House For Sale £6,950,000
Surrounded by protected forests and fields within the South Downs National Park, close to the village and country estate of Hinton Ampner and the beautiful Georgian town of Alresford, lies Black House Farm. This is an exquisite and ambitious new project built to a design by Robin Lee Architecture. A meticulous renovation of the Grade II listed 17th Century farmhouse has been met with the dramatic conversion of an adjacent 19th Century threshing barn and farmyard.
The resulting combination is a house of rare distinction linked by a contemporary structure and set in almost 20 acres of private fields and wildflower meadows.
The Tour
The house is reached along a secluded woodland lane which culminates in a private, gated driveway with a plant room and garage, and parking space for several vehicles. The approach to the house offers a deliberate view, placing the original 17th Century farmhouse at the forefront and cleverly belying the mass that lays behind. It’s a device that serves to celebrate and retain the dominance of the listed building while amplifying the dramatic reveal that awaits within.
This yeoman’s farmhouse, named ‘Cannings’ until about 1720, received several mentions in ‘Hampshire Houses 1250-1700’ by Edward Roberts and is documented in historic deeds and plans at the local archives.
The farmhouse is thatched and composed of a single-storey base-course formed in flint walling with elevations of oak framing and infills of hand-made red brick. Capping the composition is a high thatched roof, characterful in both form and silhouette. A fastidious repair, coordinated by the present owners, has been undertaken with local artisans and craftsmen covering all aspects of the facades from new hardwood windows to traditional lime plastering and oak repairs.
The same care has been applied within, where new oak doors have been handmade in traditional methods along with careful repair of the wide-board oak floors. In every aspect of the Conservation Plan the owner’s wish was to make clear new elements from old. The layout is set out over three storeys with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a guest cloakroom at ground level, and a stone-floored entrance with an inglenook fireplace and working bread oven as its central hub.
To the right of the entrance a hallway leads into the architectural intervention and offers a sweeping view some thirty metres through to the former threshing barn. Here, clay tiles become polished concrete by Lazenby, with underfloor heating, both of which extend throughout the remainder of the house.
This single storey structure connects the historic buildings, consolidating and extending the two into one magnificent home while re-establishing the original form of the farmstead to create a central courtyard. The contemporary and orthogonal form is respectful in this context and allows the two existing structures to dominate, elevating their status in the landscape. Externally, timber cladding and lapped timber boards are used to match the scale and treatment of the original barn and are set against black corrugated sheet steel over the high-pitched roof profile.
Three bedrooms, a cloakroom and a studio/study line the western aspect with full glazed sliding doors looking out over a wildflower meadow and to the forest beyond. All bedrooms are en-suite and there is a further guest WC within the same bank of rooms.
Wrapping the courtyard lawn, this single-storey structure is defined by an outward simplicity coupled with a dramatic ceiling made of Douglas-fir coffers. This newbuild section flows in a u-shape, moving from atrium to living room where huge sliding glazed doors open onto the enclosed garden. This part of the home is all open plan and releases into the traditional oak-framed barn where an original structure has been dismantled by a local specialist framing company, restored and combined with new oak components. All the frames have been reassembled and grounded by a cast-concrete base around the perimeter and new oak panelling throughout.
This voluminous space houses the kitchen and dining room. Enormous windows and a towering glass door flood the interior with light from three sides while framing views of the surrounding greenery. The kitchen is bespoke and arranged around an oak island with a riven granite inlay. Appliances are by Ilve, Miele and Liebherr.
Outside Space
Beyond the enclosed formal lawn are acres of wildflower borders and tall rye grass meadows. The grounds fall to the west in undulating paddocks bordered by a historic & protected evergreen forest; a silhouette of peaked tips reminiscent of a North American landscape. Meadow to the north also falls but to a deciduous perimeter, and to the east another wild meadow extends the orchard garden and reaches a delightful swimming lake fed naturally by rainwater.
The Area
Black House Farm is located near the village of Hinton Ampner and close to Cheriton, with the source of the River Itchen, and West Meon. The Georgian town of Alresford, with its independent shops and variety of restaurants, is a 15-minute drive and further offerings at West Meon are around ten minutes away. In nearby West Meon there is a great pub called the Thomas Lord with further hostelries in and around Kilmeston. The 19th Century mansion and grounds of The Grange is close by and offers an annual festival opera among other events. The Grange vineyards are also near, with 30 acres of award winning vines.
The are many stables nearby for riding, lanes and tracks for cycling. For fishermen, Hampshire’s chalk streams present a variety of challenges from local fisheries to the Meon, Itchen and Arle.
Approximately five minutes’ away is Brockwood Park School and nearby highly regarded schools include Winchester College, St Swithun’s, Bedales, Ditcham Park School and Twyford School.
