Period home - with parking! : Shropshire Star:

51 St Mary's Street, Bridgnorth Stuart and Donna-Marie Rawle think that their home is so special that the couple - who are having to relocate - wish they could just pick it up and take it with them. A gorgeous Grade-II-listed cottage which is in a conservation area in St Mary’s Street, Bridgnorth - just a stone’s throw from the town centre - its original features are fireplaces, quarry tiles, sash windows, exposed beams and latched doors. A traditional old English part-timbered town cottage, number 51 is packed with charm and charac

ter and has been beautifully refurbished to show it at its very best. It also has the huge advantage of having parking at the back of the property.

Since buying their home 10 years ago the Rawles have improved it and revealed more original features, which have included old doorways to the neighbouring homes and a fireplace hidden behind a wall.

They have added a smart new kitchen, bathroom and en-suite and believe the home still has further potential for adding an office in a former washhouse at the back of the building.

Number 51 St Mary’s Street is up for sale through Lane Fox of Bridgnorth for £265,0000 with no chain (Details correct at time of publication - October 2006).

A beautifully presented home, it has a sitting room, fitted kitchen, bathroom, utility/office, master bedroom with en-suite shower room, a further double bedroom, a seating area, maintenance free garden and parking.

51 St Mary's Street, Bridgnorth The front door from the street opens to the lovely sitting room with its inglenook fireplace and Coalbrookdale stove which can be lit up with spotlights. In fact, there are spotlights throughout the property.

Behind this room is the very attractive kitchen with quarry-tiled floor. The kitchen has solid wood, oak-faced units with a number of integral appliances including a fridge, freezer, dishwasher, stainless steel double oven, five-ring hob and stainless steel extractor hood.

There are glazed display cabinets, and a charming original feature in this room is the fireplace.

A rear lobby leads from the kitchen to the contemporary bathroom. Behind the cottage, and accessed from the outside, is the former washhouse (which has an original wash tub). This is used as a utility, yet it does offer potential as an office, say the selling agents.

Between the kitchen and the living room is an opening to the turned oak staircase. The master bedroom has an oak-boarded floor, beams and a contemporary en-suite shower room. The second double bedroom is directly opposite, off the small landing.

To the rear of the home is an attractive sitting area, which lies adjacent to the kitchen. A walkway then leads to the low maintenance rear garden area, with the parking area next to it. The parking is accessed off the Listley Street car park, and has space for two vehicles.

Stuart, an electrician, and Donna-Marie, a merchandiser in the retail industry, have enjoyed living in St Mary’s Street.

Stuart said: “It’s lovely living in St Mary’s Street, but the majority of people have to put up with the inconvenience of trying to park. To have parking at the back is quite unusual in Bridgnorth.”

He said he believed the cottage to probably be about 200 years old.

51 St Mary's Street, Bridgnorth He said that as it is an old building, it has required work doing to it while they have been there and initially it needed just a little TLC.

He said: “It’s been maintained and I’ve changed the kitchen and put in a new bathroom and en-suite. It has been redecorated about three times since we have been here, as Donna-Marie has quite a flair.

“We have tried to complement the age of the property. I’ve tried to have it ‘in keeping’ and it has always been in really good condition. I love old properties. I couldn’t live in a ‘box’.”

Stuart believes that at one time the row of houses adjoining number 51 would have been connected.

He said: “There are four or five houses that would have been interconnected and the old doors had been bricked up. There was one in the bedroom and one in the living room. In the one bedroom we found a fireplace that had been blocked off.

“They used hardboard in the 1960s to cover anything. I just cut a little bit of a hole and poked a camera through and took a picture and there we had a fireplace with a plant pot on top. The fireplace was perfect.”

Stuart said he had put his “heart and soul” into the cottage. He said: “It’s not been doing it up, it’s been looking after it really. We haven’t scrimped on anything at all. It’s such a beautiful house that I couldn’t put rubbish in it. I don’t think that anybody who has walked into it, hasn’t fallen in love with it. It is perfect and the lifestyle is so easy, everything is there. It’s better than London really.”