The WhatHouse? team recently left their desks behind and headed to the western fringes of Oxfordshire to take a first-hand look at St Jude’s Meadow, a Mactaggart & Mickel development in the Cotswolds village of Milton-under-Wychwood.
We have picked a warm, sunny day, perfect for any trip to one of our much-loved Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. A direct train from London Paddington dropped off many passengers in the city of Oxford before heading on into the countryside. From Charlbury station, it’s around 15 minutes by car through some delightful scenery to the development, where we are greeted by sales consultants Anne MacKenzie and Sue Reeves.
The marketing suite is in a converted double garage of one show house, next door is another garage converted into the ‘options suite’, where buyers can peruse the vast range of styles, colours and upgrades they can choose on many features of their new home.
Mactaggart & Mickel is proud of its heritage, having been founded in Glasgow in 1925. Very busy and widely respected in Scotland, the company is now venturing into the South West of England, with St Jude’s Meadow the first of a handful of new developments to be launched in the region. Anne has moved down from the housebuilder’s team in Scotland to work on this site and is very proud to be here on this first step into a new market. Sue lives locally and has over 30 years’ experience in sales, and it’s clear from the start that there’s nothing these ladies don’t know about the site and the coming collection of houses.
There’s plenty of construction work going on at the site, but there are already two houses completed and now open as show homes. Our hosts give us a summary of the development, which is bringing 31 homes for private sale to the edge of the village, with a variety of three- and five-bedroom detached homes. Most of these will come in traditional Cotswold stone, which is sure to be of appeal to many buyers. There has already seen considerable interest from current local people and those looking to move back to the area.
We head to the first show house, ‘The Ferrey’ on Plot 1, which has a beautiful thatched roof and which been stylishly fitted by Fife-based Malcolm Duffin Design, a company with an in-depth knowledge of this housebuilder’s portfolio. It’s a very spacious, double-fronted home with distinct character right from the start. Through the front door is the vestibule – a feature I can’t recall from any recent site trip, except perhaps one to a country mansion. This has a handy store cupboard for coats to make guests comfortable before opening the door to the central, double-height hallway – another ‘wow’ factor. Turn left and there are double doors to the kitchen/dining room, which has been fitted with some upgrades for potential purchasers to consider, such as a five-ring hob, glass splashback and chrome electrical fittings. Standard are the ample workspace and storage, and plenty of room for dining furniture.
From there we head towards the back of the house to a large living room. It’s a double-aspect room, with a large bay window one side and double French doors to the rear garden. Back through the hallway, we pass another single door to the garden to the family room, here decorated as a TV room, though we talk about many other possible uses, from playroom to home study. The ground floor continues to impress with generous storage under the stairs, a cloakroom and a utility room with sink, washing machine and yet more cupboard space.
We head upstairs to a sizeable landing and immediately see bedroom 4 in front of us. It has double doors and here has been styled as a kind of study/reading space rather than somewhere to sleep, another display of the flexibility this house offers. Either side of a linen cupboard are bedrooms 3 and 5, these also demonstrating a Mactaggart & Mickel feature of lower sills for large windows to bring in more light. Bedrooms 1 and 2 are both well-sized and each comes with en suite shower room and fitted wardrobes. The top floor is completed by a family bathroom with bath and separate shower. This one has full-height tiles all round, which is another upgrade.
The house next door on Plot 2 is ‘The Wyatt’, another double-fronted house type fully decorated and fitted by Malcolm Duffin Design. From the front hall, which has a cloakroom and we turn left into the living room, with its large bay window at the front and French doors to the garden at the rear. On the other side of the hallway is a wonderful kitchen/family room. The kitchen part is very good but it’s the other end of the room that strikes us, with its vaulted ceiling making a spacious room feel even larger, with the character of a garden room. There are French doors here too, and where the two ‘zones’ meet, another window makes it triple-aspect. With yet more storage built in to this room too, the whole ground floor is very impressive. Upstairs are the family bathroom and three bedrooms, with the master bedroom having an en suite shower room ans a walk-in wardrobe.
For a final feature, the rear garden has had a shed fitted out as a little study – an escape from what is a very impressive family home.
Currently, ‘The Ferrey’ house type is available from £695,000 and ‘The Wyatt’ from £480,000.
In addition to the design and specification of the homes themselves, Milton-under-Wychwood will appeal to many as it offers so much to residents. Under a mile from home at St Jude’s Meadow are a primary school (Ofsted rate it ‘Good’), Co-op, DIY store, vet, dentist, church, pub, library and post office.
Aside from its fantastic landscape, the area offers many other places to enjoy, including cricket and golf clubs, swimming pool, theatre and wildlife park.
For travel, there are plenty of major towns and cities well under an hour away, such as Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford, Swindon, Cheltenham, Banbury and Worcester. While neighbouring village Shipton has its own station, it has very limited services, so Charlbury is your better bet, with a 75- to 90-minute direct service to Paddington, 17 minutes to Oxford and 45 to 60 minutes to Worcester.
The show homes and marketing suite at St Jude’s Meadow are open from Thursday to Monday, 11.00am to 5.00pm, or find out more at www.macmic.co.uk. Please tell the team there you heard about it through Whathouse.com