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Town and country

Jane Haddon-Grant found her gorgeous 18th Century home entirely by accident. "I wasn't even looking to move," she says. "But I had taken one of my daughters to a naturopath and fell in love with her house as soon as I saw it." The Grade II listed house was not easily seen as it was hidden behind high walls. "And that's where its charm lay," says Jane. "It's on a busy road quite close to Hampton Court, yet once you step through the gate, you feel as if you're miles out in the countryside. Behind the house there is also a royal deer park, and there are still trees in the garden with preservation orders, indicating their importance and great age," she adds.

As it happened, the naturopath was right in the middle of selling her property. And, when Jane and her daughter went back for a second visit, they discovered that the house sale had fallen through.

"I immediately rang the estate agent from my car," says Jane. "Then I rushed home and urged my husband Hugo to come to see for himself."

Luckily, Hugo loved the six-bedroomed house at first sight too, as there were many lovely original features, from the marble fireplaces to the window shutters, pine panelling and elegant gazebo in the garden. So they bought it. That was nine years ago and they are still charmed by its alluring tranquil atmosphere.

"When renovating, previous owners found a brick with the date of 1746," says Jane. "But I suppose the house could be older. There was a rumour that Sir Christopher Wren stayed here while making changes to Hampton Court, but sadly I think it's wrong, as he went there many years before the supposed date that our home was built. And he is definitely known to have stayed in another property in our village - there's a blue plaque outside it to say so." However, the couple think their home might have been built for someone who worked for the much bigger house of the same age further along the road. "Perhaps ours was the estate manager's residence or something like that," suggests Jane.

Various additions have been built over the years. The previous owners added a big conservatory at the back of the house and a studio in the garden that was big enough to include two bedrooms and a bathroom. "So our son Guy, who is studying drawing and painting in Florence, has taken it over to use as his own personal art studio," says Jane. In fact almost all the family paint in there as they are all artistic - Jane is also an artist, Clare paints and Sarah is studying fashion.

The only change that the Haddon-Grants made was to the garage, which they demolished as it was falling down anyway. They built a new one, adding a workshop. They also put in three new bath and shower rooms, relaid some of the floors and installed a new kitchen as the previous one was rather "busy-looking" with lots of Provencal tiles.

"We chose new units of maple from Woodstock Furniture and had some of them painted cream," says Jane. "The worktops are iroko and we kept the Aga, which must be at least 25 years old, as it not only cooks our food, but provides our hot water too. We also kept the original terracotta tiled floor."

A few years ago, the couple also had the front of the house re-pointed and used a technique called "tuck pointing", which has been around for hundreds of years. This involves using two layers, one of brick-coloured mortar and the other an additional layer of light-coloured pointing to highlight the shape of the brick. "It's very time consuming as it takes many hours to cover a small area, but it means the house looks as it would have done when it was first built," says Jane.

In keeping with the age of their residence, the family have furnished it traditionally, with some of their pieces being handmade for them and others found at auction and antique markets after much dedicated rummaging. "We love our house because it's out of the ordinary," enthuses Jane. "The Georgians had a wonderful sense of style. Some years ago, the previous owners were refurbishing the gazebo and found that, long ago, the walls had been lined with silk. It conjures up such a beautiful image of those elegant days."