Snooping around: Lock-keepers' homes

Property of the week: Porth, Cornwall. This three-bedder is art deco perfection. The inside has been restored with a curved, metallic, Zephyr-style fireplace, an art deco hearth and cabinets, and black-and-white decor throughout. The kitchen and dining room share a decked terrace for summer banqueting, and all the bedrooms open on to balconies. There are sea views over the village and it is a short descent to a sandy beach. Cost: £750,000.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01872 261160 Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff/Jackson-Stops & Staff

Wreck of the week: Lexham Gardens, London. This two-bedroom flat is unmodernised - as in no bathroom or kitchen, wartime blackout curtains on the windows, a hole in the ceiling and damp. You will need at least £100,000, which includes redoing the layout. It is close to Kensington High Street on a garden square (you get a key to the garden), and is yours for £450,000. But only 51 years remain on the lease, so that’ll be another £50,000 or so to extend it.
Chesterton, 020 7937 7244 Photograph: Chesterton/Chesterton

Take three: lock-keepers’ homes. Poised beside the Rochdale canal in Gauxholme near Todmorden, this four-bedder probably served as a staging post for canal horses. Tasteful renovations include polished wood floors and a new flagstoned kitchen, and it boasts three receptions, a kitchen/dining room, a bathroom and a garage. The large garden has two playhouses. You have to pass through the dining room to reach the fourth bedroom. Yours for £285,000.
Ryburne & Co, 01422 844963 Photograph: Ryburne & Co/Ryburne & Co

Take three: lock-keepers’ homes. The Montgomery canal in Lower Frankton, Shropshire, which runs past the quarter-acre garden of this two-bed cottage, is being restored after decades of disuse. For £345,000 you get a reception, a kitchen, a bathroom and outbuildings. An original cooking range occupies the brick hearth in the living room, while planning permission allows for an extra bedroom and sun room. You could ask to expand into the outbuildings.
Halls, 01691 622602 Photograph: Halls/Halls

Take three: lock-keepers’ homes. Although it is just miles from the A10 and mainline services to London, you can imagine yourself in the wilderness with this cottage in Great Amwell, near Ware, Hertfordshire. Accessed only down a lonely, unmade track, it occupies an island adjoining a nature reserve. Inside are two receptions, a kitchen/breakfast room, four beds and two bath/shower rooms. There’s also a garage. It is yours for £799,950.
Ensum Brown, 01920 412200 Photograph: Ensum Brown/Ensum Brown