Briar Fold, Lodge Lane, Elswick, Preston, PR4 3YH

A substantial and impressive detached house that has a commanding presence in a popular, sought after and highly accessible award-winning Lancashire village.

A substantial and impressive detached house that has a commanding presence in a popular, sought after and highly accessible award-winning Lancashire village.

Thanks to a comprehensive remodeling and refurbishment undertaken with immense attention to detail every step of the way, the installation of quality and contemporary appointments and choice of stylish finishes, this is a house to call home. Space and light have been maximised through the introduction of clean lines and practice of minimalism that has been adopted. It’s not just made to be stylish, it’s style that’s made to last.

Briar Fold has broad appeal, whether you are looking for a home to raise a growing family or a couple simply seeking to embrace the space, work from home and have room for guests, this is a cracking house. The light filled, generously proportioned and well laid out accommodation offers over 2500 sq ft and offers a pillared porch into a spacious hall which sets the tone aesthetically for the rest of the house. Off the hall is a cloakroom and an understairs coat store. The sitting room has a calm, elegant ‘grown up’ feel and the open plan living kitchen is sociable; ideal for cooking, eating and relaxing. The kitchen is backed up with a utility room and a flexible ‘anything’ room is great for hobbies, a playroom or for older children, a den. It has its own kitchenette and cloakroom. Completing the ground floor is a home office. Rising to the first floor there is a principal bedroom with walk in wardrobe and ensuite shower room, second double bedroom with an ensuite shower room, three further double bedrooms and a family bathroom.

Outside there is a secure gated entrance and plenty of parking at the front. The back garden is accessible from either side and is again gated to offer security and enclosure for young ones and dogs. Within the back garden is a large store and an open fronted shelter with a hot tub, drinks station and changing room. If achieving a work life balance or finding a great place to bring up the children is your mission then look no further - Elswick is a highly regarded and award winning village offering great accessibility by road (the M55 and M6) and also rail (there are stations at Preston and Lancaster on the main west coast line).

Vendor Insight

We bought the house in 2016 as a project. We knew it needed work, but it had a really solid and reliable feel. It had been built in 2002 by a local builder for himself which always bodes well, it was just very dated, ‘of its time’. We wanted to streamline the style and bring it up to date.

We liked the area and the size of the house and felt that the renovation could be a showcase for our joinery business. We’ve done the work gradually which has given us time to really think about how we wanted to live in the space. We’ve really enjoyed our time here but the plan is now to downsize, we want to stay locally though, we love the area.

The house has an open and airy layout on the ground floor it seems to accommodate a houseful with ease; with a couple of guest bedrooms and the flexibility of the hobbies room as a third possible guest bedroom there’s loads of space for entertaining. We’ve had lots of barbecues and children’s birthday parties here; now the children are teenagers we frequently have their friends over. We find that the layout works well, we can all be together under one roof but doing our own thing.

Christmas is a special time here as we tend to host the extended family, we have a real tree in the sitting room and there’s generally 15 of us around the table for Christmas dinner with plenty of rooms for overnight houseguests. That’s when the two ovens really come into their own!

Location

Villages vary enormously and life in them provides much that appeals to families and couples alike, but not all have won as many awards as the popular and wellregarded village of Elswick which offers an attractive lifestyle with a quieter pace of life. Residents take pride in their surroundings, in 2022 Elswick secured the gold award for best North West village in the Royal Horticultural Society Britain in Bloom finals. Even the pub, village hall and children’s playground have won awards with the

bowling green and playing fields scooping runners up prizes. There’s also a shop and church within walking distance and a health centre is planned between Elswick and Great Eccleston in the next five years.

