Trading up, trading down

Trading up: Somerset. Back in the 17th century clergy could hope for earthly as well as celestial glory, and this is a legacy from those happy days. Now, of course, you’d need to be a banker to afford £625,000, although it is actually a bargain. Were it not for a "vintage" interior it could fetch more than £700,000. But you can rejoice in two handsome receptions, a study, a large kitchen and four bedrooms in the fetching town of Castle Cary.
Palmer Snell, 01963 351373 www.palmersnell.co.uk
Photograph: Palmer Snell

Trading up: County Durham. Three receptions and seven bedrooms should absorb your expanding circumstances (one of the bedrooms and a living room are separated into a self-contained annexe). The house, near Frosterley, is down a private lane with a wide, wild view over moorland and has its own large swathe of land. There is a heated splash pool for those elusive barbecue summers and the conservatory has a hot tub. Yours for £490,000.
George F. White, 01833 690390 www.georgefwhite.co.uk
Photograph: George F. White

Trading down: Kent. If you can shrink your household into a reception and two bedrooms you will fare very prettily in this £249,000 cottage in the village of Chipstead, near Sevenoaks. The bespoke kitchen is roomy enough to eat in, and an annexe across the courtyard is used as a study-cum-utility room, which includes a mezzanine area up a ladder to stow your less fastidious guests. A wood burning stove in the living room is housed in a handsome brick fireplace.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01732 740600 www.jackson-stops.co.uk
Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff

Trading down: Devon. Buried in Exeter’s post-war overspill is this £285,000 remnant of more rural days. Inside, the stylishly updated metropolitan life fades from memory – there are leaded, shuttered windows, fireplaces and a Shaker-style kitchen. The receptions are startlingly large, both bedrooms are doubles, and there is a miniature study. A car port lodges your transport, although it is an unchallenging riverside walk to the city and the mainline station.
Bradleys, 01392 270720 www.bradleys-estate-agents.co.uk
Photograph: Bradleys

Dream home: Cumbria. This was actually built as a coach house at the turn of the last century and served the nearby manor, which is now divided into flats. The glory of it is Windermere, which you can see through the windows, and you get to share lake frontage and a jetty with the manor residents. The three bedrooms all have en suites, and the master chamber has a dramatic round window and vaulted ceiling. A stone fireplace and archway into the conservatory ornament the living room. Windermere village is less than a mile along the shore. Cost: £550,000.
Hackney & Leigh, 015394 44461 www.hackney-leigh.co.uk
Photograph: Hackney & Leigh