 2010, and replumbed in 2020 with a new pressurised hot water cylinder. A new wet room was installed on the ground floor in 2020.
In 2020 plans were made to provide a shower room and new skylights on the top floor. This was granted listed building consent in 2021.
Useful information:
Gas supply: The gas tap and meter is on the wall between kitchen and rear Hall.
Water supply: The water stopcock is in the floor between the kitchen and the ‘BackPlace’ pantry.
Electricity supply: The mains electricity comes into the entrance hallway at the front of the house where the circuit boards are located.
Listing entry:
SX5152NE church road, Plymstock 740-1/82/559 (North West side) 01/05/75 No.98 Marchant House (Formerly Listed as: Church road, Plymstock Marchant House)
Gv II
Legacy System number:
473258
Legacy System:
Lbs
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
End of official listing
Church Road, Plymstock, Pl9 9Bg
Accommodation
Front door opening into the entrance hall.
Entrance Hall
Doors providing access to the ground floor accommodation. Staircase ascending to the top floors. Consumer unit. Electric meter. Storage heater.
Sitting Room (4.70m x 4.19m (15'5 x 13'9))
A formal sitting room with a sash window with shutters to the front elevation. Fireplace with an open grate and feature storage either side.
Study (3.38m x 3.40m (11'1 x 11'2))
Sash window with shutters to the front elevation. Book shelving. Fireplace with a cast inset and stone hearth.
Kitchen (6.53m x 5.11m (21'5 x 16'9))
Slate flagstone floor throughout. Gas fired Aga heating the domestic hot water. Range of cabinets. Stainless-steel twin bowl single drainer sink unit with a window to the rear elevation overlooking the garden above. Table and chairs. Doorway opening into the larder/utility. Access through to the rear hall.
Larder/Utility (2.79m x 2.31m (9'2 x 7'7))
Range of built-in shelving and cupboards. Space for free-standing appliances and plumbing for washing machine. Window to the side elevation. Doorway leading to outside.
Rear Hall (3.78m x 3.20m (12'5 x 10'6))
Extended room providing access to the converted outbuildings. Fully laid sycamore floor. Window to outside and doorway providing access to outside.
Barn (6.27m x 3.58m (20'7 x 11'9))
An extended room with a feature vaulted ceiling. Coves with built-in shelving. Sycamore floor throughout. Glazed double-doors with windows either side overlooking and opening onto the garden. Additional window to the front elevation. Overhead window providing additional natural light.
Wet Room (2.24m x 1.57m (7'4 x 5'2))
Built-in shower system with wall-mounted controls featuring a fix shower head and an additional rinsing attachment. Wall-mounted basin and wc. Fully tiled walls. Fully tiled floor. Obscured window.
Bake Oven (4.34m x 3.53m (14'3 x 11'7))
A characterful room with the original bread oven and a large open fireplace. Storage heater. Sycamore flooring. Dual aspect with windows to the front and rear elevations. Staircase providing access to the bake oven bedroom.
Bake Oven Bedroom (5.05m x 3.84m (16'7 x 12'7))
Feature vaulted ceiling. Dual aspect with windows to the front and rear elevations.
Bedroom One (4.93m x 4.14m (16'2 x 13'7))
Sash window to the front elevation. Storage heater.
Bedroom Two (4.47m x 2.95m (14'8 x 9'8))
Sash window to the front elevation. Fireplace with a cast inset and storage to the side. Doorway opening into the bathroom.
Bathroom (5.05m x 3.25m (16'7 x 10'8))
A large bathroom accessed via bedroom two and from the landing comprising a bath and a basin set onto a cabinet. Plumbed with a radiator. Large hot water cylinder with shelving. Window to the rear elevation overlooking the garden.
Separate Wc
Fitted with a low level flush wc. Window to the rear elevation.
Bedroom Four (2.39m x 1.88m (7'10 x 6'2))
Sash window to the front elevation.
Nursery (5.31m x 5.00m (17'5 x 16'5))
A generous top floor room which could be used for additional bedroom space if required. Window to the front elevation. Skylight. Doors providing access to the remaining top floor accommodation. Storage heater.
Bedroom Three (4.47m x 3.78m (14'8 x 12'5))
Window to the side elevation providing lovely views towards Plymstock church. Skylight.
Top Floor Landing
Storage. Window to the rear elevation. Skylight. Access to the secondary staircase. Doorway opening into the top floor wc.
Wc (2.06m x 1.63m (6'9 x 5'4))
WC with a high flush cistern and a basin. Skylight. Storage cupboard.
