West Park House at Rushbury near Church Stretton is a simply fabulous property – the converted coach house originally belonging to Stanway Manor.

It is the home of Alan Hill, a retired businessman, and his wife Pat Hill, former partner of Stanway Fabrics.

The Hills had been living in Stanway Manor itself before deciding to convert the coachhouse as a new home in which to ‘downsize’.

Yet West Park House is not the typical ‘downsizing’ property as it has seven bedrooms, a large garden and enough reception rooms to entertain in grand style.

The couple, who are originally from Botswana in South Africa, were planning to return to that country to spend most of the year there with the rest of their time spent back in West Park House.

As they have now decided against returning to South Africa, they have bought a larger home in England to develop and put West Park House up for sale through Lane Fox of Ludlow for £750,000.

A very well converted and stylishly fitted and furnished home, West Park House has a porch, reception hall, sitting room, drawing room, dining room, breakfast kitchen, utility, two cloakrooms, boot room, master bedroom suite, six further bedrooms, four further bath/shower rooms, plus walled, landscaped gardens, terrace, stabling and paddocks. The property has about 2.65 acres.

Pat and Alan have lived in the coach house for two and a half years. It took eleven months to convert it from what at that time was stabling, tack rooms/store rooms, a generator house, a courtyard and garage.

Pat said: “We came here 18 years ago and when our children left university we were going back to Africa, and we wanted a pied-a-terre in England, and this was to be our English place.

“I designed it all and then got an architect to draw it up. We had a builder but we were very much on site.”

Work included making the most of high ceilings, space and natural light. A stunning fireplace in the drawing room looks like it has been there for years, yet of course it had to be created.

Underfloor heating is among the luxury home comforts. Pat said her home was designed to be an “easy working house”.

She very much enjoyed creating and furnishing it. It has a warm and welcoming feel to it and is ideal for family life. Pat said: “It can be as formal as you want or as relaxed as you want.”

The coach house itself is Victorian, believed to date back to the 1800s, and is a very attractive building.

No expense has been spared by the Hills in its conversion. The huge marble entrance hall leads off to the rest of the reception rooms as well as a hallway off to the bedrooms.

The stunning dining room is at the rear of the hall and has wonderful views out across the large rear garden.

It has doors which can be thrown open to a large terrace in the summer and other large internal doors enable the space to be opened more fully to the other reception rooms.

To the right of the dining room is a gorgeous drawing room with large open fireplace, excellent built in storage and more double doors opening to the terrace.

To the left of the entrance hall is a wonderful kitchen/breakfast room with island unit and an Aga type range. Leading off the kitchen is a charming sitting room, again with double doors to the rear garden and a woodburner.

Then there is a boot room, laundry room and cloakroom.

At the other end of the property, on the ground floor, are several rooms, including a delightful en suite bedroom, two rooms providing further bedroom accommodation or for use as offices, a playroom or gym and a shower room.

Stairs lead to the principal bedroom accommodation on the first floor. The master suite, with a stunning view over the garden and countryside beyond, has a dressing room and a bathroom.

Another bedroom has en suite facilities and the remaining two bedrooms are served by a family bathroom.

The house is approached via a shared driveway connecting to a private drive, spacious parking area and an attractive paved garden at the front of the property.

Walled gardens to the rear are mainly lawned with some planted beds, shrubs and productive fan espalier fruit trees on the walls.

There is a productive kitchen garden plus a wonderful terrace and sunken secret garden. Paddocks sit on two sides of the property and outbuildings include three stables and a tack room.

West Park House lies in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and fantastic far reaching views of surrounding countryside can be enjoyed from it.

The nearby village of Rushbury has some local services including a church and primary school. More services are at the nearby market towns of Much Wenlock, Ludlow and Church Stretton.

Further details are available from Lane Fox of Ludlow on 01584 873711.

* All details correct at time of publication.

By Cathy Stanworth

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