The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Some spiritual homes
Former manses, many of them dating from the Victorian era, have become hugely desirable in recent years as private homes, offering space, large and airy rooms and often, beautiful grounds and settings. The clergy of the past obviously knew how to live!
The Old Manse, Coupar Angus, Perthshire, PH13 9EE. Offers over £775,000.
THIS IS an exceptionally handsome Georgian manse dating from the 1800s in attractive private grounds of about 3.64 acres, set in an elevated position on the northern edge of Coupar Angus, with views over the River Isla towards the Vale of Strathmore and the Angus Glens.
It is one of the finest Georgian properties in the area. A grand stone porch leads to an inner hall, then a broad reception hall with access to the impressively proportioned formal reception rooms. The current owners have undertaken major refurbishments while still preserving traditional characteristics of a traditional home.
The sitting room now has built-in bookshelves and downlighters and the kitchen has been created from a number of smaller rooms — it includes an Aga at one end and a multi-fuel stove at the other and its windows frame the best views from the house.
The larder has original slate shelves and flooring, the utility room has a Belfast sink and the former butler’s pantry, now a linen room, retains original floorto-ceiling cupboards.
The ground floor has two bedroom suites, one ensuite and the other with two bedrooms and bathroom. A broad staircase leads up to the other bedrooms including the master suite, the majority of which have their own bathrooms.
The extensive grounds include a croquet lawn, orchard, washing green, lawns and woodland.
The Old Manse and Coach House, 2 Milton Place, Pittenweem, KY10 2LR. Offers over £650,000.
THE OLD Manse is a Grade B-listed property in the fishing village of Pittenweem in the East Neuk of Fife. It is set within the town, above the harbour and has striking views from the upper floors towards the Firth of Forth and the Isle of May. It was built in 1834 with an attached coach house, now converted into a self-contained cottage.
It is in traditional style, with harled stone under a Scotch slate pitched roof with stepped skews, cast iron gutters and downpipes.
The entrance hall features black and white floor tiles and stained glass windows. In the family room and drawing rooms, there are working fires with slate hearths. All three reception rooms have stripped and stained timber floors. The kitchen has an unhoned slate floor and glazed concertina doors open on to a terrace within an enclosed courtyard garden.
The utility room has a pulley and double Belfast sink.
An elegant balustrade staircase rises to the first floor and there are four good sized bedrooms. The master bedroom has an ornate door handle matching that on the room’s deep press and there is an open fireplace with an Art Nouveau fire surround. The second floor bedrooms have coombed ceilings and timber floors and dormer windows look out to the sea.
The Coach House has been fully renovated with floor-to-ceiling glazing in the former doorways and its own private terrace and parking.
The grounds include a lawn, granite sett-edged with a formal garden at the front, including a network of paths and seating area.
Mansefield House, Kinnettles, Forfar, DD8 1TQ. Offers over £465,000.
THIS IS a former Free Church manse, in use until 1929, dating from 1846, stone built with a slate roof. The Free Church was next door and is now the village hall.
With many original features of the period, it has elegant and spacious reception rooms and goodsized bedrooms upstairs. At the rear of the house and linked to the garden by the conservatory, added in 1992, is an open-plan kitchen and family room, with f itted maple wall and floor units, NEFF appliances and a Bosch ceramic hob. From the family area, double glazed french doors open to a double-glazed conservatory.
Internally, the accommodation is over two floors, retaining period elements, such as cornicings, picture-rails, cast-iron fireplaces with tiled inserts and wooden mantels and window shutters. The elegant staircase has a wooden handrail and cast iron banisters. The master bedroom is en suite with a spa bath and two of the other bedrooms have cast iron fireplaces. All have window shutters.
The garden, to the rear of the house, is overlooked by the conservatory, a flagstoned terrace and sheltered seating area. The garden is enclosed on two sides by a stone dyke and boasts lawns, borders and a small pond, as well as a vegetable garden.
All these properties Are for sAle through Savills; www.savills.co.uk.