Highfield, Oxenholme, Kendal, LA8 0LR

A handsome period house, dating back to 1938 with a sizeable extension that blends in beautifully; with both period details and modern fixtures and fittings Highfield offers a comfortable family lifestyle, well equipped for 21st century living.

A handsome period house, dating back to 1938 with a sizeable extension that blends in beautifully; with both period details and modern fixtures and fittings Highfield offers a comfortable family lifestyle, well equipped for 21st century living.

Welcome to Highfield, Oxenholme, Kendal, LA8 0LR

A handsome period house, dating back to 1938 with a sizeable extension that blends in beautifully; with both period details and modern fixtures and fittings Highfield offers a comfortable family lifestyle, well equipped for 21st century living. The views are truly outstanding; enjoying a setting that is both east and south facing there are excellent, panoramic vistas that span the Howgill and Barbon fells of the Yorkshire Dales National Parks to the hulking beauty of Farleton Knott. If you enjoy an open aspect and the lightness and sense of freedom that such space brings, then Highfield is one for you.

Well proportioned living accommodation that is reassuringly traditional in layout with the added benefit of a suite of ground floor rooms that would easily adapt to make a guest suite or an annex for a dependent relative. Off a wide hallway are sitting and dining rooms, a breakfast kitchen and connected sun room, there’s a cinema room and dedicated home office/optional fifth bedroom. The ground floor also offers a shower room and utility room. Rising to the first floor and the principal bedroom has a dressing area, shower room and private south facing balcony. There are three further bedrooms and a family bathroom.

A detached outbuilding has been built and offers a double garage, fabulous home gym (but could equally well be a home office or hobbies space) and store room/workshop.

Beautifully maintained, the gardens offer lawns and plentifully planted borders, a choice of seating terraces and an orchard and kitchen garden. The driveway opens to a generous parking area with a central island unit.

With exceptional views this is a prime property embracing both period features and high quality modern appointments offering a lifestyle that balances both a peaceful and quiet rural setting with excellent accessibility for the M6 and Oxenholme railway station.

In all, c.0.46 acres.

Location

The beauty of this location is that even locals don’t really know that this lane exists. Tucked away, it is really only used by the few residents that live here, it’s not a short cut to anywhere. As such it is lovely and quiet, and yet, it is probably one of the most convenient places to live on the outskirts of Kendal. Eminently accessible, whether you need to travel for business or love to get out and about for day trips and weekends away, transport links are to hand with convenient access onto the M6 at J36 (just over 6 miles away) and Oxenholme train station on the main West Coast line is a mere 0.5 mile distant, so an easy drive or a short walk for a daily commute.

To have Kendal as your nearest town is an absolute boon, known as the Lakeland Gateway Town, historic Kendal is a well serviced market town with a good choice of nursery, primary and secondary schools as well as a further education college. The town offers a range of health and wellbeing providers; doctors, dentists and opticians’ surgeries, hairdressers and barbers, beauty salons and for the pets in your life, a choice of vets. There’s also a full range of professional services. The busy high street offers a good selection of both national chains and independent retailers and for eating and drinking there is a wide choice, everything from historic tea and coffee shops to contemporary bars, cafes and restaurants. In the heart of the town, Brewery Arts provides a venue for live music, theatre and a cinema. There’s also a full range of supermarkets for your grocery shopping including a branch of Booths, all backed up by a thriving artisan street market on Saturdays.

Step inside

The house is understood to have been built in 1938 and certainly bears the architectural hallmarks of this period, the stained glass is believed to have come from an earlier property and repurposed here, the current owners took it a stage further and when they refurbished the house they were keen not to lose any of the period charm and so had the colourful leaded glazing encased within PVC frames. When the owners bought the house there was a collection of outbuildings which had a makeshift link to the house along with a 1970s garage. Removing all of these but using the building footprint they extended the house in 2009 to what it is today.

The entrance is most attractive, framed by a climbing cream flowering hydrangea there is a stone arched lintel with a 1930s style front door set back in a porch, laid with the original floor tiles.

