Number Nineteen: Architect's House

Number Nineteen is a 4 bedroom architect designed architect owned family home in the picturesque village of Great Gransden. Distinctly rural yet only 20 minutes from Cambridge, No19 is situated in the oldest part of the village; across the road from St Bartholomew's Church where there has been a building of worship since Saxon times. The house is airy and contemporary in design. There is a spacious garden for warmer months and full underfloor and radiator heating for winter. The space Welcome to our family home in the UK. We are pleased to be able to share our home with you while we are in our other home in The Dordogne, France. We thought you may like to know a bit more about our house and family so this is a personal introduction... We built the house in 1979 for ourselves and three boys.. at that time. I designed it as a modern house (modern for the 1970’s !), but incorporating some traditional, vernacular features. Externally it’s a red brick with black “clapboarding” to reflect local building materials. Gransden bricks, which came from the brick pits on Meadow Road, are a slightly redder colour and are very soft, so do not weather well and have not been made for a hundred years or more now. You can see them on “The Rectory” next to the Church. The house is designed around a large chimney with double sided fireplaces in traditional farmhouse style. Traditionally this was to give stability to the building with the timber frame anchored onto the central, solid brick chimney. And to heat the house with the fireplaces and chimney, being the only source of heat, located centrally in the building, as you can see at “Old Dixies”, next door. As an Architect, by profession and working, at the time, from the studio at the front of the house, I designed 13 other houses in Great and little Gransden, many of which follow a similar design. I’ll give you a walking tour to spot them later, which will be one way to get to know the village ! Our three boys, aged 2, 8 and 10 when we moved in, had the three identical bedrooms at the northern end of the house with their own stair which also goes up to the attic playroom. The idea being that they could come and go without disturbing us. And the fourth bedroom was for guests. Well things in life often don’t work out exactly as you plan them and our fourth child, a girl, was born 8 years later and had the guest bedroom ! You can spot the children as they are growing up in the photo boards around the house. They are now in their 30’s and 40’s and we have 3 grandchildren. And the attic playroom is storage for our third sons furniture while he builds his own house ( no entry – sorry). We have a lot of artists in the family. My father was a commercial artist, my brother is a painter and three of our children have pictures on the walls of the house. You can read some notes about the paintings later. You may have noticed the “crinkle crankle” wall at the side of the house. This is a traditional Suffolk garden wall design. The idea being that you can build a 41/2 inch wall up to 6 feet high by building it in a wave form to give it stability. A straight wall that height would need to be at least 9 inches thick and use twice as many bricks. The neighbours, who sold us the land, came from Suffolk and wanted to have it for the boundary as a feature. We wish you a wonderful stay Tim & Pam Martindale Guest access You have access to the whole house, apart from the 3rd floor and 5th bedroom as this is where we are storing personal possessions. You won't be sharing with anyone; please respect the odd cupboard that has 'No Entry' on it or is locked.