8, Church Road, Barton-le-Clay, Bedfordshire, MK45 4LA

Picture-perfect C17TH cottage, opposite church - with pool, annexe, outdoor office and 0.8 acres – in village full of amenities A quintessential, English country cottage, with nearly 3000 sq.

Ft., at least five bedrooms and a detached double garage converted currently to an office, gym and teenage retreat.

Gorgeous gardens of over three quarters of an acre come complete with field and orchard, pool and pond.

Timber-framed and roofed in Norfolk reed, the most durable and long-lasting thatch, ‘The Cottage’ sits opposite the beautiful Grade i-listed, St Nicholas church, towards the end of a no through, leafy lane within the conservation area of Barton-le-Clay, an historic Bedfordshire village with every facility and amenity, just 3.5 miles from Harlington Railway Station.

Surrounded by beautiful countryside, the setting is tremendous, the home a total delight.

It takes just 20 minutes to cycle from The Cottage to Harlington Station and a similar time to drive to Luton, from where fast trains take little more than 20 minutes to reach London.

A bus will take you from the village to Luton Airport.

And a few minutes away, the A6 will provide speedy access to the new Universal Studios and Wixams Station, which will provide a fast link between Oxford and Cambridge, to London and even to Europe, if the vision is realised.

The A6 also takes you to Bedford and the world-renowned Harpur Trust schools – private school buses will pick up children from the village, too.

There are highly regarded schools in Barton-le-Clay itself, though, with both lower and middle schools just a few hundred yards walk from your new home.

With the upper school in Harlington, the village is well-placed for schools for all ages, and all are rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ in all areas.

Moreover, you can leave your cars in your gravelled drive and walk to every facility and amenity, from shops to supermarkets, surgery to pharmacy, pubs to restaurants.

Play tennis in the park at the end of your field. You even have a library. Four-legged family members are not left out - the village vets will look after them.

And your fit and healthy dog will be able to take you walking for miles into the Barton Hills, to Barton Springs, to the Iron Age fort at Sharpenhoe Clappers, and further into the Chiltern Hills – a designated area of outstanding natural beauty on the doorstep of your outstanding and beautiful family home.

More about the property To think that The Cottage, built in 1601 when Good Queen Bess was on the throne, is a mere youngster compared to the beautiful 12th century church which watches over it, with its wonderful, chequered stone tower.

Once three cottages, generations of families who have lived here since would be amazed to see it now.

It’s charm and character remain undimmed, with its eyebrow windows beneath its thatch, and its beautiful timbers, oak and terracotta floors and solid oak, latch doors.

But as three have become one, three bathrooms have been added, and a bespoke, granite-topped, painted Shaker-style kitchen installed, built around high-end appliances including a magnificent Lacanche range – “Serious cookers for serious cooks” – you have all the space and facilities today a modern family could wish for.

In wonderful, sloping-ceilinged bedrooms, one of which has an internal window that might have once been external - all with views of the church, of the churchyard enclosed by 19th century railings which somehow survived the war effort, or of trees in the gardens front and back, from where tawny owls deliver their distinctive duet.

Teens can even escape to the vaulted-ceilinged annexe bedroom.

There’s space to work and to work out, to relax in front of the television or the beautiful inglenook’s woodburning stove, which sends warmth around the home.

And space to study - until the pool, in its wonderful walled spot on the other side of French doors proves too alluring.

Entertain friends to dinner in yet another beautifully beamed room, which opens in summertime through two sets of French doors to the flagstone terrace. And to the gorgeous gardens.

Beautiful borders and rockeries alive with nature, roses and poppies vying for attention with lilies and lavender, ferns and foxgloves - as inside the house, beauty at every turn.

Roses and jasmine climb the back walls, wisteria the reclaimed-brick and slate gazebo, where you can eat, drink and be merry, come rain or shine.

Children can climb, swing and make their den hidden by variegated holly and lilac. And camp in a field that’s home to oak and blue spruce trees and carpeted in daffodils come springtime.

Harvest your own apples, pears, plums and veg. You even have a full-sized golf net to practise that errant tee shot.

Relax beside the pond watching dragonflies flitting across the water, fish darting beneath the pretty lilies and irises. And then there are those pool parties. Happy family memories are made of this.