A GEM THAT’S HIDDEN AWAY
AUNIQUE home with history and oozing character hidden away in a quiet spot in a pretty market town so popular that in 2021 it was named Wales’ best place to live sounds like a winning combination for a dream home house hunt.
Add in elegant and sophisticated interior design, a renovation with a high-end specification at its core, and the versatility to fit most buyers’ lifestyle needs, including multi-generational living, and Plas Newydd Cottage is a property gem that shines brightly.
Tucked away in a private location, down a private driveway from the main road, the breathtakingly beautiful building was once a coach house and stables but now is surely one of the most characterful and immaculate abodes in the Monmouthshire market town of Usk.
In 2021 the charming town took the title of “Best Place to Live in Wales” from The Sunday Times based on a wide range of factors, from schools, air quality, transport and broadband speeds to culture, green spaces and the health of the high street.
The community spirit was the main factor that secured this pretty rural town the top spot.
According to the judges’ comments, the town and area has at least 60 thriving community groups which were stronger than ever in the pandemic, with the Usk in Bloom volunteers lifting everyone’s spirits with a riot of pink and purple petals.
Usk’s boutique and independent restaurants, numerous pubs and bars were also mentioned, as well as the variety of sports clubs on offer in and around the town.
The streets are also home to a myriad of pretty, period properties that give each road its own distinct charm, but Plas Newydd Cottage is hidden away from the main streets, at the end of a private driveway, welcoming visitors with a delightful front courtyard and a façade that oozes character.
The property still hints at its past, with the large coach doorways still visible but now part of the visual feast of the home’s brick façade.
Inside this dream home, the main living room is a social hub with the log burner and four period windows the main focal points.
The kitchen is a stunner and offers a breakfast bar integrated into the large island unit as the perfect sociable spot to join the cook for a chat.
The dining room is particularly characterful, a former thoroughfare for the horses now a place to enjoy your own nosebag of yummy grub.
The house is currently set up as one gorgeous abode but previous owners have used it as a three-bed family home with a self-contained, two-bed annexe in the right wing.
In this wing is a study that could be a bedroom, a games room that is also a lounge, a shower room and two bedrooms and an ensuite bathroom upstairs.
Also on the first floor in the main section of the house is the principal bedroom with ensuite and walk-in wardrobe, two more double bedrooms and the final fabulous space: a vaulted ceiling lounge within the huge landing area that opens onto the garden terrace via french doors.
The garden makes good use of the gentle hillside slope with tiers of terraces, one private and sunken, one adjacent to the first floor, plus ascending lawn tiers to the wooded area at the top where the views over the Usk Valley are the best at this special site.
The immaculately and beautifully renovated and decorated house that can happily morph its spaces into whatever functions an owner desires, is on the market with a guide price of £1,350,000 with estate agent Archer & Co. Call the Usk branch on 01291 672212 to find out more.