High Street, Souldern, OX27

A lovely 18th century cottage in a village with no through road. Large living room with fireplace, kitchen with vaulted ceiling & b-fold doors, three bedrooms, & a pretty secluded garden. Lovely local pub, walks, & a wonderful community.

Souldern is a small village on the North Oxfordshire border, seven miles south-east of Banbury withroots going back at least 900 years. For those in the know it is one of the few remaining truly secluded villages, tucked away off a single entry road and hence almost unknown to most. This iswhat gives it the feeling of a peaceful lifestyle mostly lost today. There is an excellent pub/restaurant The Fox Inn, a Norman church, a chapel, a village hall, plus play area and playing field. Souldern is also one of the few villages in the area served by high speed fibre-optic broadband, making working from home truly viable. Banbury, Brackley and Bicester are all within easy distance with a good range of shopping and leisure facilities, and there are shops in many of the nearby villages. Bicester also offers the unrivalled facility of Bicester Village as well as a 45-minute rail service to London Marylebone. The M40 motorway at junction 10 is about three miles away and access to both Northampton and Milton Keynes is also straightforward.

The Cottage is the personification of the timeless cottage design we all associate with villages that grew up through farming. Unusually, the house has managed to retain such rare original features as wide-plank floor boards, and sensitively mixed in with this is a splendid extended modern kitchen, a wood burner for practicality, and a modern bathroom. Everything is in lovely order, too, so you can move straight in with nothing to do unless it's to suit your taste. And with no passing traffic save for your neighbours, it really is an idyllic and peaceful location.

Walk in off the sleepy lane and you'll enter a small lobby, which in turn opens into the sitting room. Originally two rooms, it's a large and comfy space with fireplaces at either end - albeit the left hand equipped with a wood burner and the right hand no longer useable. It's also bright with two good sized windows looking out over the lane outside. The layout naturally lends itself to having, say, a sitting room space with TV at one end (round the fireplace, we suspect!) and a reading/music space at the other - with the internal box that is the inner porch affording a bit of separation this works well. Also note that behind the curtain the under stairs cupboard has been cleverly fitted to provide freezer and washing machine space, freeing up space in the kitchen. Heading through the rear door past the stairs and another cupboard, you enter the kitchen. This is a very pleasant surprise. What started life as a relatively conventional kitchen has more than doubled in size in modern times, with a huge breakfast/ living area next to where the units are located that includes bi-fold doors out to the garden. It is vaulted with a high ceiling overhead in which roof light windows, are fitted so it's bright and light throughout. But there's still great character too, with the bare stone wall still showing at the far end, reminding you that this is a historic cottage. Throughout the kitchen electric underfloor heating is in place. And the working space is comprehensively fitted with everything from a range cooker (running lpg gas to the hob) to dishwasher, to a breakfast bar round the central island. And with beautiful wood work tops providing all the prep space you could ever need, it's extremely practical too.

Up the stairs, the landing runs off to both sides with an exposed wooden floor that continues throughout. Head right and you'll come to the smallest bedroom, a single room that due to its shape has also provided a useful working from home space in recent times, and the desk top sits in front of a window looking over the garden. Next door, the bathroom is fitted out in classic style, with heritage style chrome taps etc alongside panelling to the walls painted in a soft pastel shade, and tiling round the bath. Follow the landing back to the other end and there are two double bedrooms. The first, on the right, is beautifully proportioned, with the floor stripped back and displaying a lovely patina. Next door, the main double room is also probably the most characterful. Wide plank floors continue throughout, and a pair of windows facing the lane make it bright and positive. The cupboard in the corner is far larger than you expect, so much so the vendors deliberated whether or not to turn it into an en-suite. They have not, but they inform us doing so is viable if you wish. And note that the loft has been boarded hence there is a lot of good storage available out of sight.

Outside, to the front the house sits back from the lane behind an area of parking and then a strip of lawn running the width, with a path up to the front door. On the left the archway through between the buildings runs down to Chapel Row, with a gate on the right leading into the garden through a stone wall. The garden is private and pretty. A plethora of plants run down either side in planted borders edged with stone. The main space is lawn, and at the very end is a shed with windows across the whole front, hence could be a summer house or potting shed. And outside the rear of the kitchen the terrace runs the full width, ensuring on sunny days the temptation to eat on the terrace with the bi-fold doors open is irresistible! It's a lovely space, relaxed and peaceful.