Beautifully Designed Homes: Mill Street, Titchfield

Willowbank, on one of Titchfield's most handsome streets, is a house with history in abundance. Built on Elizabethan foundations and presenting its mellow red-brick Georgian elevations and fine sash windows directly to Mill Street, it is coming to market for only the second time in over five decades.

That alone tells you something. Houses that are loved are rarely let go.

Grade II listed and extending to some 5,525 square feet across two principal floors and further attic rooms, Willowbank is a home of genuine Georgian grandeur. The period detail that greets you throughout, broad oak floorboards, fine cornicing, box shutters, flagstone floors and open fireplaces, is not the result of restoration or careful reproduction. It is simply what the house is, and has always been, and no amount of money spent on a newer property can replicate it.

The principal rooms are exceptional. The drawing room stretches to thirty feet, a wonderfully proportioned space with French doors opening onto the gardens and the kind of light that only a room of this scale and aspect can produce. The grand dining room mirrors it in quality and outlook, also opening onto the gardens, and together the two rooms give Willowbank an entertaining capability that feels entirely natural rather than contrived.

Beyond them, a study and library, a studio, a Purbeck stone flagged kitchen with pantry and larder, and a vaulted cellar with wine store complete a ground floor arrangement that has been thought about over centuries rather than designed to a brief. The two staircases that serve the house give it a flow and flexibility that a single-stair plan cannot match, and upstairs six bedrooms, a dressing room, a family bathroom, two shower rooms, a cloakroom and further attic rooms on the second floor provide accommodation that works as well for a large family as it does for a household that entertains regularly.

The present owner has introduced a number of considered modern additions, a smart electric ceramic heating system, a smart AGA and a smart electric hot water cylinder, all retrofitted with care for the historic fabric. Willowbank is entirely liveable as it stands, while also offering scope for a buyer who wishes to put their own mark on it. The bones of the house, its proportions, its detailing, its setting, are precisely what buyers of homes like this are looking for, and those things are already here in full.

Outside, the gardens of just under an acre are as remarkable as the house itself. A forty-foot Hartley Botanic glasshouse, magnificent Magnolia and Yew trees, perennial borders, a prolific apple, pear and quince orchard, a secret walled garden and frontage to the River Meon: it is the kind of English garden that takes generations to establish, and it shows.

The private cobbled courtyard, with its former brick-built animal enclosures and arched access to the walled garden, leads to a former coach house and stables of genuine significance. Full planning and listed building consent has been granted for conversion to a 1,256 square foot two-bedroom cottage with private access from Mill Street, adding a dimension of flexibility that relatively few village properties of this character can offer.

The naval heritage of Willowbank adds a further layer of provenance that is rare even by the standards of a house this age. Previous owners have included a First Sea Lord and, most recently, the Commander of the Royal Yacht Britannia. For a house just a few miles from the Solent and the home of the Royal Navy at Portsmouth, it is a pedigree that feels entirely fitting.

Titchfield itself is a village of considerable character. Dating to the sixth century and centred on the ruins of its thirteenth-century abbey, it offers independent shops, cafes, pubs and a strong community feel alongside direct access on foot to Titchfield Haven National Nature Reserve and the beach at Meon Shore along the ancient canal dug by monks to connect the Abbey to Hill Head Harbour. The sailing waters of the Solent, via the Hamble, Gosport and Portsmouth, are all within easy reach.

For families, the school options are excellent: West Hill Park and Boundary Oak among the independent schools nearby, with grammar schools in both Southampton and Portsmouth. Fareham station is around two miles away, and the M27 provides swift access to Southampton, Portsmouth and, via the M3, London.

Willowbank is a house that asks to be understood rather than simply viewed. It rewards the buyer who takes time with it, who walks the garden slowly, who stands in the drawing room and appreciates what thirty feet of Georgian proportion actually feels like. For the right family, it will not require a great deal of persuasion.

For more information or to arrange a viewing, please click here.