WITH glorious views of the South Tyne Valley and northwards to Scotland, and on the line of Hadrian’s Wall, Deneside East has been the happy home of Sue and Alastair Lisham for the past 16 years.

But they nearly didn’t buy it, as Sue explained.

“We’d had the details for quite a while, but because we’ve always had cats, and this place is quite close to the Military Road, we didn’t think it was a goer.

“However, as soon as we came to see it, we were just bowled over by it; it ticked all the boxes. It had all the right living space, so much light, so much sunshine and then, of course, the land as well, which we’ve learned how to manage.”

Deneside East is at Wallhouses and is a large house with spacious rooms, a big garden and an extra five acres of land and stables which is currently rented out.

The couple relocated there from Jesmond, Newcastle, where Sue was head of modern languages at Central High School and Alastair operated a group of self-service restaurants.

Deneside East was a cottage 100 years ago and extended into a two-storey home 30 years ago, when big windows were added to make the most of the views.

Now its striking entrance is a barrel-vaulted garden room leading into a large reception hall and on to the lounge, sitting room, breakfasting kitchen and two ground-floor bedrooms, one of which has an en-suite bathroom and fitted furniture. Upstairs are another two large en-suite bedrooms with fitted wardrobes.

Since moving in, the Lishmans have redesigned and refitted the kitchen, reconfigured the bathroom and, within the last year, have had new double glazing throughout, as well as Velux windows in the roof.

Alastair said: “My favourite room is the lounge which was one of the rooms that sold the house to us. It has two big windows which let lots of light in, which we really like. We look out over fields and it’s just the panorama that you get, the big skies facing east and south through the French windows, masses of sunshine; we feel part of the countryside.”

Sue added: “I like that room too and I love the dining room as well because it has big windows facing east and north, so you can sit in here in the morning and get the sunshine, it’s very pleasant.”

The couple have completely redesigned the front garden, which has been landscaped with a rose garden and herbaceous border.

“Hadrian’s Wall Trail runs through the front garden which doesn’t bother us at all,” said Sue. “You couldn’t have a nicer form of tourism and we can be sitting in the garden listening to French, Italian, German, Spanish.

“When we were first looking at the house, it was actually like a treasure trove. You came in through the front door into the barrel-vaulted sun lounge, then the lounge, then the dining room, then the kitchen, just like a treasure trove, finding one room after another.

“I would imagine that that would be a real selling point for anyone coming to look at the house.

“If you like space, the rooms are all a very good size and the house is substantially built with a lot of history. We’re downsizing as it’s quite a big property and most of the time it’s just the two of us.”

Alastair said: “When we were talking about it the other day, Sue said that she has spent the best 16 years of her life here. We’ll be very sad to go, but we can’t stop the ageing process, so we’re hoping to move to perhaps Corbridge or Hexham.

“We have good neighbours and we all look out for each other. There’s the Robin Hood pub 300 yards away and Vallum Farm across the road. There’s plenty going on.”

Deneside East, Military Road, Wallhouses, is for sale at £495,000 from Red Hot Property, tel. (01434) 601800.