The A272 can be joined at Brockwood and provides a route to London along the M3 or A3. A regular railway service is available from Winchester or Petersfield to London Waterloo. Southampton Airport is about 35 minutes away.
Council Tax Band: G
The resulting combination is a house of rare distinction linked by a contemporary structure and set in almost 20 acres of private fields and wildflower meadows.
The Tour
The house is reached along a secluded woodland lane which culminates in a private, gated driveway with a plant room and garage, and parking space for several vehicles. The approach to the house offers a deliberate view, placing the original 17th Century farmhouse at the forefront and cleverly belying the mass that lays behind. It’s a device that serves to celebrate and retain the dominance of the listed building while amplifying the dramatic reveal that awaits within.
This yeoman’s farmhouse, named ‘Cannings’ until about 1720, received several mentions in ‘Hampshire Houses 1250-1700’ by Edward Roberts and is documented in historic deeds and plans at the local archives.
The farmhouse is thatched and composed of a single-storey base-course formed in flint walling with elevations of oak framing and infills of hand-made red brick. Capping the composition is a high thatched roof, characterful in both form and silhouette. A fastidious repair, coordinated by the present owners, has been undertaken with local artisans and craftsmen covering all aspects of the facades from new hardwood windows to traditional lime plastering and oak repairs.
The same care has been applied within, where new oak doors have been handmade in traditional methods along with careful repair of the wide-board oak floors. In every aspect of the Conservation Plan the owner’s wish was to make clear new elements from old. The layout is set out over three storeys with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a guest cloakroom at ground level, and a stone-floored entrance with an inglenook fireplace and working bread oven as its central hub.
To the right of the entrance a hallway leads into the architectural intervention and offers a sweeping view some thirty metres through to the former threshing barn. Here, clay tiles become polished concrete by Lazenby, with underfloor heating, both of which extend throughout the remainder of the house.
This single storey structure connects the historic buildings, consolidating and extending the two into one magnificent home while re-establishing the original form of the farmstead to create a central courtyard. The contemporary and orthogonal form is respectful in this context and allows the two existing structures to dominate, elevating their status in the landscape. Externally, timber cladding and lapped timber boards are used to match the scale and treatment of the original barn and are set against black corrugated sheet steel over the high-pitched roof profile.
Three bedrooms, a cloakroom and a studio/study line the western aspect with full glazed sliding doors looking out over a wildflower meadow and to the forest beyond. All bedrooms are en-suite and there is a further guest WC within the same bank of rooms.
Wrapping the courtyard lawn, this single-storey structure is defined by an outward simplicity coupled with a dramatic ceiling made of Douglas-fir coffers. This newbuild section flows in a u-shape, moving from atrium to living room where huge sliding glazed doors open onto the enclosed garden. This part of the home is all open plan and releases into the traditional oak-framed barn where an original structure has been dismantled by a local specialist framing company, restored and combined with new oak components. All the frames have been reassembled and grounded by a cast-concrete base around the perimeter and new oak panelling throughout.
This voluminous space houses the kitchen and dining room. Enormous windows and a towering glass door flood the interior with light from three sides while framing views of the surrounding greenery. The kitchen is bespoke and arranged around an oak island with a riven granite inlay. Appliances are by Ilve, Miele and Liebherr.
Outside Space
Beyond the enclosed formal lawn are acres of wildflower borders and tall rye grass meadows. The grounds fall to the west in undulating paddocks bordered by a historic & protected evergreen forest; a silhouette of peaked tips reminiscent of a North American landscape. Meadow to the north also falls but to a deciduous perimeter, and to the east another wild meadow extends the orchard garden and reaches a delightful swimming lake fed naturally by rainwater.
The Area
Black House Farm is located near the village of Hinton Ampner and close to Cheriton, with the source of the River Itchen, and West Meon. The Georgian town of Alresford, with its independent shops and variety of restaurants, is a 15-minute drive and further offerings at West Meon are around ten minutes away. In nearby West Meon there is a great pub called the Thomas Lord with further hostelries in and around Kilmeston. The 19th Century mansion and grounds of The Grange is close by and offers an annual festival opera among other events. The Grange vineyards are also near, with 30 acres of award winning vines.
The are many stables nearby for riding, lanes and tracks for cycling. For fishermen, Hampshire’s chalk streams present a variety of challenges from local fisheries to the Meon, Itchen and Arle.
Approximately five minutes’ away is Brockwood Park School and nearby highly regarded schools include Winchester College, St Swithun’s, Bedales, Ditcham Park School and Twyford School.
The A272 can be joined at Brockwood and provides a route to London along the M3 or A3. A regular railway service is available from Winchester or Petersfield to London Waterloo. Southampton Airport is about 35 minutes away.
Council Tax Band: G
