House For Sale £825,000
A lovely freehold detached house built by a local Sussex builder in 2003, owned by first purchasers from new, offered to the market chain-free. Light and spacious with an unusually large south facing garden with wonderful far-reaching views over farmland and woods. Situated on a lane in the pleasant Wealden village of Five Ashes, which features a small but well regarded primary school, a characterful pub, and a popular independent Porsche garage.
Upstairs the property has four generous double bedrooms, two with ensuites, and a family bathroom. At ground level, the hallway leads to kitchen with separate utility room, dining area, Bed 5 / study, a lounge with wood-burning open fireplace, and ground level WC. With internal and external points of access is the former double garage area, professionally improved to a generous indoor space, roomy with abundant natural light, drylined, central heated and featuring ingenius snug sliding folding doors, offering a wonderful flexible yet cosy area with plenty of natural light and generous proportions perfect for a games room, music room, playroom, additional entertaining space or home studio office (or to store cherished vehicles if required). In the roof space there is a partly boarded loft with water storage tank and storage space. The garden to the rear is very large by village standards and has a good amount of lawn with numerous established fruit and other trees, shrubs and a good sized shed.
What the owners say:
Living in London, it took us about two years of searching and countless hours driving around with snoozing babies before we found this lovely bright house, after seeing seemingly endless properties across Kent and Sussex. We wanted to live on a hill, high enough to be out of reach of flood issues. Being a new build (in 2003) of quality construction by an independent builder, this house always felt snug, quick to warm up when arriving home in winter, and welcoming, seeming often full of light with its southern outlook and large windows.
We were looking for a good-sized garden, and were fortunate to find such a lovely open south-facing aspect and wonderful uninterrupted sweeping views over the weald, farmland and woods.
It was important to us to be on a quiet lane and not live on a busy road, to be away from the noise of road traffic but also to be able to walk safely or go cycling with children directly from the house on to a pedestrian-friendly country lane at any time to get fresh air, post a letter or ramble in the woods. There are a great many footpaths and woodland walks in the area, accessible within minutes simply by walking from the house without needing to drive or negotiate fast or busy roads.
As we had small children at the time, we wanted a house that didn't need disruptive major works. We liked the fact that the house was properly constructed by an old-fashioned local Sussex builder rather than part of a typical larger development hastily constructed by a "building company".
Solidly built, the layout and design of the house is balanced and open with no odd corners and all the bedrooms are a good size. We wanted a traditional house which "looks like a house" and not something with obvious extensions or unusual features. We particularly liked the staircase as it is a safer "winder" design than straight flight stairs, especially for children and older people.
Criers Lane is a peaceful location with minimal light or noise pollution; we remember the first night moving in when we looked up and saw stars for the first time in years.
It is useful to be just a short walk to the small village school which we found to be very good and there is also Skippers Hill Prep School an even shorter walk up the hill where two of our children attended in early years. For secondary school the bus stop on the A267 is a few minutes' walk to the end of the lane, going south to Heathfield Community College and in the other direction buses go to Tunbridge Wells where there are grammar schools and other establishments.
The journey time by road to Tunbridge Wells is about 15-20 minutes and being close to the A267, Eastbourne, the south downs and and the coast is not far off, and yet it's still only about an hour or so in to London. The villages of Mayfield and Heathfield are close by car. We did not want an isolated house, but equally did not want to be tucked away in a cul-de-sac in a village with lots of other houses jammed together.
There is room comfortably for perhaps four or five cars at the front. The former garage, while more usefully a comfortable and well insulated living space, has folding sliding doors so could just as well accommodate a cherished car or up to two such vehicles.
The whole plot extends to approximately three quarters of an acre and there are fruit trees which we planted on arrival in 2003 including apple, pear and cherry. We kept chickens and some vegetable plots for a time, for which pursuits there is more than sufficient space.
The house is mostly in original condition (from 2003). There is some scope for modernisation according to a new owner's preference if desired. There is good potential for addition of a conservatory or more ambitious extension (subject to the usual planning approvals).
In our view the house is soldliy built and in good structural condition. It always felt like home to us, and all our children have fond memories of fun times in the garden in all seasons - there was plenty of room for everything from rolly toys to football to archery, offroad motorbiking to outdoor campfire cooking, building forts and dens, growing pumpkins, planting trees and picking blackberries. One freezing February our children spent many happy hours rolling up enormous snowballs which gathered into massive heaps at the bottom of the garden which took some weeks to fully melt.
