4 bed detached house for sale

Staploe Lane, Staploe, Bedfordshire PE19

Extended former 18th century pub with scope for annexe and lovely gardens backing onto fields

A hugely attractive, surprisingly unlisted, 4-double bedroom, family home on a quiet lane in the rural hamlet of Staploe, yet just 3.5 miles from St Neots railway station, making travelling a breeze. Surrounded by delightful gardens separated from fields by an enchanting brook, Three Horseshoes has a garage, driveway parking for at least 4 cars and a bedroom suite downstairs that could become an income-earning annexe or for multigenerational living. It’s likely that you’ll wish to refurbish to suit your tastes and needs exactly, but goodness, it will be worth it.

On the Bedfordshire/Cambridgeshire border, Staploe is only about 20 miles from Cambridge itself. Main roads such as the A1, A428 and A421 seem to have been designed to leave the hamlet in rural peace but still provide quick access by road to major towns and cities. St Neots railway station is little more than 10 minutes away, with fast trains reaching London in 46 minutes.

Staploe was originally a hamlet of nearby Eaton Socon, with its supermarkets, shops, surgery and pubs, but is now its own parish together with the adjoining hamlets of Duloe, Honeydon and Upper Staploe. The Grade i-listed, 12th century Bushmead Priory is in Staploe Parish, too. The nearest primary school is also in Eaton Socon and there’s a choice of state secondary schools, such as Sandy and Sharnbrook. All these schools have recently been rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ in all areas by Ofsted. Top private schools are in Kimbolton, just 8.5 miles away, and in Bedford, about 11.5 miles away.

Keen golfers can play at St Neots, a couple of miles away, or at Colmworth, just 5 miles in the other direction. Historic churches are at Colmworth and Eaton Socon, and the Plough at Bolnhurst, just 5 miles away, is considered one of the best pub and restaurants in the county. So many facilities and amenities within minutes, but with the peace and quiet of a small hamlet with a big sense of community, and with fields for you and your dog on the other side of the brook at the end of your garden. And if you did decide to create an annexe for Airbnb, a luxury wedding venue a few hundred yards along the lane should ensure steady bookings.
More about the property


A pub was often named Three Horseshoes when it was a stop-off point close to a smithy for horses that had lost one of their shoes. It must have been even more convenient when, in the mid-19th century, one of the first landlords here, John Beesley, was also the local blacksmith. Your new home is quite a lot larger than it was then with, appropriately, a horseshoe driveway sweeping around in front of its extension – yet with its clay-tiled roof and lovely Virginia creeper and pink rose-clad walls, you might never have known.

Glance high to the incredibly rare ‘Herts and Cambridge Fire Office’ plate, issued 200 years ago by a company that only existed for seven years before it amalgamated with another - just one reminder of your new home’s heritage. Another is the red quarry tiles of your hall, snug and dining room. Sandra Horner, the daughter of the last tenants of the pub, before it closed in 1969, recalls “a very happy childhood” here, and the locals having snowball fights inside – “all good fun” as the floor and everything had dried by morning.

There are old pictures of those locals sitting at a long table in what is now your snug, where, as in your sitting room, you can look forward to cosy log fires in winter and throwing open the French doors to the terrace in summertime.

A sale of Three Horseshoes in 1840 refers to its Tap room, parlour and three bedrooms. A lovely, latched landing door and the beautiful cast iron fireplace in your main bedroom were no doubt there then. The uses of rooms have, of course, changed, the great thing now being that it is your choice how they are used in the future - and how your kitchen and bathrooms will be fitted out to suit the needs of your family precisely. You can decide if the downstairs suite will earn an income. You might even wish to convert the loft.

One thing’s for sure, aside from cutting back – to reveal the little path along the brook, for instance – there’s no need to alter the glorious gardens. Lovingly landscaped and tended by the same owner over the last 35 years, a series of outdoor rooms link through clematis, rose and beech arches. The beautiful, bird-filled walnut watches over children at play, the bee-friendly flower beds and various sitting areas, one with a little fountain nestled amongst the grasses beneath the pretty honey locust. A sea of springtime blossom embraces the house, from the cherry at the front, through the apple and plum trees at the side, to the birchbark cherry, crab apple, and lilac at the back. Like the Horners, you can look forward to a very happy life here – maybe without the snow fights.