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Ashington Lodge, Essex
A nine-hole golf course, room to land a plane and a five-vehicle carport are just some of the outstanding features of this five-bedroom, 14,500sq ft Essex mansion just outside Colchester.
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Ashington Lodge, Essex
Built in 1989, Ashington Lodge is set within 76 acres of neatly manicured grounds.
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Ashington Lodge, Essex
Inside there are five reception rooms including a large living room, with double aspect views and doors leading directly to a conservatory.
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Ashington Lodge, Essex
Meanwhile, a dining room is the ideal space for entertaining guests at lavish dinner parties.
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Ashington Lodge, Essex
Double doors from the dining room lead out to the conservatory at the rear of the property. Also on the ground floor is a second, smaller sitting room and games room, so lots of room for growing families.
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Ashington Lodge, Essex
The family-sized kitchen features an AGA and modern appliances for potential buyers.
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Ashington Lodge, Essex
The kitchen also boasts breathtaking views of the surrounding gardens and doors leading through to a utility room, pantry and porch.
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Ashington Lodge, Essex
There are five double bedrooms upstairs, two of which feature en-suites, plus a dressing room and further family bathroom, all of which have 360 degree views of the Colne valley.
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Ashington Lodge, Essex
As well as the large grounds, there’s also a full-size tennis court, lake and koi pond, plus office space above the carport for four people.
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Ashington Lodge, Essex
“The grounds are well stocked with a huge variety of wonderfully mature trees so it’s like living in our very own park,” says the current owner.
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Ashington Lodge, Essex
“We also had two fields that both extend to around 15 acres and when we came here I was struggling to know what to do with them, then my father had the brilliant idea of turning one into a golf course.”
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Ashington Lodge, Essex
“One of the fairways was once a light aircraft landing strip, so if the new owners have a small plane this would be perfect.”
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Ashington Lodge, Essex
Just five miles from Colchester town centre, Ashington Lodge is approached though private parkland, along a gated, sweeping driveway lined with mature trees.
>Scroll right for more unusual homes
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More unusual homes: Remote flatshare, Caithness
Billed as one of the UK’s most remote flatshares, a room in the cottage of a working lighthouse on the north Scottish coast is up for rent.
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Remote flatshare, Caithness
The available double room has a lockable door, use of a private living room and sole use of a bathroom and the lighthouse is in the county of Caithness in the far north of Scotland, just south of John O’Groats.
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Callingwood Hall, Staffordshire
The east wing of a pink castle has been listed for sale near Burton-on-Trent. It has been restored to its former glory, revealing many character details.
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Callingwood Hall, Staffordshire
Inside there is a large entrance hallway, featuring a chandelier and fireplace, while a smaller hallway down a set of stairs leads to the kitchen and sitting room.
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Straw-bale house, Cornwall
A quirky Hobbit-style property has been listed for sale in North Cornwall — ideal for a buyer on a quest for their next adventure.
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Straw-bale house, Cornwall
Set in the grounds of a four-bedroom home, which is also included in the package, the straw-bale roundhouse was built by the current owners and brings in a yearly short-let income of around £20,000.
For sale for £600,000, the roundhouse and four-bedroom main house sit in just under an acre of land in St. Mabyn, three miles east of Wadebridge.
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Golf Ball, Scotland
The Golf Ball, in Kinross-shire, Scotland, was a NATO spy base built on the former Second World War airfield, RAF Balado Bridge, where Polish pilots trained on Hurricanes and Spitfires.
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Golf Ball, Scotland
The disused Satcom satellite ground listening station and the nine acres of land it sits on is for sale for £950,000.
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Thames island eco home
An eco-home accessible only by foot on a private island in the Thames has gone on sale for £1 million.
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Thames island eco home
The three-bedroom house,on the island of Wheatleys Eyot, by Sunbury-on-Thames, costs just £2.50 a day to run. It is heated with a pump that uses the same energy it takes to boil a kettle.
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Converted Hampton Court chapel
Starting life as a chapel, then a boat repair shop, this converted house has a characterful appearance.
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Converted Hampton Court chapel
Formerly made up of two buildings, the home is arranged over two floors, with a New York loft feel and original church fittings and ecclesiastical motifs throughout following a 20-year restoration.
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Solent Forts, Hampshire
Originally built to repel invasion by Napoleon, No Man’s Fort, Spitbank Fort and Horse Sand Fort went on sale for £11million.
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Solent Forts, Hampshire
The forts sit over a mile out to sea between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight.
Knight Frank
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Archway Studios
The majestically quirky Archway Studios is architect Didier Ryan’s award-winning studio-cum-family home, built into a 19th-century south London viaduct.
The Modern House
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Archway Studios
A huge roof skylight draws light in from above, which bounces off the concave outer wall to brighten up what would otherwise be a gloomy space under the arch.
The Modern House
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The Gart, Perthshire
The Gart near Stirling in Scotland dates back to 1835, but it was substantially rebuilt and extended after suffering fire damage in 1901. It went on the market for £1,750,000 – less than the price of the average Kensington and Chelsea flat.
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The Gart, Perthshire
The 100ft long reception room and gin and whisky bar complete with bespoke seating, magenta pool table and statement copper lights are an entertainer’s dream.
