Built in 1878 by Sir Richard Wallace, the owner of the Sudbourne Estate, Margo’s Cottage (115 Church Street) forms part of a terrace of four estate cottages of red brick elevations under a pan tiled roof. The house, arranged over three floors provides well-proportioned accommodation and further benefits from a decked terrace area
Margo’s Cottage
Accommodation comprises:
Three bedrooms; One en-suite bathroom; Bathroom; Shower room; Sitting room; Dining room; Study area; Terrace. Oil fired central heating and hot water.
A beautifully presented three-bedroom red brick end of terrace Grade II listed period house, named after Margo Glaister, a well-respected local potter who lived in the house with her husband Ray for nearly 50 years (her tiles feature in the shower room in The Coach House). Margo and Ray also circumnavigated the UK in their 32ft sailing yacht, starting and finishing from Woodbridge. Their journey was documented in their book ‘UK circumnavigation’.
Margo’s Cottage has its front door on Church Street, although the favoured access point is from the rear terrace area. The terrace itself, with gate entrance and brick flooring, is south-facing, making it perfect for al-fresco dining. Door from the terrace leads into the kitchen.
Kitchen: With red brick quarry tiles. Galley style layout with hand-crafted wooden worktop and base units, encaustic mosaic tiled splash-back. Electric oven range with induction hob. Stainless steel sink unit with mixer tap, Smeg slimline dishwasher and Bosch freestanding fridge and freezer. There is a small hall area between the kitchen and shower room, with cupboard storage and stable door leading out onto the terrace.
Shower room: With red brick quarry tiles. Featuring tongue and groove panels. Wash hand basin unit with tiles above. Shower cubicle with overhead chrome shower fitting. Chrome heated towel rail. A cupboard houses a Bosch washing machine and separate tumble dryer. Oil fired boiler.
Heading to the right from the kitchen.
Dining room: With red brick quarry tiles. The room features high ceilings and a log burner stove. Cupboard storage. Windows with views over the terrace and toward The Coach House. Under stair cupboard housing the water softener.
Sitting room: With pine floor boards. Wooden fireplace surround, with tiled inserts and slate hearth. A door leads to an enclosed small lobby area which would be the access point if the main door was used.
Study area: Sisal flooring. With built-in desk area.
From the dining room a door opens up to a staircase. Stairs with rope handrail lead up to the first floor. Off the first-floor landing:
Bathroom: With multi-coloured mosaic tiled flooring. With roll-top bath with The Bath Company chrome mixer taps. WC, and pedestal wash hand basin. Window with fine views toward The Coach House.
Bedroom 1: With sisal flooring. Ornamental fireplace. Stunning views toward St Bartholomew’s Church and gardens. Cupboard area with sliding door through to:
En-suite bathroom: Oak flooring. With tiled walls, WC with enclosed cistern, wash hand basin, bath with chrome mixer tap.
Bedroom 2: With sisal flooring. With views toward The Coach House.
Door from the landing leads up to bedroom 3. A small gothic shaped window provides an elevated view over Church Street
Bedroom 3: An eaves attic room. With sisal flooring. Cupboard storage. Velux window with wonderful distant river views.
………………
The Coach House (once used by Margo Glaister as her pottery studio).
Accommodation comprises:
Two bedrooms; Shower room; Sitting room; Dining room; Kitchen; Private gated parking; Garden. Electric underfloor heating (downstairs), electric radiators (upstairs) and electric heated hot water. EV (electric vehicle charging point).
Accessed from the gravel driveway through double gates, there is a parking area as you enter. To the left there is an oil tank (which serves Margo’s Cottage).
The Coach House features a beautiful long south-facing garden, mostly laid to lawn (with well-established borders and hedge line), and a terrace area off the extended area of the house There is a shed at the end of the garden.
A large stable door provides access to the house.
Dining room: With hardwood flooring.
Sitting room: With hardwood flooring. Freestanding log burner with glass hearth. French doors lead out onto the terrace.
Kitchen: With hand-crafted wooden worktop and low-level units. Encaustic mosaic tiled splashback. Inset sink. Smeg electric oven and hob. Slimline dishwasher. There is a small log burner in the corner of the room with brick surround and brick tiled hearth.
Shower room: Wet room style with tiled shower area. Electric heated shower. Wall hung wash hand basin. WC. Heated towel rail. Wooden enclosed cupboard housing the washing machine.
Stairs from the dining area lead up to the bedrooms. The central staircase divides left and right. Sisal flooring
Bedroom 1:
With sisal flooring. Ceiling height window with views toward Margo’s Cottage. Cupboard housing electric heated water boiler.
