Slightly scary house, Nether Stowey, Somerset

This is one of those properties that starts out quite sweet. Nice look to it, good-sized rooms, detached and big garden. And then it goes all horror movie on you.
Hughlings House, in the village of Nether Stowey half an hour from the M5, has five bedrooms and bathroom upstairs; hall, sitting room, library (get them!), kitchen, dining room, and loo downstairs.
There's a conservatory and store attached, and gardens, garage and parking area outside and the streetview shows it sitting on a pleasant, relatively quiet, lane. So far so good.
Here's the first set of pictures.

And then it all gets a bit nasty.

See what I mean? Doesn't look impossible to deal with on the renovation scale, at least not against some of my 'Wreck' picks, but clearly some rooms even the estate agent didn't want to enter!
So here's nicer room to calm us down a bit:

I love this wallpaper - anyone know whether you can still buy it?

Hughlings House is up for sale by sealed bid informal tender (deadline March 22nd) with a guide price of £250k, via Chanin & Thomas. Details and more pictures here. Also on OnTheMarket here.

Five churches, halls and chapels for sale

After including a chapel in my last post, I thought I'd show you a few more former places of worship.
Sion Chapel, in the village of Scleddau, a couple of miles from Fishguard in Pembrokeshire, is Grade II listed and comes with planning permission (and corresponding price hike) to turn it into a house. It's surrounded by other properties and the agent's photos are pretty rubbish, but despite that is a lovely-looking, chunky building surrounded by a decent-sized garden area.

The garden space includes a brick-built stable and cart-shed, and the chapel comes with pews, pulpit and other handsome features.

On the market through JJ Morris at just under £140k. Details and more photos here and here.
This former Quaker meeting house (below) in Tirril, close to Penrith in Cumbria, has had a pretty uninspiring job done at some point in converting it into a three bedroom house.

Damp and dreary but in a lovely area on the edge of the national park and surrounded by a gardens on all sides.

The Grade II listed property is on the market at £170k through PFK. Details and more pictures here and here.

The former Sunday School and mission hall (below), in the Cornish village of Nanpean, about four miles from St Austell, is up for auction on March 24th.

There's only one picture and limited details (large Sunday school room, five smaller rooms, kitchen, toilets and entrance hall) and those boarded-up windows suggest it's been a while since it was last used.
On the market with an auction guide price of £60k-80k, via Clive Emson. Auction catalogue to download here and property on Zoopla here.
Regular 'Wreck' readers will know I periodically take a look at what the Church of England and Church of Scotland have on the market. These two Scottish properties caught my eye this week. Both absolutely adorable but some meaty challenges to overcome.
Iochdar Mission church, on the Western Isles island of South Uist, is basically one big, timber-lined room. Electricity is connected but no other services and you'd need to sort planning permission.

On the market at offers over £30k. More here and PDF particulars here.
However, Iochdar church is a developmental walk in the park compared to Inverchaolain Church, on Argyl's Cowan Peninsula.
I have to say, this is absolutely stunning and easily my favourite of the church-y buildings I've featured today. Just look at this picture:

On the edge of Loch Striven, a totally gorgeous interior (go and look at the pictures in the pdf - here) and a guide price of £30k - what's not to love?
The lack of services (only electricity connected), planning permissions and, the big one, that graveyard (making digging for drainage, as example, difficult). You may need to find ways to live with and around your resting neighbours.
Details here and link to other Church of Scotland properties currently for sale here.

Homes with live/work business appeal

 

A couple of live/work properties for you today (and an apology for the long gap - life got a bit crazy for a while).
I can't quite make my mind up about this first one. A former restaurant, bar, shop* in the Welsh village of Rosebush (what a name!) in Pembrokeshire, on the edge of the national park.
There's a four-bed house and a nice parcel of land with a large workshop. (Is it just me who would be nervous of opening the workshop doors...?)

It's Grade II-listed and needs a fair bit of work, but there's a massive amount of space here for the money and great potential for building a home with attached business. Tho' my guess is that you might want to rethink the restaurant idea out of season.

On the market through John Francis at offers around £180k. Details and more pictures here
John Francis also has the interesting (and cheap!) pair of properties, below.

Carmel Chapel is being sold with its pews and pulpit, along with the less-pretty but good-sized three bedroom house.

The properties are on the outskirts of Clarbeston village, in Pembrokeshire and, with planing permission, that chapel would make a lovely holiday cottage or rural business.
The house needs a fair bit of work but does include a kitchen and a bathroom.

There's no garden as such, just a parking area and yard, adjacent to the chapel graveyard (but at least the graveyard isn't on your land).
On the market with a guide price of £60k for the lot. Up for auction on March 9th, unless sold. Pictures and more details here.

*Owner Ruth has been in touch since I posted about the Rosebush property to say she's happy to answer questions about it via the Old Post Office Bistro and Bar's Facebook page.

A Norfolk water tower and a Welsh estate

 

As if 2017 isn't going to be enough of a challenge for us all, I thought I'd kick off with two gorgeous - but tricky - grand design contenders.
The water tower is Victorian, Grade II-listed and comes with planning permission (and concurrent price bump) to convert to a four-bed house. It's in the Norfolk town of Dereham, about 15 miles from Norwich.
Not the prettiest of locations on Streetview - the replacement water tower does rather loom over it, and access is currently shared with Anglian Water.

However, the Italian Gothic-style building is an amazing space, with big windows and fabulous details....

....apart from the slightly creepy top floor (try to think skylights and views, rather than apocalypse hide-out).

There's a bit of land to the front and the side, but that access issue will need tackling.

On the market with a guide price of £190k via Hammondlee. More here.
Finally, poor old Highmead Foundation School, below,  in Wales, keeps failing to sell at auction. The good news is, it's dropped in price by £200k since it first went under the hammer.

The former residential college, is MASSIVE (sorry, couldn't avoid going into caps then).
Built around a Grade II-listed mansion dating from 1777, it has 46 bedrooms with teaching and accommodation wings, flats, two detached cottages in the grounds, swimming pool, tennis courts and around 27 acres.

Highmead was picked up local and national press as the school 'frozen in time' because rooms were left pretty much as they were when the school closed in 1996.

On the market through auctioneers Lambert Smith Hampton at £750k. More here.