Village school gets new look

Andrew Parrish and Tracey Rochelle’s beautiful home is so stylish that it was featured on television’s Our House programme.

Originally forming part of the former Georgian/Victorian Lacon Childe School, it is one of five luxurious homes to have been created from it.

The property, which has bags of character, is a Grade II listed townhouse with high ceilings, original windows and original solid oak parquet flooring in the kitchen and main bathroom.

The couple have been working on Number 2 since they bought it seven years ago. Self-confessed property restorers - they had already done three houses up before this one - no expense has been spared and everything has been done to make the most of its potential.

Work included restoring a beautiful original double fronted entrance door as well as uncovering and restoring an original rear side hall and staircase, which had been blocked off by the developers.

The couple, who live there with their young daughter Belle, love their home. The only reason they are moving is to buy a property with outbuildings that they can convert to accomodate Tracey’s mail order/ internet confectionary gift business L’Elephant Blanc. Her husband Andrew is a commercial manager for Painter Brothers of Hereford.

Therefore Number 2 Lacon Court, Childe Road, Cleobury Mortimer, has been put up for sale through Lane Fox of Ludlow for £395,000 (Details correct at time of publication - January 2007).

It has an entrance hall, porch/boot room, stunning sitting room, dining room, impressive kitchen/breakfast room, three bedrooms, a large upstairs landing (which offers potential to be converted to a further bedroom), two family bathrooms, a courtyard garden, off street parking and a terrace area.

Andrew and Tracey had gutted and restored their third property, a 1930s detached property in Old Swinford, Stourbridge, when Andrew got a job in Hereford. At the time Tracey was working in Birmingham and they decided to find a property in between.

Tracey said: “We walked in and fell in love with the house. You’ve got all this mansion-sized property but you’ve just got a bit of it. You’ve got this grand house but you don’t have loads and loads of rooms to clean. I do like it. It’s really romantic and I like the history of it.”

When they moved in it was decorated in pale shades, such as mint and peach. This has been replaced with neutral, toning shades throughout which complement neutral carpeting.

The kitchen had been a modern pine kitchen and one of the bathrooms had a pink suite in it. Andrew and Tracey replaced the kitchen with a stunning solid wood Shaker-style design.

They lifted the carpet tiles to find the original solid oak parquet flooring that they had restored. They replaced the pink bathroom suite with a contemporary suite with roll top bath, separate shower and en suite toilet and also discovered more parquet flooring to restore.

In the sitting room they added a new fireplace with a large gas-fired coal-effect stove. The developers had put a modern staircase in here. The couple removed this, added a doorway - with a tall reclaimed door and surround - to the entrance hall.

The external double front doors were painstakingly restored and they knocked through to a blocked off side hall and impressive original turned staircase to the first floor, which was again painstakingly restored.

A new central heating system was added and Andrew and Tracey also planted out their sunny and spacious private rear courtyard.

Tracey said: “We do most of the work ourselves, and luckily our whole family are pretty handy. It’s been a labour of love. We have been working on this since we got here. We were living in the top bedroom when the kitchen was being done and Belle was just aged one. We must have been mad.”

A double front door has steps down to the spacious entrance hall. Off this is a child-size original doorway to a good-sized under-stairs storage cupboard. To the right of the entrance hall is the side hall and original staircase to the three bedrooms, large landing and two bathrooms.

On the ground floor, to the left of the entrance hall, you step up to the living room. This has a very high ceiling, a feature fireplace and original windows overlooking the rear courtyard.

A door at the rear of the room to the right opens to the larger than average sized dining room. To the left of the living room, at the front, you step down to a doorway to the kitchen. This has a rear door to the courtyard and another door to the front porch/boot room. This has listed planning consent for a downstairs toilet or utility.

• Further details on 2 Lacon Court are available from Lane Fox of Ludlow on 01584 873711.
• Details correct at time of publication - January 2007

By Cathy Stanworth