A fine, well designed country house offering an exceptional southerly view towards the Ashdown Forest.
Built in the early part of the twentieth century, Cat Street House is raised up and set back from the road, accessed from a mature drive approach, which has been fitted with an electric gate. To the rear, there is a wonderful southerly aspect overlooking the gardens and land, with the Ashdown Forest in the distance, looking up to the well-known high point, called Gills Lap.
The original house is designed as a wide building, so that most of the rooms take advantage of the southerly aspect with views and enjoy direct access out to the rear garden. A later garden room addition builds on this approach and opens into a re-worked, large kitchen/dining room, providing the all-important modern style family space. In contrast, the two formal reception rooms are traditional in style and linked by a spacious reception hall, enabling the accommodation to flow nicely for when entertaining. The kitchen on the other hand is quite minimalist in style, with modern units along the walls and an island unit with hob, oven and grill. Appliances are by Bosch, Smeg, Miele and Samsung and the room features tiled flooring and ceiling downlighters.
Beyond the kitchen, a spacious rear lobby gives access through to a large boiler/boot room as well as a utility room, which is fitted with a shower.
Upstairs, the generous principal bedroom suite incorporates a sizeable bedroom with wardrobes and a dressing room too, which could serve as an additional bedroom or nursery. This also has an updated shower room en-suite. In addition, there are five further bedrooms, one linked to a family bathroom and then a further family bathroom as well.
Outside the house enjoys an impressive single driveway approach, with mature planting, lawn and trees to the sides, secured with an electric five bar gate. There is parking in front of the house for several cars and a spur driveway that also gives access through to a generous additional parking area, next to a large impressive brick stable block, with a pitched tiled roof, providing three stables, a tack room and feed room. There is also an adjacent open store and a double garage here, with an adjacent log store.
To the rear beyond this, there is a wonderful southerly aspect for the mature, wide and deep rear garden, which has planting and trees to the sides, providing very good seclusion.
The garden overall is divided into a fine, formal yew hedged, lawned garden with rose beds beyond the rear patio, immediately behind the house, as well as a good area of park-like garden behind the outbuildings, leading down to the gated access into the rear paddock. A discreet swimming pool is tucked away to the rear of the formal garden, with stone surround and hedging on all sides, creating a sun trap, with seclusion as well as a wind break. A tennis court is also tucked away on the eastern side of the garden, beyond the tall yew hedging, along with a garden shed and a separate vegetable garden. Then, completing the land, there are two paddocks with the house, one to the rear, directly beyond the garden, complete with woodland to the boundary, a field shelter and a gated access to the rear onto a public footpath, giving access routes to the Ashdown Forest. The other paddock is in front of the house, leading down to the road.
View payable Stamp Duty for this property
Looks out to the south over the wonderful, formal garden and then on up to Gills Lap on the Ashdown Forest; 'an enchanted place' according to 'The House at Pooh Corner' by AA Milne and very much one of my favourite places over many years to dog walk on the Forest.
Robert JacobsProperty agent