Location

Hitcham is a pretty Suffolk village situated seven miles north from Hadleigh and eight miles southwest from Stowmarket. The village benefits from a post office/ general store and All Saints' parish Church. The neighbouring village of Bildeston is in a particularly attractive stretch of Suffolk countryside along with historic villages such as Chelsworth, Lavenham, Kersey and Long Melford.

Bildeston has three public houses one of which includes a well known restaurant, The Crown. There are also a variety of local shops and a health centre. There is excellent schooling in the area including Old Buckenham Hall Preparatory School located 2.2 miles away.

A wider range of shopping, educational and recreational facilities can be found in the market towns of Ipswich, Stowmarket, Bury St Edmunds and Hadleigh. Mainline rail services are available at Colchester, Manningtree, Ipswich & Stowmarket with direct services to London Liverpool Street.

Description

Hill Farm House is a stunning, comfortable period country house, which the current owners have significantly extended, re-modelled and greatly improved. The property is constructed from part brick and part timber frame with colour washed elevations under slate and clay pantile roofs. The property benefits from double glazing to most of the windows and oil fired central heating throughout. Much of the original character has been retained and enhanced with superb sash windows, internal shutters, open fireplaces with log burning stoves, exposed pamment tiled and brick flooring as well as exposed timbers. The property is believed to date back to around the 17th century and with the Georgian style frontage, sits superbly within its grounds behind an in/out coach drive.

The pillared porch gives access through part glazed double doors in to the stunning reception hall, with sweeping staircase leading up to a galleried landing with vaulted ceiling and roof light above. Steps lead down to the cellar below. The drawing room benefits from two sash windows to the front and French doors opening to the garden at the side. The dining room also benefits from an open fireplace, an original sash window to the front with a rising shutter, two sash windows to the side and a half glazed door through to the kitchen. The reception hall opens in to the rear hall, which has a bread oven inglenook fireplace, exposed timbers and floor, a stable door opening to the rear garden and a rear staircase leading up to the lower galleried landing. Access is also gained to service rooms including the coat store, pantry, large utility/boot room and cloakroom. In addition there is also a charming snug/study, which has an original open fireplace, a wall of bookshelves and low-level cupboards with French doors and window to the garden.

The farmhouse style kitchen/breakfast room is well proportioned with a stable door out on to the terrace and side garden with spacious breakfast table area with inglenook fireplace. The Aga kitchen is fitted with base and wall mounted wooden units, an island unit, a four ring electric hob Neff cooker with oven below, integrated dishwasher, larder fridge and a mix of timber and granite work surfaces. A door opens in to the large vaulted family/sitting room with charming log burning stove, a fantastic entertaining space which opens via French doors to the garden and has stairs up to a self-contained en suite bedroom and bathroom.

The principal bedroom suite is particularly spacious with a large walk in dressing room and en suite bathroom. There are a further four double bedrooms off the main galleried landing, with the guest bedroom benefitting from an en-suite bathroom and a family bathroom. The sixth bedroom, with en-suite bathroom, is accessed from the sitting room staircase.

Outside
The gardens and grounds are of particular note with an in and out gated coach drive to the front with parking area and gated access to the gardens. A separate gated drive leads in from the side to a parking area and detached four bay outbuilding, currently used as garaging and store/workshop area. The gardens afford a tree lined avenue, lawns, shrubs and flower borders and an orchard leading down to a well maintained all weather tennis court. The heated swimming pool is surrounded by mature hedges with a pool house beyond benefitting from a kitchenette, French doors opening out to the pool and a shower room. In addition to the gardens, the paddocks extend the grounds to about 14.7 acres.