Black Dog Cottage, in Little Barrington, is a quintessential country home in a quintessential Cotswold village. Overlooking the village green, the limestone building has pear trees in its front garden, laden with fruit. The house is set behind a Cotswold stone wall, with a neat green front gate and a gravel driveway which extends up the left side of the house. And all this English country charm is exactly why its owners, Klaus and Brandon, bought it in 2013.
“We both wanted to live in the Cotswolds, and we were looking for a lovely period property. We came across it over dinner with a friend, who told us that her ex-husband was selling the house,” says Klaus. “It was quite a coincidence. We saw the house, and we fell in love with it.”
Klaus, 59, and Brandon, 50, had been based in Oxford at the time. They liked the village setting, the house’s position on the village green, and the fact the building is “deceiving from the front”, as Brandon puts it, because it extends further back, with a large, quiet back garden. “That was one of the main attractions,” says Klaus, who works as an executive director. “The peaceful atmosphere. It’s just beautiful.”
The Grade II-listed cottage dates back to the 1700s and has had several different incarnations throughout its lifetime. Originally, it was the village pub, The Black Dog Inn, before it became a vicarage. Before the Second World War, part of the building was used as a grocery shop. Although it has always contained living quarters, it was converted into a single residence after the war.
The building’s ground floor is L-shaped, with a sitting room, library and dining room at the front of the house and a kitchen and utility area extending back around a courtyard. There are four bedrooms, located on the two floors above, and a guest reception room. Outside, as well as the garden, there is a garage and detached stone outbuilding, now used as a garden store, giving a total of 3,004 square feet of space.
The house had been kept in good condition when the couple moved in, but they wanted to perfect its cosy, carefully styled interiors. “We wanted to make it luxurious, comfortable – a bit Ralph Lauren-style, respecting the building and its character,” explains Klaus. “The beautiful old building was the canvas that we had, and then it was bringing or adding things that would either go with the character or help enhance it.”
The house has a natural palette, with straw-coloured carpets, warm, creamy-hued walls and original oak beams. Much of the furniture is antique, hand-selected by the couple in a discerning five-year process. In the bathroom, for example, there is a freestanding, roll top metal bath; in the kitchen, a rustic wooden X-frame dining table (“we loved the colour of that, and the fact that it was a bit battered. It had real character,” says Klaus). There is an enormous antique tapestry hanging on the wall of the living room, depicting hunting scenes and wildlife.
Original features, like the beams, fireplaces, shutters and windows —whose glass is nearly a century old— have also been preserved. “We wouldn’t want to touch that,” says Klaus. There are still signs of the building’s previous lives too, like the cellar, where ale would have been stored, and the outbuilding in the garden, which was formerly a pigsty. The kitchen too is housed in an old barn building, where cows were kept.
“It’s been an amazing house, and we look back on it with great pride that we’ve brought it up to the standard that it is today, keeping the bones and historical parts of the house intact, which adds to its charm,” adds Brandon. “You’ve got a very comfortable home, but it also has its integrity and its historical roots.”
For the past 11 years, the couple feel the house has been a “sanctuary” for them. In the summer, the sun can be chased around the garden, says Klaus, while the fireplaces and warm interiors make the house cosy in the winter. “It’s a place that embraces you, that hugs you,” he says.
“It’s got an atmosphere that’s hard to describe,” Brandon agrees. “It’s been a really special home. It’s got a great feeling the moment you walk through the door. It’s such a lovely, warm feeling house.”
Now, though, Klaus and Brandon are selling Black Dog Cottage to move to the Swiss mountains to spend more time outdoors. “This was never on the cards,” says Brandon. “The Swiss Alps stole our hearts.”
The property has been listed with Butler Sherborn for £2.5 million, with the couple open to selling the furniture through separate negotiation.
Brandon believes that the house would suit a range of possible buyers, from families in search of idyllic village life to people looking for a turnkey weekend retreat. “I think it would suit somebody that appreciates the finer detail that our house offers, because it has been restored and designed to the top level possible.”
“We feel that we’ve been privileged to live in the house,” Klaus adds. “Whoever buys the house next is basically a guardian. Hopefully the people who come and buy it from us will also feel very proud to take it forwards.”
