 THE OLD POST OFFICE. Comprising Four Individual Arts and Crafts Style Holiday Apartments. SOLD. I have now sold this beautiful old post office. I spent many loving years restoring and rescuing this big old pile of bricks. The restoration works were carried out by my team of building renovation experts through my sister company 'Ancient and Period Property Restorations Ltd'. Please scroll down for interior and exterior images of the restoration of The Old Post Office including information and history. The Old Post Office is situated only three miles from Southwold by the sea in the historic village of Wangford, Suffolk. The property stands in beautiful surroundings with exquisite views. On one side it overlooks a 13th Century Saxon flint church with one of the best kept original interiors in Suffolk. With wonderful views of the old village and the surrounding Suffolk countryside. There are many places of interest locally, with a myriad of country walks, a haven for bird and wild life. A stones throw from the quiet village pub and restaurant The Angel Inn. A minutes walk is the well stocked village store and off licence, which is next door to the children's playground, park and tennis courts. This superb Late Victorian detached period property of historical interest we sympathetically converted into four individual apartments maximising light with a lot of thought put into people living in a calm and tranquil setting. The devil is in the detail and this where the deign excelled by re instating and restoring where ever possible the original features of the house. At the same time the property was renovated to a very high standard adhering to the original building methods used when it was built in 1879. The sympathetic redesign of an old extension to the rear now compliments the architecture of this delightful period property with a private garden patio enclosing a large pitched roof double glazed Victorian style conservatory, extending to planted borders centralised with a mature cherry blossom tree. Here I laid a reclaimed Victorian red and white tiled patio. To the rear of the building it has planted boarders with a row of three original Victorian brick with pan tiled roof out buildings. Each bathroom in all the apartments were fitted with period features and fittings, original Victorian cast iron and enamel free standing baths, pedestal wash basins, low wc suite, chrome heated towel rails, two with period panelling. There are many fine period features which can be seen in the photographs below. The exterior of the property was refurbished in the summer of 2011. It was professionally re pointed using traditional lime mortar and re painted with breathable exterior paint. The rear side wall was also re pointed and all the loose capping stones were removed cleaned and re bedded into place, again using traditional lime mortar. The down pipes were also replaced. Before I sold it the apartments were let through English Country Cottages who gave it a four star rating. Internal Images of all the apartments please scroll down.
READ ABOUT THE NEW EXTENSION WITH IMAGES HERE. ARTICLE FROM THE INDEPENDENT and INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAYS 4 JULY 2005. MY KIND OF SUFFOLK Vast beaches and friendly faces make Radio 4's Winifred Robinson happy to be in Southwold's bucket-and-spade brigade. I know people who take their young children on wine tasting holidays in Burgundy and claim to have a wonderful time. But after one disastrous stay in a villa in the Dordogne when our son, Tony, was 10 months old, we decided to give foreign holidays a miss for a while. Instead, we head for the British seaside every August and celebrate Tony's birthday there in the company of my parents. He is five and so a good bucket-and-spade holiday is his idea of heaven. We look for places with a decent range of restaurants and bars so we can have the odd night out while the grandparents baby-sit. We decided on Southwold last summer because my husband has fallen in love with East Anglia. He had been working in the area and came home waxing lyrical about the strange beauty of the landscape and the courtesy of the people. I'd only visited the area once, for an outside broadcast for the Today programme. I recall the locals were rather pleased that there was no motorway linking East Anglia with the rest of the UK. Perhaps this relative isolation explains why arriving in Southwold places you in an earlier, gentler time. For one thing, the residents smile at you a lot. After a few days, you discover you are smiling back. The pace of life is subtly slower, and gradually tensions melt away. I first noticed a man was beaming at me in the queue for a table at the Swan Hotel. This is the swankiest place in town, with a sophisticated menu including lots of locally caught seafood and fish. We'd just arrived. We were hungry and disappointed at having to wait, but my city scowl was met with a friendly grin by a man coming back from the bar with a couple of pints. The streets are wide, and even in August there is no crush of tourists. When the town had to be rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1659, it was remodelled on a generous scale with a series of greens dotted about to provide fire breaks. In the high street, apart from two small supermarkets, there are none of the chains that have colonised the rest of England and made the urban landscape so dull and monotonous. Instead, we had our pick of independent butchers and bakers, and browsed in gift shops stuffed full of local crafts. Tony's birthday cake, an organic chocolate sponge made to order and decorated with his name, cost less than £5. For once, every crumb was eaten. And although Southwold is affluent - it has generations of grain barons to thank for that - it is devoid of the snooty sailing set. Even better, it is free of those people who preen along in seaside resorts kitted out in box-new deck shoes and sweatshirts emblazoned with anchors, but who have never actually set foot on a boat. It is a short walk from the town to the sea, past fishermen's cottages and elegant Victorian and Georgian houses, many of them washed in pastels. And on the beach are rows and rows of timber beach huts, plus some kiosks selling tea and cakes. My son spent long days playing in the sand. The beaches are clean and litter-free, and the tide seldom comes up as far as the sea wall. My advice is to arrive early and take a picnic; even better, send one of your party into town for fish and chips and eat them from the paper on the beach. If that doesn't transport you back to childhood, nothing will. Tony's favourite trip was to Walberswick, a brisk walk along the coast. He joined the crowds of small children crabbing on the wooden bridges near the harbour and soon became enthralled. All you need is a net and some scraps of bacon that you dangle into the water on a line. The crabs cling on to the bait; you catch them in your net, plop them in a bucket and later put them back. I booked our holiday at the last minute and was lucky to find any accommodation still to let. A trawl of travel agents drew a blank. It was only when I put "Southwold, house, rent" and "August" into our internet search engine that I found two flats in Wangford, a village a few miles inland. The old Post Office there was being developed into luxury holiday flats by Anthony Geering, the "Mr Arts and Crafts" of the antique trade who runs a huge antiques business called Puritan Values Ltd in a large warehouse in Southwold called The Dome Art and Antiques. We rented two massive two-bedroom apartments for just over £500 each for the week, one for us and one for mum and dad. They were kitted out with arts and crafts furniture, all of it beautifully restored and all for sale. Our kitchen had a lustrous plain oak table and chairs with wooden back rests pierced with hearts and raffia woven seats. Best of all, the kitchens were well-equipped enough to cook without too much trouble. So we hardly ate out and didn't even try the menu at the Angel Inn, a good old-fashioned pub, free of piped music, just across the road. It was the best and by far the cheapest family holiday we have taken. We are planning to go again. TRAVELLER'S GUIDE GETTING THERE A12 from London and the A14 connecting to the A12 from the Midlands. There are trains and coaches from around the country to Darsham which is the closest station and a 15 minuite bus ride to Wangford which stops directly outside The Old Post Office with buses to Southwold taking only 5 mins and further bus routes all around Suffolk and Norfolk from here. STAYING THERE Anthony Geering's apartments at The Old Post Office are now sold.
Lounge 23' x 20'. An exceptional room with seven windows making it a very light and airy room with William Morris, 'Bird and Anemone' Roman blinds, period lighting, fantastic Arts and Crafts copper fire-insert and oak surround, varnished floors original Arts and Craft and Gothic Revival furniture. 
Fireplace in the lounge 
Bathroom with original Victorian cast iron and enamel bath on ball and claw feet with chrome shower and taps, Victorian pedestal sink and chrome towel radiator with pitch pine paneling and shaving socket. 
Main bedroom 14' x 14'. Period lighting with original Arts and Crafts Wardrobe, dressing table, bedside tables and double bed, William Morris 'Willow pattern' Roman blinds and matching bed covers. 
Bedroom Two 14' 6" x 12'. Period lighting with original Arts and Crafts Wardrobe, dressing table, bedside table and 2 single beds, William Morris 'Vine pattern' Roman blinds and matching bed covers. 
Modern high tech oak Kitchen with Ruskin tiled back. 
Hallway with varnished floor and period lighting. 
Lounge 23' x 20', an exceptional room with William Morris, 'Arbutus pattern' Roman blinds, period lighting, varnished floors and exposed beams original Arts and Crafts furniture. 
Bathroom with original Victorian cast iron and enamel bath on ball and claw feet with chrome shower and taps, Victorian pedestal sink and chrome towel radiator with pitch pine paneling. 
Main bedroom 14' x 14'. Period lighting with original Arts and Crafts Wardrobe, dressing table, bedside tables and double bed, William Morris 'Fruit Major pattern' Roman blinds. 
