» Steyning proud
Andrew Kay finds vision and versatility in this stunning country town house with a difference
Like so many other people,I thought that Steyning was a village. That is until my Goddaughter moved there and I discovered that it is indeed a busy little town with its own farmers’ market, excellent local shops and community facilities that would make most Sussex residents look on with envy. It’s a town with spirit, a sense of place and pride.
I ponder this as I drive along Goring Road in search of the property I’m going to see. It’s a wide, leafy road, quiet and well tended. It’s easy to see why it is one of the town’s most desirable addresses.
I find the house. Sitting beyond a giant, protected copper beech that gives it its name. I wasn’t sure what to expect, I had been told that this was a modern home but from the front the large arched Victorian windows and gigantic wooden stable doors give it the look of a period coach house.
Inside I meet the owners, Bob and Penny, who explain how this extraordinary property came to be. They had bought the plot and a very run down house three years ago. They
clearly had a vision of how to make what was a tired 1960s property into a gorgeous modern home and it was a vision that they have realised with a great deal of style.
“A stylish modern home that would suit a professional couple who need home offices and love entertaining on a large scale or, differently configured, a large four-bedroom home”
Before Bob and Penny got stuck in outside was dull: modern windows, no style. Inside was an encyclopedia of bad taste: glass bricks used badly, crazy paving up the walls, heavy patterned papers. There’s no sign of that now, Today from the outside, this is a well maintained Victorian-style property. Inside, it is a contemporary home of immense charm and lavish space.
The front door opens into a large stonefloored hallway. To the left, double doors open into the main living area. The best way to describe this is a suite of spaces – mainly open-plan – that lead into each other and eventually come full circle. The first space is a lounge, a room on a grand scale that Bob and Penny have taken full advantage of. Here, they have balanced a collection of smart contemporary furniture against antiques and ethnic pieces. The effect is dramatic, but at the same time comfortable. Ahead, steps lead up to a wood-floored second space and a huge picture window that overlooks a very mature garden. This is the dining area, but that hardly uses half of the space and there are places to sit quietly to read or simply just relax and look out over the garden beyond. Double doors lead onto a patio, after which there is a lawn surrounded by dense planting. Beyond that is a stately row of mature yuccas and finally a Victorian hot-house in need of repair but full of sensational period design and engineering.
Back inside and to the left of the dining area is a large and fairly traditional modern kitchen, the space separated by a huge slab of black granite that forms a less formal dining area. Off here is a small lobby and steps down to another space – a combined pantry and utility room. Left again and you enter a smart home office but looking right you realise that this is another sitting room, used at present as a library and reading room and off here is a WC and cloakroom. Leaving through a second door you find yourself back in the sitting room.
I return to the hall and discover that a suite of rooms including a bathroom is currently used by Penny as her studio. Here she works on her striking charcoal life studies and smaller nature-inspired images. Of course I immediately see that this is a very fine and generous double bedroom suite in another family’s hands.
The stairs lead from the hall and then divide. To the right there is a large double bedroom with a very large en-suite bathroom. The window has pretty downs views to the east and there is no shortage of space. The second branch of the stairs leads up to a pretty landing which is home to an antique writing desk and would easily accommodate a modern home office if needed.
Off the landing is the master bedroom, again huge and with a vast picture window opposite the bed which looks out over the garden, hothouse and the fruit trees next door. Opposite the door is a door-lined corridor, and these doors open onto his-and-hers walk-in wardrobes. At the end of the corridor, a step down and you are in a luxuriously large bathroom with a vast Jacuzzi-style bath tub, twin sinks, WC and vast shower. The look is contemporary boutique hotel chic, and done brilliantly.
Bob and Jenny have done a brilliant job of creating a stylish modern home that would suit a busy working professional couple who need home offices and have a love of entertaining on a large scale. That said, they have also cunningly disguised that, differently configured this is a large four-bedroom home, three of which have en-suite bathrooms and one of which has an en-suite WC.
Whichever way you look at this, it is a large property in a very desirable location in what has become a very fashionable small town. Try finding anything of this size and quality in the city and you would be looking at almost double the price. It takes me only 20 minutes to get back to central Brighton and that is at the busiest time of the afternoon. You could have all that the city has to offer at the same time as living a thoroughly rural lifestyle, but with modern facilities to hand at all times. Copper Beech House is a versatile home that has been brilliantly conceived to suit a wide range of occupants.
Copper Beech House
£770,000 Freehold
Halifax
4–6 East Street,
Shoreham
01273 361866