Bedroom 2:
With sisal flooring. Views over rear gardens. Study/desk area.
…………………….
Owner’s comment:
I love Orford in Suffolk, there is a magical peace about the village, perhaps it is helped by it is a village you drive to, not through? And I also love bringing properties back to life, not developing just helping them become homes. So, when my eldest son showed me the sale details of 115 Church Street in early 2018, thinking of moving already I went along for a viewing. The cottage, the end of a terrace of four built in 1878 for the estate workers of Sir Richard Wallace, he of The Wallace Collection fame, is sturdy, built in red brick with a traditional pan tiled roof, but with gothic shaped details, the front door and windows. Built right at the edge of the road opposite the beautiful village St Batholomew’s Church, I had walked past many times, but never noticed how the cottages are all of different sizes as they are built with clever subtle perspective used meaning even each front door is of a differing size. Being at the end of the terrace 115 has a fabulously over the top magnificent front door and large front window, but it also is much taller than its neighbours so the top floor bedroom has full height, and has additional side windows which let in wonderful light. When I first viewed the property, it was a dismal February day and the cottage was colder inside than out as it had been unoccupied since Margo Glaister had died, a famed potter and artist whose works were sold at Pinney’s Smokehouse on the Quay. She and her husband Ray had lived in the cottage for nearly fifty years. Despite being empty of furniture their presence in the property was evident with little moments shown in the items remaining and it was obvious it had been a much loved and enjoyed home. The old stables, diminutive coach house had been a studio and the first floor removed to create a double height space, then for spiders mostly! In one of the sheds at the bottom of the overgrown but charming garden, accessed through undergrowth was Margo’s pottery studio, it was like the Marie Celeste, abandoned without notice, with her potter’s wheel and clay hardened in bins, and little pieces of inspiration everywhere. The property delighted my senses, the delicate nature of the old windows, so fragile with age, but still working, the height of the ceilings which made the space feel elegant, the tiny turning staircase with differing tread heights, all told a story. With clever use of space to put an ensuite bathroom off the main bedroom, the wooden purpose-built cupboards throughout the property all having a practical application. Margo and Ray had used the space to live their lives, and not created a bland palate, it was like a blueprint to show their interests to those who never met them, sailing, reading, art, leaving a glimpse of themselves. And then just as I was leaving the last cupboard, I looked in was in the dining room and there like a little message for me, used as a backing for the back of the cupboard, was a piece of the same wallpaper, pink 1960’s style cats, my dear father had used to redecorate my bedroom when I at 8 years old was in hospital having my tonsils out. Any ambivalence about the property disappeared with the sight of that wallpaper and I made an offer.
Working with my dear architect friend John Clarke of Hox Designs, www.hoxdesign.co.uk and the talented craftsmen builders B A Boyle & Son, www.baboyle.co.uk we set about restoring the cottage and the Coach House. Basics like total rewiring and plumbing and heating were all required, but I did not want to take the integrity away from the cottage or the Coach House. The delicate nature of this sturdy unimposing cottage and coach house was not missed by me and I wanted to enhance. So in the cottage I resisted the urge to knock ground floor into one open plan area, thereby making it like so many cottages where the taking out of internal walls does not to my mind make more space. In Margos I like the fact the utility room is essentially hidden within the downstairs shower room, and the diminutive kitchen which has space for a cook with good appliances, but no more. And I love the Bert and May tiles www.bertandmay.com used in patchwork format the newly created first floor bathroom, and then through to the kitchen in Margos and The Coach House. I found old plans of the Coach House showing the two bedrooms on the first floor and applied to reinstate these and the winged staircase was cleverly hand built on site by Brendon Boyle to make full use of the space it makes a little pleasing moment when you go upstairs. We also reinstated an old boarded up window, giving it an inverted dormer, which provides more light to the newly created second bedroom. And then the French windows with Juliet balcony in the tiny Church view bedroom I suppose is another grand gesture in a diminutive space, reflecting the original buildings stature of small but mighty. I like to live and breathe a project of property enhancement, I suppose it is my way of leaving a blueprint of who I am to those who come to stay for holidays, both properties are successfully let via www.airmanage.com.
…………………
Guide price: £925,000 subject to contract
Tenure: Freehold
Agents note:
The property is currently managed for holiday lets by Air Manage Suffolk (sister company to Suffolk Coastal Estate Agents). Further information on historic holiday letting data available upon request.
The owner informs us that the property title deeds include the entrance driveway (with other cottages having a right of access).
