A FORMER children’s home in a Bucks beauty spot has been converted into five super stylish cottages priced from £835,000-£1.35m.

The restoration and upgrading of this landmark complex in Bledlow took four years.

As a mark of respect for the past, Dinton-based housebuilder Oakminster Homes has named each of the architect-designed hereditaments after boarders at what in the 1850s was the Wycombe Union Residential School for Boys and Girls.

Like children, every house that’s grown up here is an individual.

Common denominators include a hand built kitchen, hotel standard bathrooms, underfloor heating on the ground floor, solid oak doors and door frames; most have a fireplace, some have exposed beams.

Two of the five houses on the land in Perry Lane known by villagers down the ages as Perryfield have already been reserved.

Ashbury House - four beds, three bathrooms (two en suite with dressing rooms) - was bought subject to contract before last Saturday’s formal sales launch.

The advertised price was £875,000.

The Grade II listed U-shaped main feature of the development now incorporating four houses, dates from 1800 when it was originally built as the parish workhouse.

By the time of the 1881 census, Perryfield had become a boarding school with 57 children aged between five and 15. George Roberts was “the master” His sister Rebecca was matron.

Mr Roberts lived in what was “The Master’s House”. These days it’s called Brandon House.

After being transformed to meet the needs of 21st century lifestyles, five-bedroom Brandon House at £1.35m is the most expensive but not quite the largest in terms of square footage of the five properties for sale at Perryfield Court.

However, the future owners of the former Masters House (2,940 sq ft) will have the option to buy a further half-or-threequarters of an acre and add a paddock to their garden.

Largest house on the site (3009 sq ft) named after a pupil called Britnall costs £1.125m.

It’s L-shaped and one of the four houses at Perryfield with four or more bedrooms and four bathrooms (one of Britnall’s three en suite bathrooms has a stand-alone bath).

We’ll be re-visting Perryfield and having a test on which house has what before the school holidays are over.

Keep up at the back there.

The second phase of the development will include two fully restored larger more modern blocks at the back of the site.

No prices for these yet.

The building of these two mid 20th century additions coincided with the decision of the school managers to drop teaching and function instead as a children’s home which it continued to do until the site was closed in the early 1980s.

The agents for Perryfield Court at the Princes Risborough office of Tim Russ have more details - call them on 01844 275522, email p.risborough@timruss.co.uk or go online to the website, timruss.co.uk