Location

East Dean House sits in the middle of the Test Valley, famed for its chalk streams and trout fishing within easy reach of Romsey, Stockbridge, Salisbury, Southampton and Winchester.

The surrounding countryside is renowned for its rolling chalk downland and picturesque valleys, offering superb opportunities for walking, riding and cycling with the New Forest National Park also within easy reach.

There’s a village shop within a mile and Salisbury (approximately 7 miles away) provides a wide range of services, including independent shops and supermarkets, cafés and restaurants, a twice weekly market, theatre, cinema, and leisure centre.

The area offers an excellent choice of schools. Local state primary schools include both Lockerley and West Tytherley while, at secondary level, Salisbury has two highly regarded grammar schools: Bishop Wordsworth’s and South Wilts. Independent prep schools nearby include Farleigh and Salisbury Cathedral, with further independent options such
as Godolphin, Chafyn Grove, Dauntsey’s and Embley.

Transport connections are strong with Dean station just over a mile away linking to both Salisbury and Southampton, providing direct services to London Waterloo, while the A303 offers convenient road links to the M3, London and
the West Country.

(All distances and travel times are approximate.)

Description

East Dean House is an elegant Grade II listed Georgian property, built in Flemish bond brickwork beneath a red clay tile roof, with symmetrical bay windows to the front elevation. Originally dating from around 1760, the house was significantly altered and extended between 1800 and 1830. The current owners, who purchased the property in 2003, were drawn to its exceptional balance of family accommodation and generous entertaining space.

The house retains superb proportions, with many of the principal rooms featuring working shutters and open fireplaces, and it also retains much of the original mechanical servants’ call bell system. The central reception hall, with oak flooring and a stained glass side window, leads to the main reception rooms, all with excellent ceiling heights.

The sitting room is a beautifully proportioned space with an open fireplace, bay window and original shutters. Adjacent is the dining room, which features a large fireplace and a dumb waiter. The drawing room and morning room interconnect to create a generous entertaining area, both enjoying fireplaces and bay windows overlooking the gardens. A well-proportioned study with a fireplace completes the main reception rooms. The butler’s kitchen provides extensive storage, complemented by an adjoining walk-in pantry.

On the lower ground floor, the main kitchen is a particularly striking space, distinguished by its impressive ceiling height and flagstone flooring. An original Sayvall cooking range, now retained as a decorative feature, is complemented by a two-door oil-fired Aga with electric oven and hob module, extensive fitted cupboards and a wine rack built around an American style fridge freezer. A scullery with built-in dresser, dumb waiter and woodburning stove adjoins the kitchen, while the conservatory, with ornate brick flooring and French doors, opens directly onto the terrace and gardens. Also on this level are a games room, exercise room with sauna, two larders with slate shelving, laundry room with stone sink and oil-fired boiler, wine store, storage room and workshop.

UPSTAIRS
From the half landing, a hallway with a stained-glass window leads to the Guest Suite with a double bedroom, sitting room with sash windows and shutters overlooking the garden and bathroom with bath, overhead shower, sink, and WC.

From the main landing, which features built in wardrobes and lit by an ornate stained-glass window, there is access to the principal bedroom suite with a large and elegant bedroom, fireplace and bay window overlooking the gardens,
a bathroom, with a Jacuzzi style bath, sink, and WC, linked to a dressing room.

Three more large bedrooms, serviced by two more bathrooms, make this level particularly suited to family accommodation while a second floor, served by two staircases, provides four further eaves bedrooms, one with its own dressing room and includes a family bathroom with a bath, sink, and WC.

OUTSIDE
East Dean House is approached through electric wooden gates, opening onto a sweeping driveway lined with carriage lighting and mature beech and copper beech trees. The property sits at the heart of its established grounds, which combine formal and kitchen gardens with open paddocks.

To the west of the house, the lawns are arranged in two sections, divided by a beech hedge and an ornamental rill pond with a fountain, framed by conical yews. A pergola provides an attractive focal point at one end, with an adjoining terrace at the other, while to the north of the garden lies a heated twenty metre outdoor swimming pool.

To the east, there’s a Pamela Woods designed walled garden that leads to grounds that feature a timber framed double garage with power and water, hard tennis court, expansive lawns and an orchard with a variety of fruit trees, including pears, plums and several types of apple. A large greenhouse with its own water supply sits alongside productive kitchen gardens planted with a wide range of vegetables.

Adjoining the house is a range of outbuildings providing useful storage, including the original stables with loose boxes and troughs, a workshop, storerooms, separate log and coal stores and a garage at the far end.

The northern part of the grounds is reached across the local railway line and consists of pasture and water meadows around which the River Dun chalk stream flows towards the River Test offering its own trout fishing. A stretch of the former Southampton to Salisbury canal, now disconnected, provides an established habitat for wildlife. Within this area stands an attractive former dairy barn of brick construction with a red clay tiled roof, together with a yard enclosed by a brick wall.

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