COTTAGE TOUR | English Country Cottage Tour

Well welcome to the Norfolk Broads in the far southeastern tip of the United Kingdom, and today we are going to tour this rather special 250 year old Norfolk Broads Marshman's Cottage. So let's take you around the front of the house and start the tour. Well we've come around into the front garden of the Norfolk Cottage, and here she is, this is what we're going to be showing you today. We're going in the front door in just one second, and at the end of this video we're going to reveal this cottage's big secret. They say location, location, location, and this cottage hides a little secret that really is hard to beat. We'll reveal all at the end of the video. So here we are, around the other side of the cottage. Let's start the tour. We're going to go in through the original front door. It's now rarely used, but it's the original wooden door. That's a lovely feature, gives you some clues as to whereabouts in the world you are. Let's go in and have a look around. The first room you enter is what would have been the original single downstairs living room for the cottage. Today it's used as the dining area, and seats up to 10 people at this large plank top table. The dominant feature in the room is this huge original ingle nook. It's now home to one of a pair of log burners that sit back to back in the old chimney breast that sits on these ingle nook supports. To the right of the ingle nook this door leads through to what would have been the original kitchen. We'll go through there later. To the left hand side is one of the most original staircases in Norfolk, a proper old dog leg. It sits in a space barely six foot by six foot, and leads you up this splitting dog leg staircase to the first floor. We'll show you the two bedrooms up there in just one minute. Looking back from the staircase you'll see the opening going through into what was originally the old cow shed and burn. This now forms the main living area to the cottage. This room is just packed with original features. The old front door is a work in itself. Beautiful planked oak. Let's go through into the lounge area now. This is a wonderful triple aspect room. To the south side you're looking back into the garden and the roses that fill the garden. There's a door in the corner which leads back out onto a patio area on the southeasterly side of the cottage. That's a beautiful afternoon and evening sun. On the northern aspect there's a further window looking back again into the garden and the rondelle which we'll show you later. The rear wall has been partly left open as red brick. This would have been the old exterior wall of the cottage before this was converted from a cattle shed and hay barn. There's two steps leading down onto this area. This is a wooden sprung floor. The floor that we entered in and threw out the rest of the cottage are these beautiful red terracotta tiles. Nice and cool in the summer, hey Poppy? Before we go upstairs let's go through this door on the right and through into what used to be the original kitchen for the cottage and then we'll feed through into the modern extension that's been put onto the back of the house that now includes the modern kitchen and bathroom area. Let's now go through this door on the right hand side of the angle nook. Through here the original corridor that would have run down the front of the house feeds into this room now used as a breakfast area and snug. The drawer on the rear wall now enters into the new kitchen extension on the back of the cottage. The room is dominated again by a matching angle nook fireplace, same size and dimensions as the one we showed you in the dining area. There's a matching log burner here as well. There's a small table on the rear wall of the room used as a breakfast area from the kitchen. The window overlooks the southern garden and beautiful roses and other shrubs. On the eastern wall there's a large mirror to reflect the light. The furniture has been painted with Annie Sloan again to improve the light in this room. The terracotta tiling runs throughout the downstairs of the cottage unifying all the rooms together. Let's go through now and see the kitchen on the rear extension to the property. Come through this door from the snug and to the right we have the ever hot range cooker with extractor fan. Looking down the back of the house now you'll see the corridor and the low-level fitted units which conceal dishwasher and a washing machine. The sinks in front of this beautiful wide window refuse back over the marshes. The rear wall of the kitchen is partially fitted and contains the fridge and freezer, more storage units, these nice wicker sliding baskets and a wine rack. You'll see the flooring extends all the way along the rear of the property and this corridor takes you through to the bathroom. In here we have an enamel white bath and shower with shower screen above it, toilet and wash basin that again have wonderful views looking out over the garden. The rear wall of the bathroom has been fitted with these shelving units and contains these housekeeper and laundry tents. Below them is a heated towel rail and to the side a fitted cupboard containing the hot water cylinder and water tanks. There's one other little feature downstairs, this has to be the quirkiest, smallest, titchiest toilet in the whole of Norfolk. Absolutely tiny but very convenient and at the very rear element of the corridor are these sliding glass doors allowing light in from the rear cottage door looking out over the garden and in this small area we have a small boot room with shoe storage and cupboards concealing all the cottage electricals and this beautiful view again looking north over the marshes. Right it's time to take you upstairs and show you the two bedrooms in this cottage and to get to those we've got to try and safely ascend this period dogleg staircase. It's incredibly steep this, the actual space it's fitted into is no bigger than around six by six feet. That's the top end of those Ingle Nook fireplaces we showed you downstairs. On the left is the first of the two upstairs bedrooms, look at those beautiful floorboards and in here we've got a lovely period upholstered bed with two bedsides. You're in the eaves of the cottage here you'll see that's the the wall hide outside, the original beams in the cottage ceiling. The window looks east, the end wall has been panelled, there's a large vellux window that opens to give you these wonderful views over the marshes and the grazing cattle. The other wall has been partly fitted with these built-in wardrobes, these are built against the chimney breast as it rises through the roof. There's also a sink in this room with hot and cold running water and a small fitted dressing area. It's incredibly peaceful here overlooking these conservation marshes that are just grazed by cattle over the summer months. Let's now go into the second upstairs bedroom here at the cottage, crossing over the dogleg staircase and we enter into this slightly larger bedroom with matching paneled-in walls. This bedroom's fitted with a single and a period 1950s pink painted double. This room again has a fitted wardrobe matching the one we've just seen with sink and dressing area. There are rather quirky metal beams that are probably dating from the 18th century supporting some of this cottage structure. The view facing westwards from this bedroom gives you some clue as to where this cottage is located but we're going to show you a little more of that in just one second. This bedroom also has a large vellux matching the one we've just seen in the first bedroom with equally fantastic views overlooking the wonderful marsh. Okay so here's the little secret extra that this cottage gives you that others just don't. Let's open the cottage gate, go across the rickety bridge, fight our way through the undergrowth and up the bank to the beautiful river. Just coming to an end across the riverbank. Beautiful river access to the Norfolk Broads and a private mooring. What more could you want?