East Coker, Somerset

A distinguished family home in a highly sought after village, Hope House showcases the timeless charm of exemplary English interiors.

Why We Love Hope House - A distinguished family home in a highly sought after village, Hope House showcases the timeless charm of exemplary English interiors

The house comes with the added benefit of a separate annexe as well as a swimming pool and 2.47 acres of glorious garden

Hope House is located in an idyllic private spot behind a stone wall and hornbeam hedge on the edge of the lovely village of East Coker in South Somerset. The house itself is Grade II listed and is imbued with period features from across the centuries complementing the well-proportioned rooms. With medieval origins traceable as far back as the 15th century, the house was altered and added to in the 16th and 17th centuries with a further late Georgian addition at the beginning of the 19th century. The house has been beautifully restored by the current owner who has brought its historic character back to life whilst at the same time modernising it into a comfortable family home.

A gate opens onto a gravelled driveway with plenty of parking outside the house’s handsome façade of honey coloured Hamstone with stone mullion windows.

Main House - Ground Floor

The oak front door opens into a generous front hall with a warm weathered herringbone brick floor with walls lined in early 17th century panelling carved with a decorative array of floral and classical motifs. The elegant formal drawing room has panelled walls painted in a lovely chalky blue, oak floors, an open fireplace, and large French windows leading out to the garden. A library with fitted bookshelves, Tudor chimneypiece with open fire, and deep window seats with panelled shutters serves as a quiet haven. A guest WC cloakroom is also conveniently located off the front hall.

The front hall leads through into the large open kitchen dining room. The kitchen with its huge original beams and Blue Lias flagstone floor overlooks the garden and includes an AGA, a walk-in pantry, and fitted cabinetry painted in Edward Bulmer Invisible Green. This part of the house previously formed a courtyard and still retains a pretty internal lancet window which peeps into the larder. The other end of the room houses a large dining table with plenty of space to entertain family and friends, as well as a huge Tudor fireplace with open fire and deep window seats set into the painted panelled wall.

The rear hall with medieval spiral stone staircase and doors onto the front courtyard and back garden is located next to the kitchen and provides hanging space for coats and boots and access to a separate utility/laundry room. A sitting room
ursery and a further sitting room with open fire are located down the hall.

Main House - Upstairs

The main house has seven generously proportioned bedrooms, five bathrooms and a study. The large principal bedroom is located on the first floor of the main part of the house, with high sloping ceilings, inbuilt cupboards, a fireplace and a generous adjoining bathroom with double basins, bath, and inbuilt storage cupboard. Across the passage sits another large double bedroom with fireplace, charming 17th century panelling and an adjoining bathroom with bath and linen cupboard. Another double bedroom with pretty patterned wallpaper, a study, and a family bathroom are located along the corridor. To the southern end of the house there are two further double bedrooms and a bathroom with shower and their own spiral staircase. The second floor is made up of two double bedrooms, one with an adjoining bathroom with bath.

Garden Annexe

The garden annexe is separate from the house and perfect for guests, rental or ancillary accommodation. It comprises an open plan kitchen/living room with a cosy newly installed wood burner, and a separate double bedroom with large inbuilt cupboards and an adjoining bathroom.

Outbuildings

Extensive further storage comes in the form of double garage with a large loft space above the annex which has previously been used as an artist’s studio and fitted with extensive inbuilt storage shelves. There is a further outbuilding with wine cellar and potting shed, along with a wooden stable.

Gardens and Grounds

Hope House sits in a generous 2.47-acre plot surrounded by beautiful gardens and grounds which have been extensively redesigned by the current owner and features lovely mature trees including oak, ash, magnolia and walnut.

The main formal garden lying to the rear of the house is covered in an elegant white wisteria. A large stone terrace is flanked by rose bushes with plenty of outdoor dining terrace for summer entertaining. The whole garden has been thoughtfully laid out with ample lawns, smart clipped Ilex trees, and yew, beech and hornbeam hedges bringing symmetry and structure. An avenue of pleached lime trees draws the eye to the orchard beyond the formal garden created in a paddock previously used for grazing cattle.

A smart outdoor swimming pool with further outdoor dining space is located on the southern side of the garden in its own drystone wall lined garden.

Living In East Coker - Hope House’s position strikes a harmonious balance of boasting both the charm of a picturesque rural location in the lovely village of East Coker with the practicality of hassle-free access to London.

East Coker exhibits a magnificent array of attractive period architecture, its streets lined with a high proportion of listed houses and cottages built from the lovely amber tinted local limestone.

East Coker is a thriving rural village on the Somerset Dorset border within Cranbourn Chase AONB. It is served by a café, a farm shop, a village hall, a parish church, sportsgrounds with cricket pitch and pavilion for the village cricket club, a village green, and a popular 15th century pub the Helyar Arms.

The town of Yeovil gives access to a wide selection of shops, supermarkets, a golf club and further amenities nearby and the pretty market town of Sherbourne is a short drive away and offers further choice of shops as well as a regular farmers market.
Sutton Bingham Reservoir is just over a mile away offering fishing and sailing and the glorious beaches of the Jurrasic Dorset Coast at West Bay are 17 miles away.

There are great transport links within easy reach. The A303 and A37 are both close by, Yeovil Junction station has regular and direct services to Waterloo and both Bristol and Exeter airports are just over an hour’s drive away offering flights to UK and international destinations.

Fantastic Schools

The local area is also renowned for its excellent range of schools from both the state and independent sectors. These include a wide choice of popular primary schools, as well as a good selection of independent schools including the Sherborne schools, Hazelgrove, Leweston, Perrott Hill, Millfield and King’s Bruton.

Yeovil 3.3 miles | Ilchester 8 miles | Sherborne 9 miles
Yeovil Junction station 2.9 miles (Waterloo ? hours ? minutes)
Bristol Airport 47 miles | Exeter Airport 44 miles
The A303 and A37 are both close by.
(Distances & times approximate)

Chapters Past - Both house and village share a deep-rooted history.

The village of East Coker is distinguished for its historic architecture and boasts three Grade I listed buildings: a fine medieval manor house called Coker Court constructed by the Courtenay family in the 15th century; 15th Century Hymeford House; and a Saxon parish church of St Michael. The large array of fine stone houses and cottages in the village include a row of 12 distinctive almshouses, founded in the mid 17th century by the Helyar family with the stipulation that they be occupied by for 11 women and 1 man.

Hope House is one of the oldest houses in the village. The medieval core of the house dates back to the 15th century with some fantastic features from this period surviving, namely the spiral newel staircase in the rear hall and an arched doorway on first floor with decorative stone stops carved with men’s heads. The house was altered and aggrandised in the subsequent centuries with a large amount of decorative panelling added in the 17th century. The formal drawing room and principal bedroom above were added in 1803.

The high proportion of fine stone buildings in the village are largely the result of the local flax industry which brought wealth to the area across the centuries. Flax was the crucial raw material for making high quality rope and sails during the age of sail when ‘Coker Canvas’ was famed as the best quality sailcloth in the country, employed on the Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar.

Famous sons of East Coker include the buccaneering 17th century explorer, cartographer and privateer William Dampier, who circumnavigated the globe three times (possibly being the first Englishman to set foot on mainland Australia) and wrote Voyage Round the World and the Discourse on Winds, Tides and Currents. The ancestors of the renowned poet T.S. Eliot, also hail from the village, emigrating from their home in East Coker to America in the 1660s. Eliot dedicated the second of his four quartets to East Coker after visiting it in 1937 and asked that his ashes be buried in the parish church where a plaque now hangs in his memory.