Trading up, trading down – in pictures

Trading up: Somerset. The church tower peeks over the garden wall of this four-bed, double-fronted house in Martock. The handsome hamstone is a running theme outside and inside: it garnishes the fireplaces and is exposed along one wall in two of the three receptions. The kitchen is 23ft of Shaker-style units with a pantry. Sadly, you have to share your driveway, but a garage is a consolation at the end of it. Cost: £430,000.
Palmersnell.co.uk, 01935 825825
Photograph: Palmersnell.co.uk

Trading up: Gloucestershire. The local delivery service in the village of Chalford relies on donkey power, and the spread of former milling and weaving cottages are of a pedigree as ancient and appealing as this £565,000 18th-century house. It overlooks the wooded slopes across the valley and the views inside are as fetching as those from the ancient walled garden. There is a dramatic oak-framed atrium to house the dining table off the kitchen, and fireplace, beams, window seats and flagstones distributed among the three receptions and four bedrooms.
Jackson-stops.co.uk, 01285 653334 Photograph: Jackson-stops.co.uk

Trading down: London. Compact living doesn’t have to mean wafts of other people’s chop suey down the communal hallway. This doll-sized house is proportioned like a flat and, at £250,000, priced pretty much like a flat, but it has its own front garden leading to its own front door, and that essential boon untasted by flat owners, an understairs cupboard. The kitchen and bathroom are new and the reception and one bedroom done up in elegant neutrals. It’s in a cul-de-sac off the handsome Georgiana of Camberwell Grove, close to Denmark Hill zone 2 station.
Woosterstock.co.uk, 020 7708 6700 Photograph: Woosterstock.co.uk

Trading down: Bath. Ten minutes walk from the city centre is this Victorian boys’ school, now divided into apartments. Behind the Grade II-listed walls is chic modern living, so modern that the bathtub stands in the middle of the second bedroom. The loo, mercifully, is a more private affair in the next-door shower room. It has its own front door off a communal courtyard and a large beamed and vaulted living room. A parking space and private courtyard garden come with it. On the market for £330,000.
Knightfrank.co.uk, 01225 325 999
Photograph: Knightfrank.co.uk

Bargain of the week: Lincolnshire. It started out on the market at £499,950, now this four-bed ex-vicarage in Alford is hoping to tempt speedy buyers with offers in excess of £400,000. Stately fireplaces, stone mullioned windows and high ceilings were added by the Victorian builders, while the current vendors have polished the floorboards in the two enormous reception rooms, study and master bedroom. Lapsed planning permission allows for an extension into the large gardens.
Savills.co.uk, 01522 508908 Photograph: Savills.co.uk