Detached Garage/Studio (7.80m x 4.88m (25'7 x 16'))
A detached building constructed beneath a pitched roof with exposed roof timbers. The studio has polished floorboards throughout. Skylight windows to 2 elevations and a Velux walk-out window. Pedestrian access door to the side elevation. Staircase linking the garage with the studio. The garage has bi-folding doors to front elevation providing vehicular access if required. Triple aspect with windows to the front, side and rear elevations. WC and wash handbasin (not working).
Outside
A gravel driveway runs between the studio and main house and provides access and off-road parking. The gardens offer an exceptional degree of privacy and seclusion and includes a storage area along with an array of mature planting including a large Ilex tree, a Catalpa (Indian bean tree) and a Mulberry To the front of the property is an enclosed garden with a chipping pathway leading to the main front entrance together with an area laid to lawn with bordering shrubs and a winter-flowering Mimosa.
Further Information
History
Marchant House is listed by Historic England for its special architectural or historical interest. The entry may be seen here. The house is understood to date from the early 1700s. The house is built of stone with thick external walls. It is slate hung with slate flagstone floor in the kitchen and slate sills. It retains its original staircase and panelled doors.
The earliest documentary evidence for the house so far uncovered is the tithe map and list of 1842.
Detail from Plymstock Tithe map 1842
Marchant House is shown as 793 with 794 and listed as Merchants and Andrews Tenement, House etc, Garden. At this time is was owned by His Grace the Duke of Bedford and occupied by Elias and Jacob Hodge. In the 1841 census for Plymstock, Jacob Hodge (25) is listed as a farmer. Elias Hodge (30) is listed as an agricultural labourer with Sarah Hodge (25) and Jacob Hodge (1).
In the 1901 census, The Parsons family were living at Marchant House. Charles Parsons is listed as a 49 year old builder, an employer, who was born at Kingswear, Devon. His wife was Harriet Parsons, aged 52 originated from MaryTavy, Devon and there were three daughters: Meta, aged 24, a dressmaker; Alice, aged 22, a Milliner and Bessie, aged 18, a school mistress. Meta, Alice and Bessie were all born in Plymstock. Ten years later, in the 1911 census, all five are still there. Charles is listed as a carpenter, Meta and Bessie are still listed as dressmaker and school teacher and Alice without an occupation. In the 1939 register, Just Elizabeth Parsons is listed at Marchant House, again as a school teacher, together with Florence Burgoyne, domestic help.
The Bone Family
In 1960 Quentin and Susan Bone acquired Marchant House and moved in with their young son Matthew. Quentin was an eminent marine biologist who worked at the Marine Biological Association’s laboratory on Plymouth Hoe. Quentin and Susan lived at Marchant House for over 60 years and raised a family of four boys here.
Susan remembered Olive Polkinghorne, neighbour at Louville, 100 Church Road next door, speaking of a school teacher who had lived at Marchant House, presumably Elizabeth Parsons. There was also a story that at one time in the earlier 20th century there had been a sweet shop in the house and that in the second world war a bomb dropped opposite causing slates to come off Louville.
Susan recalled that they bought the house from a builder who had converted the top floor into a flat. When they first moved in there was a naval couple living in the top floor flat and for a short while Susan’s brother Paul lived there. The flat became a children’s nursery and bedrooms.
Soon after they moved in, Quentin made the fireplace surround in the ‘Drawing Room’ and terraced the sloping garden to make an upper, middle and lower garden.
Quentin and Susan extended Marchant House in 1974 linking the main house at the back with an outbuilding, ‘the Barn’, and the adjoining ‘Bake Oven’ range. During the building works, the dovecote holes in the side of the Bake Oven wall were revealed. In the 1970s they also added the circular stone table under the large ilex tree in the garden and the gas-fired Aga range in the kitchen, which also heats the hot water. In about 2000, Quentin and Susan converted the outbuilding facing Church Road to make a studio above with a workshop below.
The house was rewired in about 2010, and replumbed in 2020 with a new pressurised hot water cylinder. A new wet room was installed on the ground floor in 2020.
In 2020 plans were made to provide a shower room and new skylights on the top floor. This was granted listed building consent in 2021.
Useful information:
Gas supply: The gas tap and meter is on the wall between kitchen and rear Hall.
Water supply: The water stopcock is in the floor between the kitchen and the ‘BackPlace’ pantry.
Electricity supply: The mains electricity comes into the entrance hallway at the front of the house where the circuit boards are located.
Listing entry:
SX5152NE church road, Plymstock 740-1/82/559 (North West side) 01/05/75 No.98 Marchant House (Formerly Listed as: Church road, Plymstock Marchant House)
Gv II
Legacy System number:
473258
Legacy System:
Lbs
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
End of official listing
