Property in Stamford: Riverbanks in Tinwell
As new year approaches, Claire and Steve are mulling over a Hogmanay-themed get-together with their neighbours. They’ll have little choice next year as a move from Riverbanks in Tinwell to Scotland beckons in 2025, but the couple’s auld acquaintances definitely won’t be forgotten.
“They’re absolutely lovely,” says Claire. “We get on so well. There was the original farmhouse and then here, where the barns and The Mill that were converted just under 50 years ago.”
“We all moved in within a few years of each other, so we’ve become good friends. There’s a tradition of a shared fireworks night with hot dogs with a few beers, and a Christmas get-together.”
“It’s not all fun and games though, we also have the twice-yearly tradition of the spring (and then autumn) garden clean-up. We’ve our own gardens and then about two acres of shared gardens, with a mature woodland and a millpond that one of our neighbours, Tommy, has restored.”
“It’s been dredged and brought back to life, and now there are fish and newts in there, we see kingfishers, herons and barn owls. It’s really beautiful!” Claire’s family moved from The Wirral down to Stamford when she was a youngster whilst Steve’s family all come from Edinburgh. They moved into their property on Tinwell’s Mill Lane during lockdown and initially weren’t able to meet their new neighbours properly or to introduce their new home.
They were, however, able to get stuck into modernising their new home, starting at the top and working their way downstairs. Ordering a couple of wallpaper steamers they got busy with decorating the place, an opportunity that Claire, with her passion for interior design, absolutely relished.
The couple are both company directors working in the food industry, so it’s little surprise that their new kitchen was to become the ideal place to enjoy creating delicious – and wholesome – food.
Equally wholesome is the contemporary country kitchen with its solid oak cabinetry in earthy two-tone paint shades and white quartz work surfaces.
A range of Neff appliances are neatly integrated, as is a Quooker boiling water tap and there’s a separate, very well-appointed utility room with adjacent boot room that the couple created by reimagining the downstairs layout of the property to make better use of the space.
Arranged over two floors, the property has a ground floor living kitchen which is just off the entrance hall. On the opposite side of the hall is a sitting room with an adjacent drawing room overlooking the garden.
On the first floor there’s a principal bedroom with adjacent en suite and built-in cabinetry. There are three further bedrooms with a family bathroom also overlooking the open countryside.
Outside, a perfectly orientated south west facing private rear garden provides commanding views over open farmland, with the picturesque All Saints Church spire gracing the horizon.
The large terrace invites alfresco dining and evening relaxation, while a well- proportioned home office is ideal retreat for those who work remotely. For Steve, who works from home, the office is a lovely cosy building in the garden with a panorama of nature serving as a backdrop for Zoom meetings. It would be very peaceful but for the presence of rescue pup Alf, a golden-doodle who enjoys making cameo appearances in meetings with his zoomies.
“It really is a magnificent place to live, and we’ve been so happy here,” says Claire. “Leaving this place is tantamount to a moment of madness but the next owners will be really happy both with the property and the community. Our neighbours are friendly without ever being overbearing and they’ve become as much a part of the reason we love the place as for the property itself!”
To see images of Riverbanks, Tinwell and for the finest selection of luxury and rural homes in and around Stamford, see https://www.pridemagazines.co.uk/stamford/view-magazines?magazine=January-2025