IF you’re looking for a house packed with character, what could be more inspiring than an old Victorian vicarage?
Full of charm and with period features aplenty this week’s Dream Home is even set in its own grounds, comes with two small pony stables - and the village school is right next door making it an easy trot for the kids when the bell rings. The Old Vicarage was built in 1876 and even though the outside may be more than 130 years old, inside it is a different story. For alongside the traditional cornices and ceiling roses that characterise Victorian built houses, you’ll find all the comforts of family living from an en suite bathroom to the huge heart-of-the-home family kitchen. Current owners, the Melville family, bought the place four years ago - and confess it was the charm and originality of the house that appealed to them. “We haven’t done a lot to it since moving in, it is mostly as it was,” says owner Gavin Melville, who works in computers. “We were happy in finding it the way it was. “We liked the original features, it has lots of character and that’s what we wanted in a house. “Modern houses seem to have four walls and I don’t have a problem with that at all and have lived in modern houses before - but it is things like the detail and the character of a house that appeal to me.” As a dad of seven-year-old twin boys, he says, the house has been a really family home with plenty of room to spread out. On the ground floor, a hallway leads into three large reception rooms, the drawing room and sitting room each have impressive fireplaces that form the focal point of both rooms with picture windows that look out over the gardens. The dining room, with feature coving and picture rail, has its own brick fireplace with a log burning stove. And then there’s the 23ft by 11ft kitchen which boasts a range cooker and enough space for even the busiest of families. “Most of our time is spent in the family sitting room - and with two boys, in the kitchen because of the kids really!” smiles Mr Melville. “The sitting room is a lovely light coloured room with a marble fireplace and it is lovely to just put some music on and chill out in there with a glass of wine. “We spend a lot of time in the family room too.” Upstairs, the first flour has four double bedrooms and a family bathroom. The master bedroom has its own en suite. A second staircase leads to the third floor where there are another three double bedrooms and another family bathroom. Outside, The Old Vicarage stands centrally in its plot stretching almost half an acre. A driveway leads up to the house and there is room for plenty of car parking. The gardens and grounds are landscaped and flanked by trees with lawns at the front and the back of the house. Stillington is a lovely village, says Mr Melville, with its own post office, school, church and doctors surgery. Middlesbrough is just six miles away, Darlington is just eight miles - and Durham Tees Valley Airport just 12 miles. The family is moving to the South-west because of work commitments so The Old Vicarage is on the market. It has been a real family home in a nice village, says Mr Melville. “Stillington is nice. There’s a post office and the school is next door,” he says. “It is excellent for getting to the north or the south - the A177 is on the doorstep which is really good and the A1 is just five minutes away. I’m a Scot and getting up to Edinburgh is easy. “We seem to be really central - you can get to the beach at Hartlepool in 20 minutes, you can get to the moors in 20 minutes and you can get to the dales in 20 minutes.” The Old Vicarage, Stillington, is on the market with a guide price of £460,000. For more details contact Strutt and Parker’s Morpeth office on 01670 516123. | 
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