Hot property: quintessential English cottages

Hot property: quintessential English cottages

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Hertfordshire, offers over £1mn

What A Grade II-listed cottage that dates from the 17th century. It has five double bedrooms, three bathrooms and 1.25 acres of well-maintained gardens.

Where Gubblecote, a hamlet on the border of the Chilterns National Landscape. It is two miles from the quaint market town of Tring and a six-minute drive from Cheddington railway station, which has regular services to London.

Why The property — which is reached via a footbridge over a stream — has original period features, including exposed beams, tiled floors and open fireplaces, and a thatched roof.

Who Nash Partnership


A two-storey stone cottage, part of a curving terrace, on a country road. It has a wooden porch and two dormer windows in the roof

Gloucestershire, £695,000

What A Grade II-listed house built in traditional honey-coloured Cotswold stone. It has two bedrooms, a bathroom, a courtyard garden and a kitchen with an Everhot cooker.

Where The picturesque Cotswolds village of Lower Slaughter, overlooking the River Eye. Shops are located around a mile away in Bourton-on-the-Water, while the market town of Stow-on-the-Wold — where fairs have been held by royal charter since 1330 — is a 10-minute drive.

Why The house is situated within the Cotswolds National Landscape — the largest national landscape in the UK — and has been successfully operated as a holiday let.

Who Savills


A white rendered cottage in a corner, at right angles to the neighbouring house. It has a bow window on the ground floor and a white wooden gate to a very small front garden area
© Dimitrios Sofianopoulos

London, £2.5mn

What A two-bedroom cottage hidden down a pedestrian alleyway. It has one bathroom and the kitchen leads out to a small private patio.

Where A quiet cul-de-sac in upmarket Belgravia, a short walk from the luxury shops and restaurants of Sloane Square and the King’s Road, and Sloane Square Underground station. The property is a 20-minute walk from Hyde Park and 35 minutes from the Tate Britain art museum.

Why The large bow windows on the ground floor ensure the interior feels bright and spacious despite its discreet location.

Who Sotheby’s 


A stone cottage with a slate tiled roof, and trees and shrubs in the front garden

Greater Manchester, £625,000

What A Grade II-listed cottage built in the late 17th century. It has two bedrooms and a modern kitchen extension.

Where Strines, a tranquil village six miles south-east of Stockport and a short drive from the Peak District National Park. Trains from Strines station, a 15-minute walk away, run hourly to Manchester.

Why The first-floor bedrooms look out over the Peak Forest Canal to rolling hills and woodland.

Who Inigo

A small, white, one-story house with horizontal siding and a grey, shingled roof on a patch of grass, with a rocky and pebbly ground
© CASAPHOTO

Kent, £595,000

What A restored fisherman’s cottage with a traditional weatherboard facade. It has two bedrooms, original matchboard panelling and a garden.

Where The desolate, atmospheric Dungeness peninsula, one of the largest expanses of shingle in Europe. The property is a short walk from Prospect Cottage, the home of artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman, which recently opened as a house museum, and a short drive from shops and pubs in Lydd. 

Why Dungeness is an internationally renowned site of biodiversity, with more than 600 different types of plants — a third of all those in the UK — and insects that are not found anywhere else in the country. The Dungeness National Nature Reserve encompasses a RSPB reserve, reflecting the peninsula’s importance as a refuge for migratory and coastal bird species.

Who Phillips & Stubbs

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