Great Victorian value
This imposing, semi-detached home lies in an ideal location
NORTH, South, East, West... Doreen Kennedy believes her home is the best. Chartershall House is ideally situated at the apex of Scotland’s motorway network, only three miles from Stirling and close to the M9.
From here, you’re less than an hour by car to Edinburgh – and when Mrs Kennedy visits her dentist in Glasgow, the journey takes only 35 minutes.
The undoubted attractions of Stirling are on your doorstep and it’s just a hop, skip and a jump to Perth up the A9 and the Highlands beyond.
Frankly, it would be difficult to plump for a location in Central Scotland which would be better placed for getting around.
And what a place to come home to. Chartershall House West, to give it its proper title, began life as the Victoria Memorial Convalescent Home in the early years of the 20th Century.
This would have been the time when public bodies were seeking to provide a practical monument to the late monarch, who had died five years previously.
Part of Stirling Royal Infirmary, it was constructed at a total cost of £4,390 and was designed to accommodate 16 patients and additional members of staff.
The red brick and white harled building was opened on July 28, 1906 by the Duchess of Montrose.
The design is reminiscent of the Turnberry Hotel in Ayrshire, which opened the same year.
Pride of place was given to a medallion of Queen Victoria, carved into the front of the building by sculptor and architect, Albert H Hodge.
It would remain a medical recovery facility until after the Second World War, when it passed into the ownership of a Dr Greig and his family.
Current owner Mrs Kennedy says the home was always naturally separated into the Men’s and Women’s halves, so it did not prove difficult when it was sold and then divided to become semi-detached homes.
‘We got the Ladies’ half of the house,’ laughed Mrs Kennedy, a retired teacher.
‘Dr Greig’s family came back to see the house they had been brought up in last summer. One came from Canada, two from Ireland and another from Australia.
‘They recalled it as a cold place, long before anyone thought of central heating.’
Fortunately, that’s been sorted out to such a degree that the house now boasts oil-fired central heating, an Aga and a variety of log stoves.
The extensive accommodation – which has become too large for the Kennedy family – comprises a vestibule, hall, drawing room, sitting room, kitchen/living room and utility room with separate WC on the ground floor.
On the first floor, you will find the master bedroom, four more double bedrooms, bathroom, shower room, and storage room with a hatch to a large, floored, attic.
THE unique selling point of this property almost certainly lies beyond the house itself, in its impressive 1.5-acre grounds. Here you’ll discover a south-facing terrace and a formal lawn framed by colourful borders and mature hedging, which leads down to a bubbling burn.
There is also an enclosed lawn to the rear, kitchen garden, double garage, garden shed, cellar and external stores.
The sweeping lawn to the front was considered sufficiently large by the next-door neighbours that they asked to use it to stage their daughter’s wedding in a marquee.
Mrs Kennedy said: ‘We would like to stay in the area if we can. It’s very peaceful, in a great setting and the people round about are very friendly; we get invited out to lots of things.
‘Although the lawn does look big, cutting it’s a doddle since we bought the ride-on mower.’
Offers over £640,000 to Alastair Houlden of Rettie. Tel 0131 624 9032 or email alastair.houlden@rettie.co.uk