Our house is in the village of Stockton Brook which is situated in a semi-rural area midway between Stoke-on-Trent and Leek in the county of Staffordshire. Staffordshire is in central England and so we are perfectly positioned for visiting a large number of well known areas around England and Wales. The house is on the side of a hill with wonderful views across the valley to Mow Cop castle* in the Staffordshire Moorlands. (Mow Cop is a folly or ''mock' castle - built to improve the view from Rhode Hall 3 miles away!!)
Our home exchange listing can be found here
Click on the images for a guided tour...
Outside the House
Our house viewed from the front
The original part of the house dates from the early 1700's and is of stone and brick construction with later additions. The house is set in an acre of land - a mixture of formal terraces, gardens, orchard, vegetable garden and trees.
Our house from the side garden with the Staffordshire Moorlands in the distance
This is the view of the house from the side garden. The border is planted with delphiniums, roses, lilies, hardy geraniums, hollyhocks, campanulas and looks glorious in early summer.
The conservatory is large and has a leather sofa and chair, dining table seating six and a large dresser. The garden has flood lighting so this is a wonderful place to eat in the evening.
Scented garden behind the master bedroom
This part of the garden is quite private and accessed via french doors from the master bedroom. The area is planted with scented plants in a typical English style - lavender, herbs, climbing roses, jasmine, honeysuckle, sweet rocket and poppies. It has lovely views across the valley and is a very pleasant place for either breakfast of for a glass of wine in the evening.
The ground floor
The kitchen
The kitchen has recently been refurbished and has slate floors, exposed stone walls, a large range style cooker (five burners, two full size ovens, separate grill etc), granite work tops, large integral fridge, dishwater, microwave and a scrubbed pine table seating 5. There is a large chest freezer in the garage.
The sitting room
Sitting room with exposed stone walls, beams and original inglenook fireplace (now fitted with a woodburner. The living room has a leather three piece suite, TV, DVD and Playstation 2. Patio doors lead from the sitting room to the conservatory.
The utility room
We have a separate fully fitted utility room with washing machine and dryer. There is a downstairs toilet off the utility room.
The first floor
Charlie's room
The bedroom with the second computer. This bedroom also has direct access to the shower room. As an aside, there is a TV in three of the four bedrooms and all bedrooms have a CD/radio alarm.
The master bedroom
Although this room is on the first floor - because of the split level design of the house - it has french windows that open out onto the scented garden. (French window is out of view.) The bedroom is quite large and has a further chest of drawers, triple wardrobe, dressing table with mirrors, chair. The room also has a TV, DVD player and CD/radio alarm.
The office
Small office with a computer with broadband internet access, printers (colour and laser), shredder, scanner, fax facilities, phone etc. There is a second computer in one of the other bedrooms and the two are wireless networked