Beyond the village day-to-day needs are met in the attractive market town Garstang and the city of Preston. At Garstang you will find a full range of health services (doctors, dentists, opticians as well as hairdressers and barbers), professional

services (including solicitors and accountants), supermarkets (Booths, Sainsbury’s and Aldi), vets and a great selection of places to go for drinks and food as well as a busy high street full of independent retailers. The diverse and welcoming city of Preston offers a bustling shopping experience, busy markets, a thriving arts and cultural scene, a calendar of annual events and plenty of historical and heritage sites to visits as well as picturesque parks to wander around. There’s a wide selection of

professional and healthcare providers with both NHS and private hospitals in the city. To the north, the Georgian city of Lancaster is only slightly further away and is also well worth visiting, depending on work and schooling it may well be your first choice and has much to offer all generations.

Elswick is supremely well connected with access to the M55 interchange under 4 miles away, from here you’re soon on the M6 so whether you need to travel for business or pleasure, access to the motorway network is to hand. Both Lancaster and Preston have train stations on the main West Coast line. From Preston you can be in Manchester in under an hour whether it’s for work, shopping or a theatre trip and both London and Edinburgh can be reached within 2.5 hours.

Vendor Insight

We knew the village and thought it would be a great place to bring up our family. Briar Fold is on the outskirts of the village but we can walk to everything and as villages go, there are really first rate amenities. It’s a quiet place to live with a strong community.

There are good schools locally and a bus stop right outside which has been brilliant for the children.

We love the calmness of the nature reserve opposite the house. It’s lovely to sit over there and watch the world go by; there’s also a very enjoyable walk around it with so much wildlife to spot. We also like to wander round the church yard too, it’s a beautiful old church. A second nature reserve is being created and it will be possible to walk from one to the other which we’re looking forward to.

Vendor Insight

As you can imagine we spend most of our time in the open plan area of the house, during the day the kitchen and living area work so well and in the evenings we tend to move into the sitting room; it’s nice to have a change and it’s such a relaxing room.

The whole house works well when we have people over. There’s plenty of space regardless of whether it’s another couple, a large gathering for a special occasion or it’s the children’s friends. In the summer we can have both the bi-folding doors in the kitchen and the French windows in the sitting room open and there’s a good flow from house to garden. The seating area is right outside the kitchen so it’s perfect for when we have a barbecue or are able to eat outside, it’s very handy.

Step Inside

Briar Field has been updated over a period using skilled local contractors. The lengthened time dedicated to the project enabled the work to be undertaken with utmost consideration and to the highest possible specification. As local contractors themselves the owner have been able to cherry pick ideas and products installed elsewhere and bring them all together under one roof. The result is indeed impressive.

Important to say is that Briar Fold has an enormously calm feeling, it instantly encourages relaxation. This is part is down to the chosen colour scheme; a harmonious palette of varying greys and whites punctuated by the rich tones of the American walnut internal doors all with Manital matt black handles. The matching staircase has glass panels between fluted newel posts, it’s all in the detail and makes for an elegant choice. Much of the ground floor is laid with either Amtico or Karndean in a variety of patterns, but all on the same colour palette of soft greys. A plush carpet in a warm, soft grey has been chosen for the sitting room, stairs, landing and bedrooms to add a touch of luxury underfoot.

The ground floor of the house especially has an open and airy feel without being completely open plan, accentuated with the wide opening from the central hall to the living kitchen and then the double doors again from the hall, this time to the sitting room. The living kitchen is open to the dining area but as the layout is L shaped it makes for a more interesting arrangement that will be easy and enjoyable to furnish and occupy.

Fixtures and fittings have been carefully selected to give a sleek and streamlined look. High quality streamlined sanitary ware is from Roccia (Bolton), the German made kitchen cabinets (on trend matt charcoal handle-less slab doors with quartz worktops, a wonderful breakfast station) are by Hacker from Ulmo (Poulton-le-Fylde) and have been given a finishing touch with a bespoke walnut breakfast bar with space for three stools. The fitted units in the utility room have the same streamlined look as those in the kitchen, this time they are from Howdens.

