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The House
We bought Bankhayes in 1997 and have made a number of alterations and extensions over the years. We have an aerial photo of the house taken around 1960 which shows it occupying about half the footprint of today. Much of today’s garden was then given over to the cultivation of vegetables and fruit trees. We also have a copy of the auction details when it was sold in 1956 as Bank Farmhouse. We believe that the core part of the building dates from the mid-eighteenth century.
There are five bedrooms: four with double beds and one with three single beds. There are two main bathrooms upstairs and a shower/toilet downstairs. On the ground floor there is a main reception room with a log fire, a recently-refurbished kitchen/dining/sitting area and a large conservatory for dining and reading. There is also a study room and a utility area.
The house is pet-friendly (within reason). There is a large area for parking at least 4 cars.
The Garden
This chiefly comprises a large lawned area, dotted with trees, sloping down to the River Piddle. The source of the Piddle is only a mile or so up the valley at Alton Pancras so the “river” is hardly more than a stream here but it still contains a number of sizeable brown trout. It is one of the most important chalk streams in southern England and enters the sea at Poole harbour.
There are two ponds in the garden: a raised one near the house and a wildlife one close to the river.
The bridleway and unmade road outside Bankhayes is known as ‘Egypt’, after an old gypsy encampment, and is also the route of the old Dorchester to Sherborne road. It leads in one direction to the village church and in the other to the village shop and the Piddle Inn.
