Home with helipad and dog garden for sale

Every Saturday the 'Western Morning News' has a property supplement, normally running to say forty something pages but once in a while a bumper version will come out which is much bigger. Last Saturday was one such extending to no less than 72 pages! Of course Cornwall, Devon and west Somerset covers a very large area and, credit crunch or not, there are still plenty of nice properties in the upper price ranges on estate agency books. I usually skim through this supplement to see if any of these posher residences are in locations that I particularly know.

In this particular instance I noted a house at Bantham which is a hamlet hard by the mouth of the River Avon in Devon's South Hams. What particularly caught my eye was that this property had a helipad in its grounds. I find some of the noises emanating from garden machinery irritating enough so certainly wouldn't be over pleased if living in Bantham to have a 'copter landing in the garden of the big house just up the road. Some time ago I saw an advert for a similar sort of property in again a normally tranquil location and with a helipad; in that instance it was on the north side of Cornwall's Helford River.

The Bantham house is advertised by KnightFrank and if you go to their website and put in the postcode TQ7 you can have a look at the online brochure. I was particularly intrigued to note that there was a "purpose built 'dog garden'", don't think I've come across that before!

Page 3 of the brochure uses the phrase "with undoubtedly some of the most spectacular views in the West Country". Some of these views looking down to the mouth of the river with Burgh Island lying just offshore are illustrated but I'm concerned about their use of that one word "spectacular". Yes the view is without doubt beautiful in that gentle pastoral sort of way one finds in the South Hams but "spectacular"? Not to me. Perhaps I'm too narrow in my definition of that word thinking of 'jaw dropping' and 'dramatic' as likely synonyms. But of course estate agents are allowed to be a little more expansive in their choice of vocabulary aren't they! A further point here is the fact that the line of houses cascading down the hill at Bigbury-on-Sea also features strongly in the view, not that I want to be disparaging about that settlement!

If you are interested the house and its 3 acres has a price guide of £3,750,000. Now where did I put my cheque book...