The Gables, High Street, Great Barford, Bedfordshire, MK44 3LF

Impressive family home, with snooker room, pool and 0.5 acres – as well as scope for annexe A hugely attractive, individually designed, 50-year-old, 5-double bedroom home in the riverside commuter village of Great Barford.

With over 4000 square feet of versatile space in the main house alone, half an acre of lovely, landscaped, southeast-facing gardens, double garage, snooker room and separate, covered pool and sauna, The Gables is, after almost two decades, ready to welcome another fortunate family, and even has scope for creating an annexe.

Built by a local builder who still lives in the village today, the expensive fixtures and fittings are of the highest quality and in extremely good condition, the house having been lovingly maintained ever since; yet excitingly, there are numerous options for you to update and alter your new home to perfectly suit your tastes and needs.

Great Barford is particularly well placed for travelling, with the M1 and A1 easily accessible, and lying less than 25 miles equidistant from Cambridge and Milton Keynes.

You have a choice of railway stations at Bedford and Biggleswade, both about 7.5 miles away, and Sandy less than 5 miles, with trains reaching London in 36 minutes.

Walk just 880 yards with the children to their little primary school, while older children can catch a bus or cycle to Sandy Secondary less than 5 miles away.

Both are rated ‘Good’ in all areas by Ofsted. Alternatively, the world-renowned Harpur Trust private schools in Bedford are just 6.5 miles away.

As well as all the facilities and amenities of the county town, the village itself has its own post office, village stores and surgery.

Various takeaways and a highly thought of Chinese restaurant and bar are a short stroll away, as are parks, playing fields and village hall. A super scouting activity centre is just around the corner.

You can be in the fields at the back with your dog without touching the road, wander down to the Great Ouse and along to Willington Lock and Danish Camp.

Your new home is just a few paces from the ancient Church of All Saints, and the 17th century Anchor Inn, from where you can watch narrow boats pass beneath the 15th century, 17-arch bridge spanning the beautiful river.

A superb, contemporary home that sits happily on an historic street, and which you can mould to fit your perfect lifestyle is quite an opportunity.

More about the property Watched over by the 15th century church tower, the four gables that gave your new home its name rise above the front garden’s matching brick walls and meticulously manicured hedging that screen the house from the High Street.

Electric gates, with their eagle-eyed sentries, and the sweeping, tree-lined driveway are peacefully tucked away off a no through lane at the back and make quite a main entrance.

The pool complex, too, is almost hidden amongst the greenery. You’ll no doubt wish, in time, to upgrade the pool cover and associated amenities, but what a facility this is for family and friends.

Happy, lifelong memories are made here.

Snooker enthusiasts, too, will feel as if they’re in paradise, with the purpose-built, oak-panelled room complete with its beautiful, antique Burroughes and Watts, Soho Square, full-sized snooker table.

Yet the less keen might consider this room as part of a possible self-contained annexe - for grandparents, for instance - with a utility that’s larger than many a kitchen, and perhaps the double garage, which could easily be incorporated into the house.

One thing’s certain. As soon as you step onto the oak floor of the spacious entrance hall, you feel at home. For this is a family home, first and foremost.

Everyone has their own space, not least in lovely, large bedrooms, including a guest room with shower shared, Jack & Jill-style, with the bedroom at the top of the second staircase – or will this be a super office as it is currently, complete with walk-in, loft space?

And a main bedroom suite, with its bathroom complete with lovely, oval bath and beautiful, marble-topped vanity.

Yet there’s so much space, too, for the family to come together, either in the cosy snug or in the huge, yet comfortable, sitting room; in the dining room or in the kitchen, with its gorgeous, granite-topped, bespoke, maple furniture and island, where you can breakfast and relax with coffee on the sofa in its garden room area.

And all these rooms open to outside – to spectacular sunsets with glass of wine at the front and al fresco dining at the back amongst wisteria and rose-clad walls and pretty beds stocked full of dahlias, roses and spring-flowering bulbs.

Bird-filled trees watch over children at play. A sun-kissed garden with year-round interest, not to mention an out-of-the-way allotment. The Gables is for all ages.