Long Green, Forthampton

A sense of arrival

The Grain Store sits behind hedging on a quiet stretch of the A438, halfway between Tewkesbury and Ledbury -- the kind of road that gives nothing away. Electric gates and a video entry system open onto a private driveway with parking for numerous vehicles, and it's only once you're through them that the view properly announces itself: farmland running out toward the horizon, with the tower of Pendock Church holding the middle distance -- a view that has very little to do with anything you passed on the way in.

Built on its own terms

This isn't a barn conversion in the traditional sense, and it doesn't try to read as one. The exterior is deliberately plain, almost industrial in its restraint -- a choice that pays off the moment you step inside, where wall gives way to glass wherever the design allows, and the countryside stops being scenery and becomes something the house is genuinely built to admire. It is contemporary architecture that happens to sit in the countryside, not a countryside house that happens to be modern. Everything here is single-storey -- considered, low-maintenance, efficient living without a staircase, or a bungalow, in sight.

Since taking ownership, the current owners have added an additional garden room and fitted both out out as a semi-professional home gym with a sauna and shower. They’ve redesigned the kitchen around a large new island, had the whole interior redecorated and styled, and a considered suite of technology installed throughout.

High impact, zoned living space

The main living space is where the house does its best work: one large, open-plan volume for cooking, dining and sitting. Vast high ceiling, with new beam feature and light pouring in. At its centre is a kitchen island beneath Dekton worktops and kitchen fitted with built-in AEG appliances, a NEFF coffee machine, and an Insinkerator hot tap. Wide bi-fold and infinity doors run the full length of the room onto a terrace that stretches the width of the house, so the space simply keeps going outward: garden, paddock, farmland, church tower, the Malvern Hills. A room built for gathering rather than display, equally suited to a quiet morning at the island or a table set for ten beyond it.

Sleeping in serenity

The four bedrooms in the main house sit to one side of the main living space, each with its own en suite and styled for calm and peaceful repose. The principal suite is the standout: a twenty-seven-foot room with its own bi-fold doors opening onto the terrace, ultra-modern in feel without losing any sense of calm. The fourth is currently laid as an office. Every room carries the same restraint that defines the living space -- nothing overly decorative, nothing surplus, tuned to something closer to serenity than showroom.

A home within a home

Attached to the main house, a two-bedroom annex offers its own open-plan kitchen and sitting room, a modern bathroom, and a private terrace -- genuinely self-contained, and equally suited to a dependant relative, long-staying guests, or even a home office for two.

A further one-bedroom apartment above the oak-framed car port is similarly independent, well suited to an au pair or family staying longer term. Between the two, there's room for however many generations, or however much flexibility, a buyer might need.

Grounds designed for living

The plot runs to a full acre, with an oak-framed car port offering garaging for two cars and an EV charging point. Two further outbuildings house a semi-professionally equipped home gym, and the wrap-around terrace functions as genuine extra living space rather than an afterthought. Beyond the lawn, a paddock offers room for dogs to run, a pony, chickens or growing something of one's own -- a space with potential that's easiest to picture once you're standing in it, with Pendock church held in view the whole way down.

A home ready to live in

The current owners - one an interiors and lifestyle influencer - shaped much of the property's styling now live overseas, and are offering the entire interior scheme, furniture included, available by separate negotiation. It's a genuinely considered interior, built for these proportions rather than borrowed from another kind of house -- a rare option for anyone wanting to move straight in without months spent furnishing a space this particular. Buyers who'd rather bring their own belongings are equally free to do so.

Practical details

The property was built in 2021 and is understood to come with the balance of a 10-year new-build warranty. Heating is via air-source heat pumps with underfloor heating throughout, supplemented by solar panels. The property is on a septic tank system, emptied within the last year. Electricity is supplied by Scottish Power; broadband is currently provided via Starlink, with standard fibre to the cabinet nearby. The property is fitted with an alarm and CCTV. Tenure: Freehold. EPC rating ‘A’.

Round and about

The Grain Store is positioned near Upper Pendock, on the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire border. Malvern Waitrose (23 mins) is our favourite nearby supermarket, with options in Tewksbury and Ledbury The well-regarded Butchers Arms is nearby in Eldersfield and further local favourites including the Black Bear in Tewkesbury, 33 The Homend restaurant in Ledbury, The Inn at Welland, and Malbury café. Tewkesbury is under 10 minutes away, the wonderful Herefordshire market town Ledbury around 15, and you’ll have the Malvern Hills nearby for fabulous hill walking. Cheltenham -- with its restaurants, schools, shopping, and festivals -- is a comfortable 25 minutes drive, with the M5 and M50 both close by.

Final thoughts

There's very little left to do at The Grain Store beyond deciding how to use the spectacular space that's already here -- and for a buyer who'd rather not furnish a house like this from scratch, even that decision comes with a head start. It's a rare thing to find a home this considered that still asks so little of a new owner -- solar-powered, warranted, finished throughout -- while leaving genuine room to make it someone else's own, whether that's a paddock taken on, an annex put to work, or simply a view that would satisfy any landscape artist.