Transport, schools and value for money are gradually coaxing buyers from Fulham, Battersea and Wandsworth out of hibernation and into the garden of England, where the choice on all three counts is currently second to none, says William peppitt of Savills in Cranbrook. ‘Admittedly, the number of London-based buyers looking to take advantage of the value to be found in the Kent countryside is still more of a trickle than a tidal wave, but we have seen a significant increase in the number of those wanting houses in the critical £2 million to £3 million price bracket—an area that saw little or no activity last year. Most buyers now seem reasonably confident that, even if some form of “mansion tax” is brought in, a house valued at £3 million is unlikely to carry a tax liability of more than £3,000 a year.’

‘And although prime central London may be struggling a bit at the moment, south-west London is trading well, so families there who decide to move sooner rather than later should be able to sell their houses and take advantage of the value for money to be found in Kent,’ he adds.

Historic Cranbrook, Kent’s smallest town, halfway between Maidstone and Hastings, was described by the author H. E. Bates as ‘a village giving the impression of trying to remember what once made it important’. In medieval times, it was the thriving centre of the Wealden cloth industry; nowadays, however, the historic market town is probably best known to savvy London parents for having one of the best grammar schools in south-east England.

Savills in Cranbrook (01580 720161) quote a guide price of £2.6m for idyllic Great Wadd Farmhouse (Fig 1) at Frittenden, an enchanting, mainly 17th-century farmhouse set in 331⁄2 acres of landscaped gardens, grounds, fields and woodland. Grade II-listed buildings include the impeccably refurbished main farmhouse with 18th-century additions and a substantial timber-framed tithe barn thought to date from the 16th century or earlier.

The 4,500sq ft main house has four principal reception rooms, a kitchen/ breakfast room, master and guest suites, three bedrooms and two bath/shower rooms. The tithe barn houses a heated indoor pool and a large first-floor studio and a traditional Kentish oast house provides four further bedrooms, two bath/shower rooms, an open-plan kitchen/sitting room and a dining room.

Fig 2: Timber-framed Old Cloth Hall is on the semi-rural outskirts of Cranbrook. £2.65m.

This week sees the launch, through the Cranbrook office of Jackson Stops Staff (01580 720000), of two splendid country houses, both situated within the coveted Cranbrook school-catchment area. The agents quote a guide price of £2.65m for Grade II*-listed Old Cloth Hall (Fig 2), on the semi-rural outskirts of the town, an impressive timber-framed house that dates from the 15th century, when Cranbrook’s broadcloth industry was at its peak.

The house has some 6,500sq ft of living space on three floors, including five reception rooms, a kitchen/ breakfast room, a master bedroom suite, 4/5 further bedrooms and three bath/shower rooms. It stands in almost six acres of gardens, grounds and paddocks, within far-reaching views towards the town’s picturesque Union Windmill and beyond. Its leisure facilities are excellent and include a games room and gymnasium, a cinema room, a stable block with a tack room, a hay barn and an all-weather manège, and a heated outdoor swimming pool.

Fig 3: The gardens at Weaver’s Cot in Biddenden have been landscaped over 30 years. £1.195m.

Another monument to Cranbrook’s industrial glory days is Weavers Cot (Fig 3) at Biddenden, which dates from the early 1500s. Keenly priced at £1.95m, its Grade II* listing underlines its historical and architectural importance, inside and out. It has 5,000sq ft of accommodation on two floors plus attics, with three spacious reception rooms, a study, a kitchen/breakfast room, a master suite, six further bedrooms and two family bathrooms.

Weaver’s Cot’s six acres of gardens and grounds have been landscaped over 30 years to provide colour and interest. Highlights include a wildflower meadow with native orchids, a cob-nut walk and a bluebell wood. A fabulous kitchen garden is enclosed by a ‘crinkle-crankle’ wall built of handmade bricks.

Fig 4: Tanyard at Boughton Monchelsea comes with a two-bedroom cottage. £2.2m.

Launched by Knight Frank (01732 744477) in the March 4 issue of Country Life, at a guide price of £2.2m, Grade II-listed Tanyard (Fig 4) stands in 8.7 acres of lovely gardens on the edge of Boughton Monchelsea village—three miles from Sutton Valence school and four miles from Staplehurst station.

The centre of the house was a tannery in the 14th century and the front a meeting hall in the 15th or 16th century, both later combined to form one house. In the late 1800s, the property, then part of the Warburg estate, was planted with orchards and the house split into farm cottages.

Tanyard was renovated in the 1980s, with a substantial extension added in recent years. The main house, which comes with a two-bedroom cottage and glorious southerly views, has some 4,500sq ft of accommodation, including three reception rooms, a snug, a kitchen/breakfast room and five bedroom suites.

Now that the advent of high-speed rail has finally brought east Kent commuters in from the cold, the value for money to be found here has rarely looked better. Simon Backhouse of Strutt Parker’s Canterbury office (01227 451123) is selling two houses of note in his area, both within easy driving distance of Canterbury station or Ashford International.

Fig 5: Cobham Court at Bekesbourne also offers a modern barn conversion. £2.75m.

Grade II-listed Cobham Court (Fig 5) at Bekesbourne, four miles from Canterbury, is a large family house, originally built in about 1480 and altered and extended many times since. For sale at a guide price of £2.75m, it was once part of a large farming estate that was gradually sold off over the years, leaving only its present five acres of magnificent gardens, originally laid out in 1344.

According to its listing, it was the court house of the manor where proceedings were overseen by the Deputy Mayor of Hastings. In fact, the property comprises two houses: the five bedroom Cobham Court and Cobham Court Lodge, a modern barn conversion built by the present owners for their own use, but which they have also now decided to sell.

A guide price of £1.45m is quoted for the handsome Victorian Worth Court (Fig 6) at Worth, near Sandwich, which is unlisted and has five reception rooms, six bedrooms, four bathrooms, and 5.4 acres of gardens, including an intriguing Coronation Garden laid out in the early 1950s by the former mayor of Sandwich, Frank Rose. Thereafter, visiting dignitaries were always invited to plant a tree and those who did represent a roll-call of ‘the great and the good’ of the time, among them Sir Douglas Bader, Susan Hampshire, Sir Edward Heath, Yehudi Menuhin, Percy Thrower and the Queen Mother.

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