The comprehensive provision of NEFF kitchen appliances will delight the keen cook – included are a pair of fan ovens, an induction hob, a tall larder fridge, a freezer and dishwasher. There’s an incredibly neat Elica extractor fan and a Quooker tap that provides not only hot, but also filtered and carbonated water. There’s also an inbuilt hand soap dispenser. Within the utility room there is a Bosch washing machine and a vented Indesit tumble dryer. The light and bright hobbies room is such a versatile space. It’s been a workplace as the kitchenette, cloakroom and separate doors to outside mean it can be used independently from the main house; perfect if you are expecting visitors to your business use but don’t want them to come through the house. It’s also ideal as a guest suite as the kitchenette means your guests can sort themselves out with morning brews if they wake before the rest of the house, it’s also just the ticket for hobbies or as a playroom or teenager’s den if your children are older. The kitchenette comprises a run of high gloss white fronted cabinets, sink unit and integral fridge.

Throughout the house tiling has been carefully selected and adds to the overall aesthetic appeal of Briar Fold. Worth highlighting are the striking split faced stone wall tiles in the downstairs cloakroom and the large (a whopping 1200 x 600) statement porcelain tiles in the principal ensuite. There are also porcelain tiles in the family bathroom – the same tile but in different sizes, a subtle and effective design detail.

Often overlooked, the provision of good storage has been a consideration, there is a traditional airing cupboard offering space for your linens and towels and the principal bedroom has a walk-in wardrobe with two rails and sectional shelving, all open so you can see at a glance what you’ve got. Whilst we’re in the main bedroom, the super king TV bed has surround sound speakers and matching bedside tables – tempted? It’s available for sale separately. The other four bedrooms haven’t been neglected as all have fitted wardrobes too. A pull-down ladder gives access to the loft, it’s part boarded with light, power and good head height. Perfect for Christmas decorations and suitcases.

Chosen on a room-by-room basis, radiators have been meticulously chosen to make a statement; some to stand out, others to blend in. Matt white slab heaters in the dining area are as visually unobtrusive as possible whereas the chrome fitting in the office and the matt silver ones in the principal bedroom have their own wow factor.

There are television points in the dining and living areas, sitting room and office and upstairs in four of the five bedrooms, the bathroom (yes!) and the hot tub (YES!). Great thought has been given to lighting, the design and placement of fittings, including mood lighting integrated within the contemporary media wall in the living area where you can remotely change the colour and the brightness, it is incredibly effective and atmospheric in the evening. The recessed electric fire that forms part of this wall is also remote control; change the colour of the backlight, the size of the flames as well as the temperature all at the click of a button.

The elegant sitting room has a great central focal point, a living flame fire within a chrome surround and a painted stone mantlepiece – it’s a happy blend of traditional and contemporary style and helps to give this room a sophisticated air.

The refurbishment included all new windows and doors with black wood grain external finish. ‘A’ rated warm edge glass has been used for thermal efficiency and has been tinted on the ground floor front and east facing elevations to ensure privacy internally. External woodwork is red cedar coated with Osmo stain to give not just great weather proofing but a warm colour that chimes well with the red brick elevations and looks smart and well defined next to the black framed windows and grey tiled roof. In terms of technology there is full wi-fi with a booster inside and out so whether you are working from home or streaming the latest blockbuster, you’ve maximin flexibility as to where you do this. Even in the hot tub! The window blinds in the principal bedroom are remote controlled, in the second ensuite there are integrated speakers which link to your streaming device (perfect for the music obsessed teenager in your life!) The family bathroom features a recessed TV so if you are factoring in a little ‘me time’ you can catch up on your favourite box set whilst doing so. For an uncluttered look the family bathroom also has concealed shaver and toothbrush chargers within the vanity unit.

There are also a host of clever and thoughtful touches which go to make life easier, such as the USB sockets integral to many plug sockets, automatic light in the understairs cupboard, integral or fitted Venetian blinds to some of the PVC windows and external CCTV cameras fitted with lights. There are illuminated vanity mirrors in the cloakroom, principal and second ensuites, and heated towel rails in the family bathroom, principal and second ensuites.

