Snooping around: Homes near ferry ports

Property of the week: Bishopstone, Wiltshire. A stream feeds one pond with its own jetty and weir before descending into another and coursing through to the mill pond around which the thatched houses of this village are set. Inside this grade II-listed idyll you get a double living room with inglenook fireplace, a large snug with wood-burning stove, a workshop, a study, a large kitchen and three bedrooms. There is also an orchard. Cost: £375,000.
Strakers, 01793 617007 Photograph: Strakers/Strakers

Wreck of the week: Broome, Shropshire. This timber-framed, 17th-century barn has planning permission for residential use. It is unconverted so reckon on £100,000 to make it habitable. The receptions will open dramatically up to the rafters and there is room for three bedrooms. It is by a working farm and attached to a converted barn. The hamlet of Broome, in an area of outstanding natural beauty, has a pub and a station. Yours for £152,500.
Samuel Wood, 01588 672728 Photograph: Samuel Wood/Samuel Wood

Take three: homes near ferry ports. You can buy this two-bedder in Plymouth for £499,950. You get an open-plan living area, a kitchen and two bath/shower rooms, but it’s the outside that dazzles. The living area is walled on one side with glass and opens on to a 29ft balcony. From the main bedroom you can shuffle on to the same balcony and gaze gull-like over Plymouth Sound. The city centre and ferry port are a walk away.
Stratton Creber, 01752 660284 Photograph: Stratton Creber/Stratton Creber

Take three: homes near ferry ports. It is almost as quick to pop to France for dinner as to London, since you are only five miles from the Eurostar at Ashford and 13 miles to the Channel tunnel and ferries at Folkestone. For £495,000 you get an elegantly refurbished grade II-listed home with oak flooring downstairs, two receptions, a kitchen, a study, four beds, two bathrooms and a garage. Four new homes have been built closely around it.
Calcutt Maclean Wood, 01233 812060 Photograph: Calcutt Maclean/Calcutt Maclean

Take three: homes near ferry ports. It is rare to get five bedrooms and nearly a quarter of an acre of land for £290,000, but in Ramsey, Essex, that is exactly what is on offer. Inside are two receptions, a kitchen, five beds and three bathrooms, while the double garage has a hobbies room above. It is only a couple of miles from Harwich, from where ferries sail to Holland and Denmark, but is set in pastoral seclusion, despite being in earshot of the A120.
Fenn Wright, 01206 763388 Photograph: Fenn Wright/Fenn Wright