Wealden Council Tax G, oil fired central heating, independent waste-water treatment system (Titan Biotec).
When enquiring please quote IATA18716
Upstairs the property has four generous double bedrooms, two with ensuites, and a family bathroom. At ground level, the hallway leads to kitchen with separate utility room, dining area, Bed 5 / study, a lounge with wood-burning open fireplace, and ground level WC. With internal and external points of access is the former double garage area, professionally improved to a generous indoor space, roomy with abundant natural light, drylined, central heated and featuring ingenius snug sliding folding doors, offering a wonderful flexible yet cosy area with plenty of natural light and generous proportions perfect for a games room, music room, playroom, additional entertaining space or home studio office (or to store cherished vehicles if required). In the roof space there is a partly boarded loft with water storage tank and storage space. The garden to the rear is very large by village standards and has a good amount of lawn with numerous established fruit and other trees, shrubs and a good sized shed.
What the owners say:
Living in London, it took us about two years of searching and countless hours driving around with snoozing babies before we found this lovely bright house, after seeing seemingly endless properties across Kent and Sussex. We wanted to live on a hill, high enough to be out of reach of flood issues. Being a new build (in 2003) of quality construction by an independent builder, this house always felt snug, quick to warm up when arriving home in winter, and welcoming, seeming often full of light with its southern outlook and large windows.
We were looking for a good-sized garden, and were fortunate to find such a lovely open south-facing aspect and wonderful uninterrupted sweeping views over the weald, farmland and woods.
It was important to us to be on a quiet lane and not live on a busy road, to be away from the noise of road traffic but also to be able to walk safely or go cycling with children directly from the house on to a pedestrian-friendly country lane at any time to get fresh air, post a letter or ramble in the woods. There are a great many footpaths and woodland walks in the area, accessible within minutes simply by walking from the house without needing to drive or negotiate fast or busy roads.
As we had small children at the time, we wanted a house that didn't need disruptive major works. We liked the fact that the house was properly constructed by an old-fashioned local Sussex builder rather than part of a typical larger development hastily constructed by a "building company".
Solidly built, the layout and design of the house is balanced and open with no odd corners and all the bedrooms are a good size. We wanted a traditional house which "looks like a house" and not something with obvious extensions or unusual features. We particularly liked the staircase as it is a safer "winder" design than straight flight stairs, especially for children and older people.
Criers Lane is a peaceful location with minimal light or noise pollution; we remember the first night moving in when we looked up and saw stars for the first time in years.
It is useful to be just a short walk to the small village school which we found to be very good and there is also Skippers Hill Prep School an even shorter walk up the hill where two of our children attended in early years. For secondary school the bus stop on the A267 is a few minutes' walk to the end of the lane, going south to Heathfield Community College and in the other direction buses go to Tunbridge Wells where there are grammar schools and other establishments.
The journey time by road to Tunbridge Wells is about 15-20 minutes and being close to the A267, Eastbourne, the south downs and and the coast is not far off, and yet it's still only about an hour or so in to London. The villages of Mayfield and Heathfield are close by car. We did not want an isolated house, but equally did not want to be tucked away in a cul-de-sac in a village with lots of other houses jammed together.
There is room comfortably for perhaps four or five cars at the front. The former garage, while more usefully a comfortable and well insulated living space, has folding sliding doors so could just as well accommodate a cherished car or up to two such vehicles.
The whole plot extends to approximately three quarters of an acre and there are fruit trees which we planted on arrival in 2003 including apple, pear and cherry. We kept chickens and some vegetable plots for a time, for which pursuits there is more than sufficient space.
The house is mostly in original condition (from 2003). There is some scope for modernisation according to a new owner's preference if desired. There is good potential for addition of a conservatory or more ambitious extension (subject to the usual planning approvals).
In our view the house is soldliy built and in good structural condition. It always felt like home to us, and all our children have fond memories of fun times in the garden in all seasons - there was plenty of room for everything from rolly toys to football to archery, offroad motorbiking to outdoor campfire cooking, building forts and dens, growing pumpkins, planting trees and picking blackberries. One freezing February our children spent many happy hours rolling up enormous snowballs which gathered into massive heaps at the bottom of the garden which took some weeks to fully melt.
Wealden Council Tax G, oil fired central heating, independent waste-water treatment system (Titan Biotec).
When enquiring please quote IATA18716
