Country mansion, nr Kirby Stephen, Cumbria

I've been having a mare of a month - topped by hubby spending last week in hospital with pneumonia. Anyway, things are crawling back to normal so I thought I'd treat myself today.
The fire's lit, I have chocolate, and I have this extraordinary property to show you - sent to me by Wreck reader India.
It's pretty remote - at North Stainmore, a huddle of homes off the A66, on the border between Cumbria, North Yorkshire and County Durham, around seven miles from Kirby Stephen. It's in the district of Eden, with its wild and lovely countryside and fab walks.
Having spent a couple of hours doing  a bit of online detective work, what I find weirdest about the property is the lack of information*.
There's very little on the agent's site and it's not on the listed buildings register (which may explain the ugly additions). I can't find any record of it's former use in the local press (it has a patina of ex-care home); and the stripped-out fireplaces suggest someone trying to make some fast cash.

It has seven bedrooms, couple of bathrooms, three reception rooms, sitting room and kitchen. Plus the second floor tower room with cast iron fireplace (too heavy to remove...?).

Outside are decent gardens, a small paddock, two big stone barns and several smaller stone buildings.

The decor is, well, eccentric but the views from the back of the house are fabulous (Google isn't helpful on what else is nearby)

It's on the market through PFK with a guide price of £389,950 - a reduction of £110k since it went on the market in July. More details and pix here.

*I think the property is/was Borrenthwaite (or Barrenthwaite) Hall - pic source here. If it is, Google brings up some rather more interesting stuff about one of its previous owners.

Investment properties for artistic types

A friend of mine is married to an artist who paints big, gorgeous and unsettling pictures. He needs space for that. 
Anyhow, long-standing 'Wreck..' readers may remember they've been trying to find a former factory or similar for the family to live in and him to work in.
It made me think again about people who aren't looking for my usual sort of wreck. So, today, I'm looking at former commercial properties for artists looking for an investment as well as a studio.
My first two were both sent to me by 'Wreck' reader Kit (thanks again, Kit).
Above and below is an extraordinary, unrenovated ex-antiques showroom and former mill/factory on Station Road, in Batley.

It comes with planning permission to turn it into nine, two-bedroom flats, but you could just as easily pick a floor for yourself and develop the rest as finished flats, or sell-off floors as DIY spaces.
It's Grade II-listed; there are four floors and right of way to the side and rear giving potential outside space. It's on the market at £275k, through Dales & Shires - Zoopla details here and agent's pdf here
The property below is a group of brick-built workshops, plus a house, built around a courtyard.
It's in Renishaw, an old Derbyshire village with an honourable mining past and easy access to the M1.

Doesn't look much from the front (above), but that gated courtyard layout and the mix of house and workshops - plus the shop you can see to the right - offer lots of options.

If you needed more - it comes with planing permission (2011) to turn it into three homes.
It's on the market via Barry Findley and Rightmove, at best offers above £125k. Details here.
Next, two similar properties in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent.
A former pottery with two floors of warehouse and office space, secure yard and lots of space:

On the market at £195k through Butters John Bee. Rightmove link here and agents link here.
And a pretty tatty looking (but amazing shape!) ex-workshop and former Catholic School with tall, open-plan workshop area, plus further workshops and large, secure yard:

On the market at £85k through Rory Mack - details here.
Finally, if all that looks too much like hard work. The property below doesn't fit the 'wreck' idea at all but it was too pretty to ignore.

It's a five-bedroom Victorian detached property in the Staffordshire Moorlands town of Leek. The house part of it is gorgeous in itself, but at the front are two self-contained shop units - the bay windows you can see in the picture. Currently used as lighting and artists gallery:

The garden includes a brick structure (above) with potential for use as a studio and there are lots of original features throughout the building:

It's on the market through Bury and Hilton at £255k. Zoopla pictures here, plans and agent's details here.

Country manor, near Market Rasen, Lincs.

