Here is a delightful fully-moated medieval house, secluded in six acres of immaculate grounds, just ten minutes' drive from Manchester airport. The M6 and M56 motorways are also close by, while the nearby stations at Crewe or Macclesfield will whisk you to London in an hour and three quarters.

The house stands on the fringe of the well-groomed village of Alderley Edge, once home to Posh and Becks, and surrounded by Cheshire jet-set country. On offer for £3 million, Chorley Old Hall has extensive lawns ringed by trees, and the only houses in view are attractive former estate cottages by the drive. It has had a succession of owners over the past century, often not an encouraging sign, but the house has been unusually well-treated - brushed and scrubbed, but not scraped in the way which so outraged William Morris.

There should be few worries about the roof or the creaking timbers: everything is in the highest state of upkeep and the modern kitchen and bathrooms have been done with taste and sensitivity. Better still, they have been fitted by local suppliers, so if anything goes wrong they should be on your doorstep at once.

Chorley Old Hall is held to be the oldest inhabited country house in Cheshire, built by Robert de Chorley in 1330. His family were leading horse breeders, supplying chargers to Edward III and the Black Prince during the Hundred Years War. His house, with a great hall open to the roof and a first-floor solar over the service end, is clearly visible on the garden front. The broad pointed arch doorway survives, as does the upper part of the window lighting the great hall and a smaller window lighting the buttery.

The big thrill inside is to find, not just a complete trio of medieval stone arches at the lower end of the hall, leading to the buttery, pantry and kitchen, but a fourth apparently opening on to the stair to the solar. It is all built of the local sandstone, known as “crow's foot” from its distinctive markings.

Great halls with open fires were going out of fashion in the 16th century and the Davenport family, who came here in 1523, introduced a fireplace and inserted a floor to create an upper chamber. They also added a self-contained wing that is a gorgeous example of Cheshire black-and-white timbering. Each level has its own exotic treatment, chevrons below, circles and stars on the first floor, and a bold diamond pattern in the gables. Further spice is added by the varying treatment of different gables on the main front. The handsomely studded oak medieval front door also survives.

You enter the house today through the black-and-white wing into a panelled hall with a cloakroom. Beyond is a family sitting room, panelled, with a date of 1915 over the fireplace.

By 1897 the house, long tenanted, was reported to be hemmed in by “pigsties, dungheaps and slaughter houses”. The restoration was done by Paul Phipps, a pupil of Lutyens, who went on to develop an extensive country house practice. He introduced handsome Tudor-style oak wainscoting, complete with a cloakroom neatly fitted inside the front door.

The present owners have been here just four years and are moving because they need six bedrooms and the house has four. They have made a splendid garden room looking out of three-tier mullion windows. The former hall with exposed timbers is now the dining room. The main bedroom has an impressive fourposter with columns carved with vines and bunches of grapes, a must-buy which appears to have been sold on with the house in the past. A more modern bedroom has new fitted cupboards and bedside tables in a Frank Lloyd Wright style.

In other bedrooms the sturdy 14th-century timbers of the hall roof spring from the walls. When I ascended the attic ladder I found all the magnificent medieval roof timbers still intact with massive gently arched trusses.

The gardens have been nursed to splendid maturity by David Howarth, who has been the gardener here for 25 years, and the azaleas along the moat make a glorious blaze of colour. Indeed, in the 1970s, when owned by Mr and Mrs M. W. Burling, the house and gardens were open to the public.

On the south side there is an extensive lawn inside the broad moat. The big question is whether to make a second bridge to the water gardens, which at present can be reached only from the beginning of the drive. Make this bridge retractable, like the one that left James Bond surrounded by crocodiles in the film of DrNo, and the welcome sense of security provided by the moat will not be impaired.

Chorley Old Hall is on sale through Jackson-Stops & Staff (01625 540440) for £3 million.

Fact file

WHAT YOU GET: A Grade I listed

moated medieval house with four bedrooms in six acres.

WHERE IS IT: Wilmslow 2½ miles; M56 6½ miles; Manchester Airport 7 miles; Manchester city centre 14 miles.

BEST SCHOOLS: The Ryleys Boys Prep School, just across the road; Alderley Edge School for Girls; The King's School, Macclesfield; and Manchester Grammar.

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