Step Outside

The front of Briar Fold faces almost due south so there’s no wonder it’s a bright and sunny place to live. Between red brick pillars topped with sandstone caps the remotely operated sliding gate opens to the fore-garden. A house can never have enough space for parking and Briar Fold really delivers on this front, there’s plenty of room and the sliding gate only increases the flexibility of the maneuvering area. The front lawn has a shrub border with a selection of acers, the red foliage echoing

the brickwork and choice of red cedar external joinery as does the red block work of the drive and russet tones of the gravel. It’s all very well thought though.

In the back garden there’s a generous sandstone flagged seating area along the rear elevation and a large level lawn, perfect for children’s football matches and climbing frames. A tall hedge provides screening from the houses to the north. Landscaping is kept simple with a few trees to add interest, it’s all about low upkeep and high enjoyment. A purpose built shed has power and light and provides not just storage (it’s all shelved out ready for you) but also excellent workshop space.

An open fronted shelter houses the hot tub and there’s a drinks fridge and bar for refreshments. A nice touch is the screened changing area not to mention the built in sound speakers and TV! A pump has been fitted enabling the tub to drain in a matter of minutes which save you masses of time when it comes to changing the water. The ceiling and back panel are clad in attractive waney edge larch for a Scandinavian look.

Externally there is lighting and water (hot and cold taps, ideal for filling the hot tub but also your dogs will thank you when it comes to bath time.)

Vendor Insight

We get the sun on the front of the house in the morning, right into our bedroom which is a lovely way to start the day. The seating area in the back garden gets the sun in the afternoon and we enjoy the last slithers on sunlight on the bench.

We really enjoy the hot tub, being sheltered we can use it whatever the weather, but it really comes into its own in the colder months. It’s so private and quiet round the back of the house, we can hear the birds (and encourage them with lots of feeders). As daylight falls, the lights around the shed look great.

Directions

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Use Sat Nav PR4 3YH with reference to the directions below:

Travelling north from Preston along the A6, just north of Catterall turn left onto the A586 and proceed through the villages of Churchtown, St Michaels on Wyre and into Great Eccleston, from here bear left onto the B5293, through the village and then onto Copp Lane heading towards Elswick. Arriving in Elswick at the T junction with the B5269 turn left, the second turning on the left is Mill Lane, Briar Fold is immediately before this junction.

Included in the Sale

Fitted carpets, curtains, curtain poles, blinds, light fittings, integral kitchen appliances as described, hot tub (Barbados Gold 220l BG from IQUE Hot Tubs UK purchased locally from BRM Pool Care in Bispham) and TVs in the family bathroom and hot tub shelter are all included in the sale. The remaining televisions and many items of furniture would be additionally available by way of further negotiation. Please ask the agents about any pieces that catch your eye.

Internet Speed

Superfast available speed of 80 Mbps download and for uploading 20 Mbps. Ultrafast available speed of 1000 Mbps download and for uploading 220 Mbps.

Local Authority

Fylde Council

Services

Mains electricity

Gas

Water and drainage.

Gas fired central heating from a Worcester Green

Star boiler in the hobbies room.

Council Tax Band

G

Tenure

Freehold

Schools

Primary

Woodplumpton St. Anne’s CoE Primary School

Great Eccleston Copp CoE and St Mary’s Catholic Primary

School, both in Great Eccleston

St Michael’s-on-Wyre CoE Primary School

There’s also choice in Garstang

Secondary

Broughton High School

Garstang Community Academy

St Aidan’s CoE High School, Preesall

Kirkham Grammar School

AKS, Lytham and Rossall, Fleetwood (both independent schools)

Further Education

Lancaster - Lancaster University, University of Cumbria

(Lancaster campus) and Lancaster and Morecambe College

Preston - University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and

Preston College

Myerscough College