Parkgate Road, Woodbank, CH1

Some homes are built. Others are made — slowly, carefully, and with genuine feeling for what they could become. Saughall Mill Farm is the latter. What stands here today is the result of years of considered restoration and investment by owners who understood exactly what they had and gave it everything it deserved.

The farmhouse presents with real confidence from the road — a five-bar gate opening onto a generous gravelled driveway with ample parking, the building beyond immediately telling you this is something out of the ordinary. An original front door and sash-style double-glazed windows throughout offer the period aesthetic without the energy penalty — a detail that matters in a house of this age, and one that should reassure buyers who associate older properties with draughts and high running costs. The Grade II listed Gibbet Mill windmill rises on the boundary: a centuries-old landmark that gives this corner of Cheshire a setting no architect could design from scratch.

Inside, the quality of finish is consistent throughout. The kitchen is a serious room — Listers units with granite worktops, a range cooker with extract hood, an integrated pantry with dishwasher, and tumbled limestone flooring. The whole ground floor benefits from underfloor heating fed by an air source heat pump, with radiators to the remainder of the house. Solar panels with export capability via Octopus complete an energy setup that is both modern and well considered. Cast iron wood burners sit in both the living room and kitchen, set into original fireplaces — the kind of warmth that cannot be retrofitted.

French doors open from the living room directly to the garden, while the garden room and conservatory extend the living space further into the grounds. A large utility and boot room with plumbing for laundry sits exactly where it should in a working farmhouse — practical and properly fitted. The ground floor wet room is beautifully executed: stone-effect split-faced tiles, the sort of finish that gets noticed. An understairs cupboard adds further everyday storage.

Upstairs, four well-proportioned double bedrooms are served by a bathroom finished to the same standard that runs throughout — a freestanding bath, pedestal washbasin, and low-level WC. One bedroom is currently dressed as a home office, with a full-width range of wardrobes and storage that also houses the hot water tank: flexible space that works hard whatever its use.

THE GUEST COTTAGE

Attached to the main house but entirely self-contained, the guest cottage has its own front door, its own address, and its own life. On the ground floor there is a fully fitted kitchen and breakfast room, a WC, and a cosy living room with a staircase rising to the first floor. Upstairs, a double bedroom and ensuite shower room provide everything a guest, family member, or paying visitor needs.

The cottage currently operates as an established Airbnb letting with a proven income record — the reviews speak for themselves. Whether retained as a revenue stream, offered to extended family, or repurposed as a private home office suite, it adds a genuinely useful and versatile second dimension to the property. The connection to the main house is there for those who want it; the independence is there for those who don’t.

THE BARN, OUTBUILDINGS AND GROUNDS

The former joinery workshop is a building that needs to be seen to be appreciated. Barn-scale, with the kind of floor area that is simply not available in most residential property, it currently offers exceptional space for a home-based business, studio, or serious workshop use.

Attached to the barn at the front of the property, the original piggeries are a characterful reminder of the farm’s agricultural past and offer further storage or conversion potential of their own. A separate tool shed completes the outbuildings.

The grounds extend to approximately one acre. An orchard sits within the plot, and a sheltered seating area with a fire pit provides the kind of outdoor living space that earns its keep for most of the year. Open fields stretch away behind the property — an adjacent paddock, not included in the sale, extends the rural outlook even further.

It feels like genuine countryside. In every practical sense, it is also Chester.

EPC Rating: C

Utility Room

Garden Room

Kitchen/Dining Room

Lounge/Sitting Room

Shower Room

Bedroom One

Bedroom Two

Bedroom Three

Study/Bedroom Four

Bathroom

Annex Kitchen/Diner

Annex Sitting Room

Annex Bedroom

Garden Store

Workspace/Outbuilding/Garage

Garden

Large wrap-around garden comprising of one acre of land