Auction fails - Derbyshire, Wales and Essex

Thought I'd have a look today at three houses that all failed to sell at auction recently.
Now properties not selling at auction is a bit tricky as it often means the renovation job is bigger or scarier than usual, or the location isn't great.
However it can also mean that the likely return on the renovation isn't enough to excite a developer, or anyone else not planning on living there.
So, with that in mind, I've picked these properties worth a second look (all via Allsops).
The sweet cottage above, is in countryside outside Matlock, in Derbyshire, and sits on the junction of Mooredge Road and Roes Lane (the B5035), a couple of miles from the villages of Crich and Whatstandwell, and with lovely views (apart from the road junction!).

There's a living room, kitchen and bathroom downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs. It already has planning permission to demolish the dilapidated bathroom extension you can see at the side and replace that with a two-storey extension.
It failed to sell at auction a couple of weeks ago, with a guide price of £110k. Details here (Lot 141)
There's only one picture with this cottage, below, so impossible to tell how much work needs doing. But you'll want to replace that side extension (currently housing the kicthen/diner and bathroom).

Google maps suggest a nice setting though - surrounded by woodland down a private track. It's at Cwmorgan, Dyfed, just over four miles from Newcastle Emlyn.
Pen Rhiw is detached, two bedrooms, with the garden in the picture plus off-road parking.
Guide price £100k-plus. Details here (Lot 209)
Finally, the detached former nursery, below, in Lexden just outside Colchester, failed to sell at auction in March.

A handsome detached Victorian building with original features - parquet hall, stained glass windows. It had been an eight bedroom family home before becoming Cosgrove Lodge Nursery.

Frustratingly there's no guide price attached to this one and the details tell you that there are amended special conditions of sale without telling you what the original conditions were, or the amendments.
Details here (Lot 150).

A bunch of property wrecks in Charentes, France

Some of you may remember that this whole wreck of the week blog thingy started after hubby and I lost our deposit on a wreck in France.
Anyway, I still have a bit of soft spot for France's green and lovely middle so today's pick is a French wreck - several wrecks actually - sent to me by reader Kevin.
The first one is the half-shell of a cottage, above, with these imposing ruined lime kilns and around 8000m land, next to a river near the town of Nieuil, in Charentes:

Secluded, peaceful and with planning permission to renovate and rebuild the cottage. There are no services or drainage. It's on the market through Beaux Villages at euro70k, details here.
Also up for sale is this partially-restored former barn with its own three-hectare lake:

The ground floor of the barn had, according to Kevin, been developed for use as a restaurant and the upstairs is still one big, open space.
Pricier than my usual picks at euro318k, it's up for sale through Leggett - details here.
All these properties are part of one big lot - split up for sale through different agents.
The details online are pretty rubbish - it's impossible to see how they relate to each other or what else is around them, or even what else may be up for sale on the site.
For instance, the former forge below, that hasn't yet come on the market, and seems to be on the same lake (along with other buildings) and all of them may once have belonged to the grand Chateau de Nieuil.

Anyway, now it all belongs to Kevin who had been renovating it himself until the dream ended this year with "a couple of heart attacks".

Two grand Scottish villas (and a Borders mansion)

I had a nice email last week from the couple that bought the manse in Muirkirk, a property I featured a couple of years ago, and are now partway through their labour of restoration love. 
Elaine added:

When I think about the rabbit hutches that masquerade as family homes at £200k and compare them to the home I now have I cannot help but smile.

Indeed.
As an antidote to recent news stories about the dark matter of property pricing that is The South, here are two more very big and very cheap Scottish alternatives to "rabbit hutches".
First,the villa above and below, in the small town of Seamill, West Kilbride.
I absolutely adore this house. It looks like it should be in the middle of the English countryside, with a vicar or two taking tea on the lawn. Instead it's on a junction of the A78 in a Scottish seaside town:

It's detached, with big, enclosed gardens either side, five bedrooms, bathroom and loo upstairs; hall, cloakroom, four reception rooms, kitchen and pantry downstairs.
There are gorgeous period details in most rooms, including stained glass windows and original fireplaces, and lovely views (ignoring the road) towards the Firth of Clyde and Ailsa Craig. Seamill itself has two very nice beaches (Seamill and Ardneil).

It's on the market through GSPC property. Have a guess at the price... go on, five-bed detached with period details, big garden and views of water....?
Offers around £219k. Details and more pix here and here.
Still in Ayrshire, the detached villa below is just outside the village of Mauchline, nine miles from Kilmarnock:

A tad smaller with four bedrooms and with a bit of an odd layout two big reception rooms downstairs but the kitchen is upstairs (in one of the ugliest kitchen/diner arrangements I've seen). That, plus the sideways gardens, the name (Haughbank House) and those steps to the right, suggest there's a hill behind it.
Anyway, the decor throughout is pretty grotty, but we live for grotty here on 'Wreck'... it gets us up in the morning and reaching for the paintbrush!

A nice, rural location and no A74 outside the door (but also no Firth view) and a decent-sized garden area and drive - and I love the entrance porch:

So, what do you reckon for this one? Four-bed detached in the country. Lovely outside, bit of a dog's breakfast inside...how much?
It's on the market through Clyde Property at offers over £165k. Details and more pix here and also here.
And finally, Wreck reader Kit sent me a link to this news story, about the listed mansion for sale at offers over £1.
Old Whitehall House, below, is at Chirnside around seven miles from Berwick-on-Tweed (with mainline trains to Edinburgh and London).

The seven-bedroom, B-listed Georgian mansion has lost its wings and is in a dangerous condition. It needs a lot of work - around £1.2million-worth - to restore it and get it off the Buildings At Risk register.
Getting that work done is a condition of the sale. So, £1 plus £1.2m - starting to sound like London prices...