Guide Price £4,500,000
Exceptional modern country house with glorious gardens and land on York’s western boundary.
Woodhouse Farm is one of a kind. An outstanding barn conversion built some twenty years ago to exacting standards and comprehensively updated and extended in recent years, it stands on its own down a mile-long drive and yet is only some fifteen minutes’ drive from York city centre. This family house is elegantly designed to meet every possible need from the technological, the visual and the functional; every impulse is catered for. Located just west of the York ring road this property is convenient for York city centre, Harrogate, Leeds and the motorway network.
Woodhouse Farm was comprehensively renovated and extended in 2017 to include a new kitchen, more utility areas, a purpose-built gym complex and state-of-the-art cinema room. The whole is unapologetically high spec and high tech with every attention clearly given to sourcing superior fixtures and fittings. Peter Thompson of York has handcrafted most of the cabinetry including the kitchen, office, cinema room, utility/boot rooms, reception rooms, bathrooms and bedrooms. The house itself is substantial, extending to 7,300 sq ft, with majestic living space alongside more informal rooms. The orientation is principally towards the glorious rear gardens and open green space that extends as far as the eye can see to the rising North York Moors.
At the heart of the house is a magnificent open plan space that serves as a kitchen/dining/living room. Extending some 66 ft with a porcelain tiled floor and underfloor heating, the centre piece is a double height galleried dining area with full-height ‘barn’ glazing and French doors opening onto the garden terrace. The luxurious contemporary kitchen includes an island unit with induction hob and circular breakfast bar, a breakfast station, Lapitec worktops, Gaggenau integrated appliances, Quooker tap and Zip Hydro tap. The large sitting area has a ‘floating’ LPG stove. This room and much of the house including the immediate outdoor space are all beneficiaries of a surround sound home entertainment system. Alongside the kitchen is a cosy snug/television room with a fitted study area. The extensive utility and laundry room lies adjacent to the kitchen, has two skylights and includes a dog shower room, wc and boot room with bespoke cabinetry. On the north western wing is the purpose-built gym complex: the gym is a double height room with a full-height west facing window and bifold doors connecting to the garden; alongside is the wet room shower cubicle, steam room and sauna room. All are designed to the highest specification.
The magnificent sun room is accessed from the kitchen and sits on the garden terrace; it has electric wall heaters and wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling glazing that concertina back to enable varying degrees of indoor/outdoor space. A formal sitting room of elegant proportions sits on the western wing; it is triple aspect with a wood-burning stove housed in a handsome stone fireplace, a bespoke media wall and three pairs of French doors opening onto the gardens. A single storey extension includes a games room, cinema room with refreshment area, wc and office. The cinema room is the ultimate indulgent space stunningly designed with acoustic absorbing padded walls, a coffered ceiling with mood lighting, concealed doors and luxurious reclining cinema seats sourced in Italy. The office has bespoke cabinetry and a kitchen station with Quooker tap.
On the first floor is a long galleried landing giving access to five double bedrooms, all with glorious views. The principal bedroom suite opens to a handsome roof terrace bounded by wrought-iron railings and with a fine outlook to the front; it has a shower room and a bespoke dressing room with fitted wardrobes, cupboards and storage. There is a large Jack and Jill bathroom serving two bedrooms and an en suite shower room serving another. All bathrooms have high spec fixtures and fittings and underflooring heating below Travertine flooring; the house bathroom has a bath tub and shower.
Outside
A mile-long drive culminates in electric gates with registration plate recognition. The gravelled drive encircles a central lawn with sphere-shaped boxheads and gives access to the secure triple garage, the Dutch barn and to the eight allocated parking spaces with two EV charging stations that together face a magnificent bed of Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’. The whole area is beautifully landscaped with paved pathways flanked by lavender. On the front boundary is a wildlife pond, home to carp, with a small jetty and summerhouse alongside, and on the far corner lies a magical ‘secret’ garden with trees and shrubs intersected by woodchip pathways. The large Dutch barn comprises two parts and is used as a workshop and for additional storage/garaging. Behind lies an open barn with a large foreyard and water supply. A walled kitchen garden has a greenhouse with power and light, and five raised beds. The fields lie behind and to the west of the house.
The paved garden terrace links the principal rooms of the house, the indoor/outdoor sun room and the outdoor kitchen; it is a superb area for al fresco dining and lavish entertaining. The bespoke kitchen includes a wood-burning stove, tap bar and stainless steel Outback hybrid gas barbeque. The formal gardens and grounds total some four acres and are all bounded by post and rail rabbit-proof fencing. Wide gravel pathways flanked by lavender beds cross the upper lawns and broad seating/viewing areas are encircled by abundant herbaceous borders. The central path proceeds to a flight of wide stone steps within a ha-ha that gently descends to a large circular lawn surrounded by another herbaceous border of blue, pink and lilac perennials. Beyond lies an avenue of alternating cherry and lime trees lit by external mood lighting. Either side are extensive wildflower gardens and a treehouse on the western corner. This charming treehouse stands between the gardens and a recently planted band of native English woodland that extends to some ¾ acre. The treehouse has a cosy upper room with windows and battery lights.
Environs
The property sits discreetly at the end of a long country lane accessed either from Nether Poppleton or the A59 York-Harrogate trunk road. The property stands on its own surrounded by farmland with distant views of the White Horse of Kilburn to the north. The villages of Nether and Upper Poppleton together offer a number of amenities including a railway station on the Harrogate line, a highly regarded primary school, three public houses and a superb sports hall and grounds with football pitch and tennis courts. The historic City of York with its mainline railway station lies some fifteen minutes’ by car and the nearby A59 connects to the York ring road, Harrogate, and the A1(M). Leeds Bradford Airport can be reached in well under an hour.