_5-bedroom Albaston House in Cornwall dating back to the 1500s is a postcard-worthy family home

Guide price: £1,300,000

A window into the past, Albaston House is a beautiful example of British heritage thickly layered with 500-year old historical features and brought into the 21st century to create an inspiring family home. It sits in magical setting on the outskirts of the Cornish villages of Gunnislake, Drakewalls and the hamlet of Albaston, close to the Devon border and within the Tamar Valley Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

Grounded by the weight of history, added to over the centuries and crammed with period features representing advances in house building and design trends of the time, a walk through this heirloom property is akin to a very practical history lesson in the anatomy of British architecture. 

Structurally Victorian the house incorporates portions of the original Elizabethan origins that have occupied the land since the 1500s and many of the original period features in the house have been retained and maintained.

The front door and porch are particularly impressive and hint at the character inside. An inscription above the porch dates the property at 1589, being the 30th year of the reign of Elizabeth I.

The ground floor is dedicated to living, relaxing, dining and entertaining with bright and contemporary interiors and where 21st century mod cons sit cheek-by-jowl with period features.

Stand out historical features include a number of working fireplaces. The sitting room is the heart of the home with its huge, open, working fireplace. Smaller fireplaces include one surrounded by 18th century Italian marble originated from Pencrebar House nearby and an additional Victorian fireplace with a carved oak surround.

Other renovated features include parquet flooring, mullion windows, original Victorian Minton tiles and bay windows with original Victoria shutters.

The kitchen was renewed about six years ago and has handmade units by Treyone of Liskeard, corian work surfaces and a central island. To the rear of the kitchen is the utility room which was once the old dairy.

On the first floor there are five bedrooms and a family bathroom. There is a rear landing with stairs leading down to the utility room below. The fifth bedroom at the far end is currently used as a study and is nicely tucked away from the rest of the bedrooms. Off the principal bedroom is a dressing room, beyond which is an en suite bathroom with both a bath and a shower.

There are three separate vehicle accesses into the property. A farm gate leads off a rural lane along the side of the five acre field into the cobbled courtyard beside the barns which could be converted subject to necessary permissions. The property is not listed and there are no Tree Preservation Orders within the gardens and grounds.

The property is a short walk to Gunnislake railway where it joins the mainline to London Paddington with journey time to the capital around 3 hours. National transport links can be found in Plymouth, which is around a 20-minute drive away.

Devon and Cornwall's award-winning beaches on both the north and south coast can be easily accessed by car within less than a hour, depending on direction of travel - and the region's many pretty fishing villages that pock the shoreline are just a weekend whim and short car journey away.