Wysdom Hall is on the market for £2.25 million. For this you get a 15th, 16th and 18th-century Grade II* listed house, with nine bedrooms, in the centre of the Cotswolds town of Burford. There is also a cottage in the garden and plenty of space to park. For another £500,000, you can acquire the shop below, let until 2011 to an antique dealer.

This year Burford beat Rome in Forbes magazine’s Europe’s Most Idyllic Places To Live poll, which gives you some idea of just how the pretty the place is. The garden, apart from a little box parterre, is the one part of this much-loved property that has scope for more attention. Forget any idea of adapting the rest of this property to your taste. You have to accept the house as it is, the craziest mix of little staircases, oddly placed windows and narrow doorways. Yet it would be hard to find a property of this size with more historic features, panelling, fireplaces, and even wall painting from the 15th century onwards.

Behind the stone-faced early Georgian street front the house is laid out like a small-scale coaching inn, with a central paved courtyard entered under an arch (one survives on the garden side). The stone-arched Tudor doorway retains a venerable oak door of four broad planks, with long blacksmith’s hinges. To the left is an attractively panelled modern kitchen. To the right, the dining room; the date 1555 appears in the panelling over the window with the initials of Simon Wysdom, a prominent merchant and townsman who almost certainly lived here. He died in 1587.

Beyond lies the sweetest, neatest, early Georgian baroque staircase I have seen, with its elegant corner columns and steeply swooping handrail. It’s so tight that the top is constructed as a wooden spiral. This opens into the early Georgian panelled drawing room, with an unusual corner fireplace, and two more sitting rooms.

The present owner lets the house, complete with eight bedrooms. Finding these rooms is an adventure in itself as one ground-floor bedroom can be approached only from the first floor. Another 40ft-long bedroom is beneath the roof timbers of what might have been a first-floor great chamber with its stylish curved oak windbraces. Actually, there are two bedrooms, though there is no door between them. Bedroom seven has some rare carved medieval linenfold panelling and delightful wall cupboards.

The ultimate delight of living in this house is to walk out through a panelled hallway into one of the loveliest high streets in Britain. Opposite is Huffkins, the champion tearoom, baker and cake-maker. You just have to be careful with all those steep narrow stairs.

Fast facts

What you get Grade II* listed town house dating from 15th century, with nine bedrooms and garden cottage.

Where is it? Oxford is 21 miles away, Charlbury 7 miles (trains to Paddington). Best schools Burford School is an unusual example of state boarding.

Where to eat The Lamb, Bay Tree, Maison Blanc.

Contact Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01993 822661, £2.25 million, plus £500,000 for the shop.

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