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Kaulbach Island, Nova Scotia
This island went on sale for just over £4m. It was originally purchased in 1970 for just $11,000.
Coldwell Banker Supercity Realty
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Kaulbach Island, Nova Scotia
The house was built in 2002 by the current owners, in the grandest of Cape Cod styles.
Coldwell Banker Supercity Realty
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A Swiss Chalet home in London
Architect Myck Djurberg spent nearly £5million restoring a Swiss chalet which was moved to London in 1882. The master bedroom en suite has a gold parquet floor, and marble and 24-carat gold sinks.
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A Swiss Chalet home in London
This fantasy riverside home is constructed from a converted Swiss chalet that now has its own indoor beach.
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Kennington Water Tower, London
This £3.6million home was created inside a 100ft water tower built in 1867 and was extended with a stunningly modern, two-storey glass cube.
Sotheby’s
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Kennington Water Tower, London
The living room was converted from a 30,000 gallon water tank that supplied Lambeth workhouse in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Sotheby’s
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Ladywell Water Tower, London
Ladywell Water Tower in Lewisham was built between 1898 and 1900 by Earnest Newman, the founder of the Art Workers Guild, a professional body of artists, craftspeople and architects, which is still in existence today.
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Ladywell Water Tower, London
There are two flats in the Victorian tower, a one-bedroom flat spread over two floors plus the basement, which the current tenant uses as a music studio.
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Halstead Water Towers, Essex
The towers were built in the mid-1800s by successful Victorian industrialist and textile magnate Samuel Courtauld.
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Halstead Water Towers, Essex
The main tower – spread across six floors – features five-foot thick walls.
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Harold Tower, Isle of Man
Harold Tower is a Gothic castle that dates back to the 1830s and has plenty of impressive features, including spectacular views over the Isle of Man. It went on sale for £3.95 million.
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Harold Tower, Isle of Man
It include an octagonal reception hall, with five sets of double doors leading to downstairs rooms.
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Ackergill Tower, Scotland
This 15th-century Scottish castle near John O’Groats went on sale for £3.9million
Knight Frank
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Ackergill Tower, Scotland
Europe’s largest treehouse lies on the estate, providing a romantic hideaway for two away from the main house.
Knight Frank
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The Old Station House, Shropshire
This five-bedroom house was listed for £950,000. It was originally Coalport West station, which opened in 1862.
Nick Tart
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The Old Station House, Shropshire
The Great Western railway carriages in the two-acre garden were restored and converted into luxury holiday accommodation.
Nick Tart
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Culdees Castle, Perthshire
A seven-bedroom family home went on sale in Crieff, Perthshire…
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Culdees Castle, Perthshire
…and it came with its own 200-year-old derelict castle.
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Burnaby Street, Chelsea
From the outside, this end-of-terrace house on a residential street in Chelsea looks like any other nice Victorian family home.
Martin & Co
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Burnaby Street, Chelsea
But step through the door and a riot of pattern and colour transports you eastwards from genteel west London to India.
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Enchanted Manor, Isle of Wight
This 11-bedroom Enchanted Manor B&B in Niton on the Isle of Wight was listed for sale for just under £900k.
Neil Hunt Photography
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Enchanted Manor, Isle of Wight
The Enchanted Manor has two years left on its renewable wedding licence, allowing the next owner to continue hosting intimate weddings.
Neil Hunt Photography
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Sir Peter Scott lighthouse
This historic Lincolnshire lighthouse was designed by John Rennie – the engineer responsible for Southwark and Waterloo Bridges.
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Sir Peter Scott lighthouse
It sits close to the Norfolk border at the mouth of the River Nene Estuary.
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Dinton Castle, Buckinghamshire
This mini Buckinghamshire castle featured on Grand Designs in September.
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Dinton Castle, Buckinghamshire
It was built in the 18th-century as a folly to house a local gentleman’s fossil collection.
Channel 4
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Fardel Manor, Devon
Explorer Sir Walter Raleigh’s former family home was been listed for sale in Devon, complete with its own 13th-century chapel and official lordship of the manor.
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Fardel Manor, Devon
Grade I-listed, stone-built Fardel Manor is on the southern fringes of Dartmoor and has a fascinating history, dating back thousands of years.
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The Wilde House, Georgia, USA
The Foster-Thomason-Miller House, affectionately known as The Wilde House or The Masterpiece on Main, went on sale in the US town of Madison, Georgia, for just over £350,000.
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The Wilde House, Georgia, USA
Spanning 5,000sq ft, it would make a fabulous passion project for someone willing to invest significantly in its restoration.
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Sandaig House & Lodge, Perthshire
Sandaig House and Lodge on the Knoydart peninsula comes with its own private beach, Sandaig Bay, which reportedly once featured in a list of the world’s best beaches.
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Sandaig House & Lodge, Perthshire
Found on the hillside in an area known as “Britain’s last wilderness”, the £750,000 property and land was the setting for Gavin Maxwell’s bestselling memoir Ring of Bright Water, about a life spent there caring for his pet otters.
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Luggala Lodge, Wicklow
Seven-bedroom Gothic Revival house, Luggala Lodge, is the glittering jewel in the crown of the Guinness family’s Irish estate.
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Luggala Lodge, Wicklow
Luggala Lodge was originally modelled on Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham and is spread over 9,000sq ft.