Surrey Homes | SH27 | January 2017 | Health & Beauty supplement inside

Previous pages: The ‘snug’ has been lined with scaffolding boards to give the room a cosy chalet-feel. Bright pictures of African
scenes cover the walls Above: Despite its ancient origins, the house has been sensitively updated over the years, with the masterful
addition of a kitchen extension
It’s not uncommon, when selling a high-end house, for the
owners to throw in a perk to tempt buyers. It might be
a sports car, a year’s membership at the local golf club or
even – in the case of developers – a generous wedge of cashback.
The key is to match the freebie to the kind of person
you think will be viewing your property... So, when the couple
who were downsizing and leaving their capacious farmhouse
near Bodiam, decided to include a pair of donkeys in the
inventory – it was just the carrot needed to prompt a purchase.
Thirteen years later, and Viking and Ping Pong, are
still happily grazing in the paddock outside the Wylie
family’s striking tile-hung and brick farmhouse. Truth be
told, the donkeys were a welcome bonus rather than a
deal-clincher, but they do seem to fit right in with Ally,
Fergus and their three children Finnbhar, 16, Tabby,
15, and Jonjo, 10, plus an assortment of animals.
“The further we drove down the drive, the more I knew
we’d found the perfect home,” says Ally, who grew up in
Northiam. “We wanted a reclusive spot, with no passing
traffic and some outbuildings to play with.” What they
found was all of those things and a lot more: an imposing
farmhouse on top of a grassy knoll, a three-kiln oast and
bagging shed as well as weatherboarded and tiled stables
which you look down on from the kitchen window. As
kitchen-window views go, it doesn’t get much better.
As well as the rustic stable yard, anyone lucky enough to
do the washing up gets a view across a sloping lawn, past
mature trees and out to the post-and-rail paddocks that are
home to Viking, Ping Pong and Tabby’s hunter Leno. Take a
look out of any window, and you are met with views of hop
gardens, ancient woodland and the steep-sided gullies typical
of the High Weald. They are views that, one would imagine,
have hardly changed since the house was built in 1490.
Despite its ancient origins, the house has been
41 wealdentimes.co.uk