The high ceilinged entrance hall has leaded lights in four different shapes and sizes which allow colourful shafts of light to illuminate this lovely wide space. The internal oak doors are all replacement but 1930s in style to complement the period of the house. The staircase is original and the understairs cupboard has a light and provides useful storage.

The sitting and dining room extend along the eastern elevation; an opening has been made to connect the two rooms in a manner that is sympathetic to integrity of the period of the house. It enables the two spaces to be used as one when enjoying a gathering of family or friends, whilst still keeping them distinct. Both rooms have bay windows and enjoy the wide open views. The sitting room has a marble fire surround into which is a Stovax multi fuel stove. In the dining room the fireplace has long since been removed but there are book cases fitted into the alcove cupboards.

The kitchen has been refitted by local well regarded contractors H&M Craftsmen of Ingleton. It’s a lovely job, with a range of oak fronted cabinets with soft close drawers, chrome handles and striking marble worktops. A peninsula unit creates a breakfast bar although there’s also space for a table if that takes your fancy. It’s well equipped, there’s a Rangemaster Toledo double oven with a separate grill and a five plate induction hob, both the AEG fridge freezer and dishwasher are integral and there’s a concealed bin. A picture window provides a view to the field, cows pop their heads over the walls to say hello and in spring you’ll get a front row seat for the new born lambs. The sun room was an extension in the 1970s but it’s been upgraded since. At first glance the floor looks like parquet, but it’s in fact tiled, there are two walls of triple glazed dark grey aluminium sliding windows, framed by tendrils of purple wisteria they provide a delightful connection with the seating terrace, garden and wider view.

There’s excellent flexibility with the ground floor layout and would make a great annex for a dependent relatives or guests; the utility room has its own entrance and could be upgraded with cooking facilities to provide a kitchen, the cinema room with its stove becomes a cosy sitting room, the office converts to a double bedroom and there’s already a shower room.

As it now stands, the utility room offers excellent storage with plumbing for a washing machine and space for a condenser drier. A cupboard houses the central heating boiler and there’s a sink unit. A walk in cloaks cupboard has internal access to the coal bunker (a clever idea, especially on a cold, wet night!) and also offers great storage for walking, sports and camping kit and the like.

We can only imagine that the office must be a lovely place to work, not only is there sun from lunchtime onwards but the triple aspect enjoys field and fell views. With a door to outside it’s ideal if you work from home and want to meet with clients without offering access through the house. The present owners have a sofa bed in here so it can make a fifth bedroom when the occasion arises. As the vendors work from home, ensuring excellent broadband connection was an absolute priority for them. Fortunately Highfield has full fibre gigabit broadband B4RN connected but to ensure there was good service around the property they commissioned iTEK (a local company from Staveley) to install wireless access points around the house and over in the garage too.

The cinema room is an absolute treat. With an engineered oak floor, Stovax wood burning stove and north and south facing aspect, it’s an attractive room in its own right, but close the curtains and push the button on the remote control and a cinema screen lowers from the ceiling and it’s movie night – what a transformation! Through the Optoma laser HD projector, the Onkyo receiver enables streaming from your favourite platforms so whether it’s the Grand Prix, the cup final, the latest box set or CBeebies, you’re good to go. There are five Sonance speakers set into the ceiling for the full surround sound experience.

Finally on the ground floor, the shower room has a three piece suite.

Alighting to the first floor and the landing splits, the principal bedroom suite is at the rear, the remaining accommodation to the front, and as such the lead bedroom enjoys a greater degree of privacy. With an engineered oak floor the main bedroom has a lovely airy feel with a vaulted ceiling and sliding doors out to a south facing private balcony. A morning cup of tea in bed gazing out to the fells or enjoyed alfresco when the weather permits must surely be a one of the best ways to start the day? The bedroom has been cleverly designed with a mid room partition behind the headboard, behind which is a well equipped dressing room with oak fittings custom made by a local joiner; there are two double wardrobes, shelving and rails and a dressing table with a large wall mirror. Two conservation skylights allow in extra light from above. The roof terrace is an absolute sun trap, there’s nothing but wrought iron railing between you and the view and there’s external power points and lighting. The ensuite shower room has a slated floor and a large cubicle with rainfall and hand-held heads, twin bowl vanity unit on an oak cabinet with a slate top and a pair of illuminated sensor mirrors. As far as views to admire whilst you’re brushing teeth, this must be one of the best!

