Snooping around

Property of the week: Montacute, near Yeovil, Somerset. This 15th-century pad is thought to have been a dairy serving a priory, the ruins of which are strewn beyond the garden. It looks the part with its Tudor beams and fireplaces, studded doors, stone mullioned windows and flagstoned floors embellishing four reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room and three bedrooms. Shame it opens on to the road. Cost: £675,000.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01935 810141. Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff/Jackson-Stops & Staff

Wreck of the week: Princes Street, Stamford, Lincolnshire. This three-bedroom Edwardian mid-terrace, with courtyard garden, is habitable but weary - around £20,000 should update the kitchen, bathroom and decor. It’s only a short walk from Stamford town centre, which is a conservation area famed for its limestone buildings and nostalgically preserved streets. A garage to the rear is welcome, but takes up most of the garden. Cost: £210,000.
Knight Goodwin, 01780 765060. Photograph: Knight Goodwin/Knight Goodwin

Take three: award-winning homes. This parade of wood-clad, glass-gabled townhouses is part of the rebirth of the Chichester canal basin and won a Hot Property gold award. You get a living room, kitchen/breakfast room and study, though for £485,000 you might expect more than two bedrooms, even if they're en suite. A towpath leads along to the harbour, and it’s a short walk to the cathedral and shops.
Hamptons International, 01243 839399. Photograph: Hamptons International/Hamptons International

Take three: award-winning homes. This flat, which won the 1980 Civic Trust Award, is in an early 15th-century building where Henry Tudor is said to have slept before the Battle of Bosworth. With a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and a huge vaulted living room and bedroom soaring skywards, it’s an absolute steal at £120,000. Shame it’s without parking or a garden, although a roofed alleyway conceals you from Shrewsbury town centre.
Balfours, 01743 353511. Photograph: Balfours/Balfours

Take three: award-winning homes. This daring house in Newton Ferrers near Plymouth won the Arnold Sayers award for homes run by Riba and the Devon Conservation Forum in 1989. It perches atop tiers of garden with lawns and woodland, and has access from a quay. Inside it has a double living room, kitchen/dining room, four bedrooms and two bathrooms. For the bookish among you there’s also a library. Beware the vertiginous grounds and the £1m price tag.
Marchand Petit, 01752 873311. Photograph: Marchand Petit/Marchand Petit