A post-auction beauty for you to daydream over today. The amazing Manna House was a tip off from Wreck reader Sean. 
It's a real country pile - nine bedrooms, a gaggle of reception rooms, stables, outbuildings and a chunky 1.82 acres at Kirmond-le-Mire, around five miles from pretty Market Rasen.
Manna House failed to sell at auction a couple of weeks ago - presumably because it's in a bit of a state.
Massive, massive renovation job on a building architecturally important (Lincolnshire (The Buildings of England)) enough to have already attracted interest from council planners.

It had previously been part of the Sutton family's estate (Lincolnshire landowners with a long history and £142m worth of assets) and was sold by Sir Richard Sutton in 2008 for £225k to the Hills and their mortgage lender.
I'm sure the Hills originally intended to do the place up, but it's ended up in a pretty sorry state, and was put up for auction by solicitors Wilkin Chapman. With a fairly speculative guide price of £240k given the lack of development since 2008:

Anyway - auction pdf here and Rightmove details here. Auctioneer's link here. You'll need deep pockets and a big heart but it's a fabulous space for anyone looking for a real renovation project.

Oast House plus land, near Sevenoaks, Kent

Now don't let this become a thing, but today's property was sent to me by an estate agent. You know - those folk one step above us journalists on the 'collectives we don't like' list. But look at that picture, for goodness sake - how could I not feature it?
It's an unconverted former oast house on the outskirts of pretty Plaxtol village, around six miles from Sevenoaks and three-and-a-half miles from mainline train links to London.
And as if that wasn't enough to get your Grand Designs mojo going, it comes with seven acres including an active cobnut orchard and woodland. (I had to google cobnuts because I thought they were things you fed to horses (sorry, I'm a Northerner); turns out they're a tasty type of hazlenut.)

Downside is the property is being advertised as land for sale without planning permission to convert to residential use. According to Carl, who sent me the details, it's failed to get planning permission to convert twice - in the mid eighties and early nineties. I'd suggest trying pre-application advice.
The stone building has two rooms downstairs and two up (accessed by ladder) - around 1300sqft total.

More from Carl:

The story is that the vendor lives in a farm two doors away.  The farm used to own 25 acres which has been sold off over the years.  The son farms the cobnuts at the front and has an apple orchard too (but he just uses this as juice for himself) there is also a woodland that he uses for a woodburner.

 It's on the market at £200k, through Hamptons - details here and lots more pictures here. 

Three wrecks in the Orkneys

A family we know moved to mainland Orkney a few weeks ago. Upped sticks and went, just like that (well, almost). Every picture they showed us of their new home was breathtaking. So, here we are: some wrecks in the Orkneys.
First up is one sent to me by Wreck regular reader Alan. He says of the Old Kirk (above), on archaeological powerhouse Rousay:

"My own 'wreck' is a beautiful stone Kirk on the Isle of Rousay. Right by the water's edge and a stone's throw from a Unesco World heritage site."

His plan had been to renovate it to create a holiday retreat but "life and family issues" intervened.
The building is derelict and only the building and its footprint are for sale - the local authority owns the grounds, including the former kirk's graveyard.
It's on the market through Drever and Heddle at offers over £35k. Details here.
UPDATE: Alan has now dropped the price to £28k. Latest details on Rightmove, here.
Also with Drever and Heddle is this group of buildings (below) at Orties, on Sanday. An equally lovely shoreside setting, and an even more challenging renovation project.

Most of the buildings are huddles of walls rather than buildings, but it comes with around two acres of land and direct access to the sandy beach at Saville.

It's on the market at offers over £42k. More details here.
But if you prefer your renovation challenge a little on the softer side, wreck number three, at Lyness on Hoy, offers a room or two you could live in while rebuilding.

The house has a dining/kitchen with a Rayburn cooker (below) and a living room with a solid fuel stove. Mains electricity and water are connected and it has its own septic tank drainage. Upstairs is a full-length attic room and it comes with good-sized outbuildings.There's no information about what or if it comes with more than the land the buildings sit on.
It's for sale through Lows, at offers over £47k with a deadline of August 15th. More details here.