Havens and hideaways

Some houses offer that little bit extra– a garden building to enhance your quality of life

- Annunciata Elwes

Somerset, £2.5 million

A world of its own surrounded by mature borders and trees, Ivythorn Manor sits in almost 16 acres of gardens, pasture and woodland to the south of the little hamlet of Marshalls Elm, about 1½ miles from Street, which is home to Millfield School. Beyond its 16th-century oak front door, with the Abbot of Glastonbury’s coat of arms carved into the stone above, the beautiful Grade II*-listed manor house has seven bedrooms, plus a connected three-bedroom cottage, which needs some modernisation. The grounds contain a swimming pool, which boasts an unusual two-storey castellated tower for its changing area-cum-garden room, pond, formal garden and dovecote. Savills (020–7016 3780)

Co Durham, £950,000