Located towards the east of the house are the remaining bedrooms. The landing has the original airing cupboard housing the hot water cylinder and providing good storage. All with great views are two double bedrooms, a fourth single and the family bathroom. With Karndean flooring, the bathroom provides a bath, separate shower, wash basin, loo and bidet.

Step outside

Turning off the lane and into the property, the driveway is laid with tarmac with red block paving around the edges and some inset lighting. A central island unit is planted with a variety of shrubs and breaks up the extensive parking area creating a natural turning circle. Neatly kept lawns and well stocked borders provide an attractive setting for this delightful period home.

The detached outbuilding was newly built in 2011. Block built with stone faced elevations under a slated roof; it offers garaging, storage and a versatile general purpose room, there’s power and light throughout. Firstly, the double garage has a pair of electric remote operated roller doors. Adjacent is an ‘anything room’, a light and airy space as the ceiling rises to the apex of the roof and there is a fabulous picture window commanding an excellent far reaching view. Whilst the non-slip floor makes it perfect for its current incarnation as a gym it would also make a stunning office or hobbies space. Subject to consent it would also adapt into a fabulous annex if incorporated with the storage room below. This storage room has double opening doors providing easy access for garden machinery and bikes.

Bordered by limestone walling, the garden has been a labour of love for the owners. And it shows. The planting scheme has been carefully considered and propels something new into focus at the turn of every month. As well as herbaceous borders there’s an array of flowering shrubs which bring colour throughout the seasons; a pair of pink camellias by the front door, a magnolia, rhododendrons, azaleas and then buddleias.

The house enjoys great natural light from the north, south and east. Along the eastern elevation there is a wide path with a low stone wall planted with lavender, this leads to the first of two seating terraces. Laid with Indian sandstone flags it makes an ideal area for outside dining and barbeques as the 180 degree views from here are, well, frankly, amazing. Steps lead down to a lower seating area, bordered by fields it offers a degree of shelter and shade at the height of summer.

The kitchen garden is highly productive and come harvest time offers forth rhubarb, black and red currants, blackberries and gooseberries. The adjacent orchard will provide you with apples (both cooking and eating) and plums.

There is outside lighting and an external water tap.

Services

Mains electricity and water. Oil fired central heating from a Worcester boiler in the utility room. There’s electric underfloor heating in the kitchen and the principal ensuite. There are electric panel heaters in the gym.

There are sixteen solar panels on the outbuilding roof. These are owned outright. Whilst generating an income and also power for the property they also feed back to the grid.

Private drainage to a septic tank located in the garden.

There is motion censored external CCTV with remote access via an App.

Security alarm.

Broadband

Full fibre gigabit broadband provided by B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North) www.B4RN.org.uk. All B4RN customers receive gigabit (1,000Mbps) speed.

Continued use of the iTEK wireless system subject to an annual licence fee.

Local Authority charges

Westmorland and Furness Council – Council Tax band F

Tenure

Freehold

Included in the sale

Fitted carpets, curtains, curtain poles, blinds, light fittings and integral kitchen appliances and the range cooker as described. The following items would be additionally available by way of further negotiation: other free standing kitchen appliances as well as the bike, cross trainer and rowing machine in the gym.

Directions

what3words: ///visits.power.guitar

Use Sat Nav LA8 0LR with reference to the directions below:

There are two ways to approach Highfield – one is ideal if you’re coming from the train station, the other if you’ve just left the M6 via Barrows Green, this reinforces the accessibility and suitability of the location if you are looking to commute.

When viewing for the fist time we recommend an approach via Oxenholme Station as follows: Leave Kendal with Oxenholme station on your left, head up the hill on the B6254. After passing The Station Inn on the left, take the first lane on the right. Highfield is a short distance along on the left.