5 bed detached house for sale

Love Lane, Marnhull, Sturminster Newton, Dorset DT10

The Nash is an architect-designed property built in the 1980's styled to resemble an Italian villa with Roman tiling and Purbeck stone elevations evoking the early American ranch houses of Frank Lloyd Wright. The property offers almost 5,000 sq ft of beautifully appointed open plan living with natural light and interior stonework. Situated in a quiet corner of the village and enclosed in a wonderful walled garden (originally belonging to a neighbouring historic house) this contemporary home offers a high degree of privacy and security provided by electric gates and high stone walls.

With exceptional flow to the ground floor rooms it is a house designed for entertaining. Each interconnecting ground level room has ceiling to floor windows giving a continuous connection to the garden spaces and vistas. Decorated by an artist The Nash contains many hand-crafted features, a themed cocktail bar, a stylish wine cellar and a tower room at the very top with spectacular 360 views of the surrounding fields and far landscapes. A generous hall as you enter can also be used as a socialising space. This leads into the sitting room with high vaulted ceiling, large windows and glass doors, and a stunning period stone fireplace, fully working. Leading on again via two double glass doors and shallow steps down you enter the conservatory, with wood burning stove, flagstone floor and glass roof hung with attractive canvas sails. Connecting back to the hall once more the kitchen with its original Poggenpohl units is well placed to serve the other rooms and leads to a back door and a second back kitchen with storage and fridge freezers.

There are two well-presented double bedrooms on the ground level, one of which has built-in wardrobes, a door to the garden and an en suite bathroom. Upstairs there are a further three double bedrooms with views across the garden, two of which have built-in storage, while the third has its own dressing room and an en suite bathroom. A family bathroom can also be found off the first-floor landing. Stairs continue to the second-floor tower, which provides magnificent views across the surrounding gardens the countryside beyond.

The Nash boasts about 2.75 acres of beautiful landscaped gardens and grounds in total. The formal garden of 1-acre is classical in design, with mature Beech and Yew hedges creating several green rooms enhanced by statuary, urns, metal arches and a pond. This has been redesigned as a low maintenance garden, with few flower beds but an abundance of living structure. The one long border along the conservatory terrace contains colourful perennial plants, and tall pink shrub roses surround the front entrance of the house. One green Yew room is home to croquet matches, another has Box hedge wheels of architectural beauty. There are two magnificent trees of Macrocarpa and Gingko, and the thick hedges throughout provide a wealth of birdsong and wildlife all year long.

The house is approached via a tarmac driveway, leading to a turning area in front and to the side of the house with plenty of parking space, as well as access to the integrated garage. The garden is mainly situated to the side and rear of the house, with a large patio area for al fresco dining and lawns beyond, bordered by immaculate hedging and a well-stocked border of various shrubs and colourful flowering perennials. The gardens are presented on three terraced levels.

The property lies in a peaceful rural position just outside the desirable village of Marnhull and is surrounded by beautiful rolling Dorset countryside. Marnhull is a vibrant village community offering various amenities, including a post office and village store, two pubs, a parish church, a village hall, a doctor’s surgery and a primary school. Sturminster Newton has a mix of boutique stores and recreational facilities, while more extensive shopping, service and leisure amenities are available in the market town of Gillingham and Shaftsbury.

Communications links are excellent: The A30 and A303 link to major regional centres and the motorway network and Gillingham station (5.5 miles) offers regular mainline services to London Waterloo.