House for Sale - Swaledale, Yorkshire Dales National Park

Hill Top Farmhouse - DL11 6PN

This house is for sale for offers over £325,000. Being sold via Estate Agents Robin Jessop.

The link to the property details.

For Contact please contact Robin Jessops on 01969 622800.

Photos are on the Agents website but also in the Gallery on the left hand side of this page.

This lovely house offers spectacular views. It is 1100ft above sea level in the heart of Swaledale, a dale within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Facing south, the view extends east/west, approximately 15 miles in distance in length, and 2 miles directly across. Situated 500 feet above the valley floor on the edge of the moor these views are unhindered and cannot be spoilt for any reason. Many a summers day/evening can be enjoyed on the choice of two patios soaking up these views with wine or a barbecue.

The house is a former farmhouse, without fields, with two barns annexed to it. The house is complete, the two barns are both at first fix. First fix stage is where all the building work is done, simply electrics, plumbing, plastering and decorating is all that is required.

The Farmhouse comprises separate lounge, dining room, kitchen and utility. Upstairs are two double bedrooms accessed from a landing which also provides access to a large family bathroom and walk in store cupboard. The Barn annex comprises two further reception rooms, two double bedrooms, both with wash rooms, landing and wet room/shower.

The barn annex is joined with the house via an internal connecting door, and both the Farmhouse and Barn annex have their own separate front doors and staircases to the first floors. Full room sizes, floor plan and location details can be found at the link at the top of this page for the property details.

This layout was chosen for various reasons. Partly because this property is a traditional Dales Longhouse therefore the width is narrow. Creating an upstairs landing to access all four bedrooms would have made three of them very narrow and questionable about being a proper double bedroom. The other reason is flexibity. This property can be used as a large 4 bed house or as a two bed house with a two bed B&B annex attached.This B&B arrangement gives the customers and the proprietors their own independence and privacy yet at the same time there.

Selling the Barn annex at first fix provides the current owners and would be owner with many advantages. We could finish the barn and personalise it by placing our choice of lighting, location of sockets, choice of bathroom fittings, tiles, decoration etc. This invariably is not the choice of many others and it is a known fact that on house transfers, kitchens, bathrooms, tiles and decoration are changed. Why should we spend ime and money putting in, for a would be owner to spend time and money taking out or altering before they start with their own preferences.

The farmhouse is in the style of a tradional Dales Farmhouse. Individual rooms, traditional size. The Barn annex is the same. No modern open plan, mezanine floors etc. The Barn annex has new oak ceiling joists to replicate tradtional old ceiling designs, yet beheind is a block and beam concrete floor, ideal for B&B sound proofing as well as tiling upstairs wet room and wash rooms. A stone stair case has been built in the barn annex as too stone window cills placed in situ. A traditional stone fire place has been placed in the barn, currently set up as a feature, yet within the internal block walls up into the loft, there is a Class 1 flue which once taken out of the loft makes this a working fire place. All the walls are solid, either block or utilising the exisiting stone. Any internal stone walls retained are pointed. The aim of the barn annex was to maximise character yet place it in the 21st Century.

The entire ground floor of the Farmhouse and barn annex have original stone flags. Most of the internal doors of the Farmhouse are pine, two are certainly original. The utility door, dining room door, and internal door to the Barn annex are solid oak, bespoke doors to fit the quirkiness of the door ways in this characterful property. The kitchen ceiling we believe is original but the stone shelves in both the kitchen and utility certainly are as too the open fire surround in the kitchen. The imposing fireplace in the Farmhouse lounge is authentic but brought into the house when the range was removed by the owners previous to us.

The property is well lit by natural light bearing in mind the characteristics of the property and its age (cira 1715) when compared to modern properties.

The Barn annex has a chemical damp proofing guarantee. The house was chemical damp proofed by the previous owner but has no guarantee, yet all the internal walls of the Farmhouse are sound. The Barn roofs were reslated in 2001 and the house roof  in 2003.

The barn annex is subject to 2000 Building Control Regulations, having acquired Building Control and Planning Permision for the Barn Annex in late 2002. The Barn annex was undertaken by us as a hobby rather than necessity. A qualified builder has helped in 4 areas but the majority of the work is current owner input and has passed all Building Control expectations along the way. This is a rare opportunity to finish a barn conversion under the less stringent Building Regulations of 2000, not the current ones of 2013. 

The house is fitted with state of the art solar panels, the maximum 4 KW permitted on domestic house. It benefits from the high tariff of 45.4P and 3.2p export, indexed linked until the year 2037.  In 2012 this system earned us just short of £1500.00.

Why are we selling this house. We  have been here since September 2000. Due to attaining retirement status we both have decided to embrace the next chapter in our lives in a completely different and new experience rather than mix and match. In 2012 we spokerto 4 Estate Agents and they all said if we want to sell, now is the best time before the Barn Annex is personalised any more as many new buyers always change the fittings and decoration. One of them valued the hosue at it currently stands at £350,000, the other two £365,000. All of them said it would have been valued at £50,000 more if the barn had been finished. We chose Robin Jessops because we felt they had a very good and fair business approach to house selling in a current climate of economic gloom. Although everyone believes their house is worth more, they convinced us that £325,000 currently, with an unfinished Barn Annex is more sensible than pitching the price high and waiting longer to get 'feet through the door' and then accept lower offers. Their philosophy is to price low and sensibly. We as current owners do not have to move. We are doing so by personal choice. We have no pressure or deadlines upon us. We are giving this house one season to sell at this 'sensible' price. At the end of the main house selling season of 2013, we will complete the barn conversion ourselves and relist in 2014 as a fully completed house, but obviously the price will reflect this and come back at least £375,000.