W HEN Mark Gooday and his wife Jane decided it was time to move from their house in Howe Green and start searching for a new home, they had some fairly specific requirements.
"Ideally, we wanted it to be Georgian," recalls Mark, "because to my mind there is nothing quite so perfect as a classic brick-built Georgian house." It also needed to be in the country - a real haven of rural tranquillity - but with first class transport links.
Most important of all, however, the new property needed to have a substantial parcel of land, providing the space necessary for Mark to run his company from home.
And not just any company. Ashdown Engineering is one of the world's top specialist suppliers of bass guitar amplifiers to the music industry. A true British success story, the firm exports to 80 countries and counts many of the biggest names in the business among its customers - including Sir Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters and U2. Mark reckons he spends a total of around four months every year travelling, everywhere from China and Japan to Australia and the USA. Hence the need for the new home to have first class transport links.
The chances of finding somewhere that fitted the bill might sound like a tall order – but Mark and Jane found the perfect answer in Stevens Farm, a Grade II-listed Georgian house standing amid tranquil countryside on the outskirts of the small village of Chignal St James. It was a genuine case of love at first sight, says Mark. "As soon as we saw it, we knew it was the ideal place for us, in the perfect location. It is amazingly quiet and peaceful here – you can hear every barn owl, every deer – and there's virtually no traffic either. I can cycle to and from the local pub and not see another car. You really feel as though you're in the middle of nowhere - yet incredibly, we're little more than 5 minutes from Chelmsford station, 15 minutes from Stansted, and an hour from Heathrow."
Most important of all, the property also came with some 10 acres of land, together with extensive stabling, which could readily be converted into the offices and storage facilities that Mark needed for his business.
The Goodays having seen Stevens Farm and fallen in love with it, it was another three years before the house actually came onto the market. "We put in an initial offer, and were just pipped at the post," says Mark. "However, as luck would have it, the first sale fell through – so we jumped at the chance, lowered the asking price of our own place in order to get a quick sale, and were in here within about eight weeks."
When they bought the house, some 7½ years ago, it was, as Mark diplomatically puts it, "very much a horseperson's property." The listed barns and stabling were all in first class condition. The house, on the other hand, definitely needed some TLC… "For the first 5 years or so, we effectively lived in the middle of a building site," he says. "As well as a complete refurb of the entire house, both internally and externally, we had 4 new bathrooms and 2 new kitchens installed, as well as a brand new landscaped courtyard area accessed via electronic gates." At the same time, the stabling and barns were carefully converted into some 5,000 square feet of offices and storage.
Today, Stevens Farm is a handsome brick-built Georgian house, with the pleasingly symmetrical elevations typical of the era. The elegant, beautifully-proportioned rooms together provide well balanced family accommodation, all flooded with natural light through the large sash windows. On the ground floor are the principal reception rooms and the well fitted kitchen/breakfast room; while on the first floor is the en suite master bedroom together with 5 further bedrooms, one of them also en suite, and all enjoying lovely views over the surrounding countryside. Two of the rooms in the extensive cellars, meanwhile, are used as party and games rooms.
The property also benefits from an exceptional range of ancillary buildings, including a fine traditional coach house, and a cart lodge which has planning and listed building consent for conversion into enclosed garaging. Particularly impressive is the stable block which houses the offices.
Stevens Farm stands in mature, well-tended grounds extending to nearly 10 acres. Abutting the house is a broad, south-facing flagged terrace from which lawned gardens descend. These are interspersed by shrubs and herbaceous beds and borders, and studded by mature trees. Surrounding the house, gardens and buildings are fenced paddocks, bounded by the River Can, and also incorporating an all-weather manège.
The property benefits from three separate accesses: a carriage driveway in front of the house, a gated drive to the Coach House, and a separate access to the offices and other outbuildings.
Mark describes Stevens Farm as a truly amazing place to live and raise a family. "In our case, our children had actually grown up and left home before we moved here - which is why we really wish we'd been in a position to buy it years earlier than we did."
It is also, of course, - as he himself has proved – the perfect place in which to live and operate a business. Although the majority of Ashdown Engineering's manufacturing is now done in China, all the design, marketing, R&D and back office support is handled here.
And it also makes the perfect equestrian property – to which end, the offices and storage facilities were designed in such a way that it would be relatively simple to convert them back into stables.
Finally, with all its extra facilities and space – there is parking for around 150 cars without even beginning to encroach on the paddocks – not to mention its seclusion, Stevens Farm is really in a class of its own when it comes to entertaining. Around 250 guests attended Mark and Jane's daughter's wedding reception in the grounds.
And then, of course, there are the legendary rock music gatherings. "Around the time of the V Festival, we usually have all manner of artists turning up to visit and party," says Mark. But that is something over which he draws a veil. "Maybe one day when I retire, I'll write a book," he says, mysteriously…
In the meantime, he and Jane are now looking to downsize. "Although I find it really relaxing sitting on a tractor at weekends, there's no getting away from the fact that unless you have horses, 10 acres do take some looking after. Somewhere with about 3 acres would do us fine." At the same time, Mark adds, his company has now grown to the point where it would be more convenient to house the offices and storage facilities elsewhere – probably closer to one of the specialist manufacturing units that exist elsewhere in the county.
Clearly, however, the influence of the rock and roll lifestyle hasn't entirely worn off yet. "We will definitely also be buying a house in Antigua," says Mark.
Stevens Farm is for sale through Strutt & Parker with a guide price of £1.85million.
