Location

The house is to the south of Honing village, which on the surface would seem a quiet village overlooked by its magnificent church, but hosts a thriving community with an active village hall with events including pop up cafes, craft groups and others. The village is on the Weavers Way, a 61 mile walking route from Cromer to Great Yarmouth, with shorter circular walks for convenience!

The local town of North Walsham provides everyday shopping and facilities including GP surgery, banking facilities, a Waitrose supermarket and primary and secondary education. The town has a train station, with services to Norwich with connecting routes to London, as well as to the coast at Cromer.

The house is well positioned for the Norfolk Broads, with a plethora of public houses, access points to the water networks and bridleways and footpaths to enjoy nearby. The coastline is about 5 miles at Happisburgh, with renowned sandy beaches along this stretch of coast.

Description

As you meander along the drive to Canal Farm, through unspoilt countryside, you start to get a sense of old Norfolk. Through open farmland, with fine old oak trees and hedging, there is a real sense of calm to it all. The drive reaches Canal Farm, with established Portuguese Laurel arch, which you pass through into your own oasis amongst the countryside. The position and lay of the land affords a wonderful privacy and peace, that is increasingly hard to find.

Canal Farm became part of the landscape in the early 18th century, then part of the surrounding Honing Estate. Thankfully, when being sold away from the estate, it retained its collections of barns to ensure control of its surroundings.

At the heart of it all is the charming farmhouse. An attractive red brick home, with thatched roof, and fine interior detail such as exposed beams, decorative fireplaces, window shutters and tall ceilings, the house has a comfortable and very liveable layout. Whilst there is a formal entrance, like most good farmhouses the day to day entrance is into the bootroom and utility. A focal point for the house is the lovely kitchen/breakfast room, a double aspect room with great morning and evening light, neutral coloured hand built cabinetry and Aga, with dining table in the middle of the room. Conveniently adjoining is the dining room, an elegant room with decorative inglenook fireplace and window seat, whilst at the end of the house is the spacious sitting room, with pamment floors, and French doors out to the south-west facing walled garden.

The five bedrooms are spread across the first and second floor, all are double bedrooms with their own character. The principal bedroom is double aspect, with fine views over the barns, gardens and beyond, with pretty fireplace and en suite shower room. A further two double bedrooms on the first floor are served by the family bathroom. A bespoke staircase was added by the current custodians to open up the second floor. With vaulted ceilings, and natural light, there are two further bedrooms and bathroom, making this a brilliant floor that can be used in many ways and is a great asset to the house.

The Barns
The farm includes a wonderful collection of traditional barns, in the classic ‘U’ shape of the principal barn with two wings off it. With a mix of mellow red brick and Norfolk flint, the barns are attractive buildings around a south-west facing yard, with a secondary yard on the southern side of the barns.

The main barn is substantial measuring about 22m by 10m. It is double heighted with typical barn doors on either side. Overall it offers a fantastic space. Attached at the main barn’s southern gable is a second smaller, but equally as tall, barn, whilst the two wings of the yard include the original stabling, dairy and stores. Behind the south wing of the yard are the later additions of former piggeries with 10 bays that open out to a grassed area enclosed by brick and flint walls.

The barns provide tremendous opportunity, whether as a whole or in part, to suit personal requirements.

Outside
The setting is a defining feature of Canal Farm. Set at the end of a long farm track, you enter the farm through the Portuguese Laurel arch, to a gravelled parking area. There is then vehicular access into the yard. The house owner has right of way over the farm track from the road to the house and around the outside of the barns to the piggeries behind.

The grounds of the farm are a mix of formal and informal areas. The house is framed to the east and west by original brick and flint walled gardens, ideal for keeping out the farm animals of the past and the muntjac of today. The gardens are laid to lawn, with herbaceous beds, shrubs, gravelled paths and seating areas, together with clipped box and yew hedging in the east garden, and a wisteria to the west, with both walled gardens accessed through wrought iron gates.

The land continues into the lawned yard of the barns, with further lawns to the south of the house running down to an orchard and wild flower area, with woodland beyond the boundary.