Bedroom Two 14' 6" x 12'. Period lighting with original Arts and Crafts Wardrobe, dressing table, bedside table and 2 single beds, William Morris 'Chrysanthemum pattern' Roman blinds. 
Modern high tech oak Kitchen with Ruskin tiled back. 
Hallway with varnished floor, exposed beams and period lighting. 
Ground floor one bedroom Honeymoon apartment decorated in the style of the Pre-Raphaelites, love and romance the main theme. 
Comprises :-) A small entrance lobby leading into an enormous Lounge/diner 32' x 29' with original restored herringbone beech wooden parquet floor with ebony line details and oak edging, and half oak panelling throughout with four radiators having conforming oak panelling, with pierced brass grills and red vein marble tops, large windows with double glazed units and a grand feature fireplace, recessed galley style Moben kitchen with folding doors to conceal it if required. One double bedroom 14' x 14' with two large original sash windows with double glazed units specially made to conform with it's grade two listing, both windows with upper and lower folding window shutters for privacey and warmth yet still allow plenty of light through, leading into an en-suite Victorian style bathroom, with double shower, low wc, sink and pedestal and original Victorian bath professionally decorated with famous Pre-Raphaelite pictures, Italian marbel floor stylistic circular mosaic centre piece and chrome towel rail. This apartment on two floors incorporates a Victorian style conservatory with it's own private patio with raised flower beds and a mature cherry blossom tree, a tranquil personal space for reading or relaxing in on those long hot summer days. The apartment consists of entrance lobby with Victorian tiled floor matching the patio a varnished staircase with a wall of sky blue glass building bricks which allows further light into the staircase and creates a wonderful feature within the new kitchen. The two bedrooms on the first floor consist of a double bedroom with mosaic tiled ensuite shower, and a twin bedroom looking out to the 13th Century flint church. The very spacious ground floor plan with a fully equipped kitchen diner with a slate tiled floor throughout, designer radiators and feature lighting designs with dimmer switches, feature designer radiators. The hallways have original Victorian varnished pine floors. The bathroom with original Victorian plain white tiles with capped moulded detailing, an original Victorian roll top bath, pedestal sink and low wc with a bespoke marble floor. The lounge with original Victorian features and fireplace with two large original sash windows with upper and lower folding window shutters for privacy and warmth with a double opening leading into the Victorian oak style conservatory opening onto the secluded private Victorian patio with raised flower beds. The apartment also has a large cellar consisting of two rooms. 
Click here to read about the above redesign of an older extension www.puritanvalues.com I have been specialising for nearly 30 years in The Arts and Crafts Movement, Gothic Revival, Art Nouveau, Aesthetic Movement, Anglo Japanese and Important Works of Art. Supplying Museums and private collectors around the world including The National Trust. A number of William Morris museums and houses. Blackwell overlooking lake windermere designed by M H Ballie Scott. Liberty and Co of Regent Street supplying them for over 20 years including 20 of their annual exhibitions. The film and TV industry to name but a few. We continually supply the London trade and Art and Antique dealers throughout the country and around the world. Opening the Dome in January 1998 in an old TA army building built in 1926 in the Art Deco style which we have extensively restored, touching on another passion of mine, architecture. We have over 13,000 square feet of retail space making it the largest collection of Arts and Crafts and Decorative Arts in the country. There is far too much stock to show everything on these web pages so well worth a visit to see it all and a good chance you will find the perfect piece you are looking for. I gave up an engineering career in the Oil industry to find a career I could fall in love with and being a romantic I was naturally drawn towards The Arts and Crafts Movement which soon became a passion, a passion which still burns bright and has become a way of life for me. My restorers share my enthusiasm and passion for the periods we deal in. We only carry out sympathetic restoration to the furniture. We believe in less is more and maintain original finishes where ever possible, after all most things only require a loving wax. My sister company :- Ancient and Period Property Restoration and Interior Design Company Ltd with over twenty years experience restoring and renovating period properties where ever possible in an ecological and sustainable way, using reclaimed period materials where ever possible. Specialising in initial design, to architectural drawings, planning, costings, through to project management. We work closley with the Listed Buildings Officers to a very high standard, a total package from beginning to end for a modest little cottage to a Grand Stately Home. |
