Period features preserved in old Victorian rectory

The Glebe House, in Halverstown, Kilcull en, Co Kildare, is a two-storey over basement house with four reception rooms, five/six bedrooms and grounds extending to seven acres. Located close to the main Dublin road, and 32 miles from the city, the house is set at the end of a tree-lined avenue, with stables and outbuildings to the rear.

It is for sale by private treaty through Andrew J. Nolan Auctioneers, which is seeking £850,000.

Built around 1850 for the local Church of Ireland clergyman, the original house was square and stone built but additions around the turn of the century mean that today's house is about one-third bigger than the original.

Thoughtful refurbishment by the present owner over the past 12 years has preserved its Victorian character, while giving it modern amenities and it is now in walk-in condition. All of the internal doors are original, as is much of the decorative plasterwork, although the windows are modern PVC throughout. The good-size entrance porch has a black and white ceramic tiled floor and has been re-roofed and given a pine ceiling.

A granite step leads to a double hall door, which opens into an entrance hallway where the first of Glebe House's high ceilings is apparent.

A door immediately to the right leads to the sittingroom, while, through an arch and to the rear, another two doors open to a library and diningroom. The sittingroom has two long windows to the side and front, as well as the original, carefully restored, cast-iron fireplace and a picture rail.

At the end of the hallway a long, bright room divided by an arch makes an elegant diningroom-cum-livingroom. With windows on to the gardens, it has a fireplace with marble surround and cast-iron inset. The room leads to a small family room, which connects with the library, taking one full circle back to the hall. The first of the bedrooms is on a lower landing, and has a couple of steps leading down to it. It has French doors that lead out to the garden. The walls are partly wood-panelled, there are built-in wardrobes and a window on to the rear courtyard. It has an en suite shower room. Upstairs, on the first floor, all of the bedrooms face the front of the house and all have been prettily decorated. The first of these is now in use as an office and has built-in presses, a long window and two doors through to the next bedroom.

There are two further bedrooms, one of which is at the end of a corridor and has a bathroom next door. At basement level there is a kitchen, a fifth bedroom and a myriad of passage ways and rooms which could be put to a number of uses. The kitchen has pine fittings and a four-door Aga cooker.

French doors lead to a curved, sunken patio with brick wall surround and quarry tiles under-foot.

Back inside, doors from the kitchen lead to a pantry, and to a rear passage off which there is the self-contained sixth bedroom and lavatory next door. A door in the passageway leads out to the rear of the house where there is a courtyard, two stables, double garage, a barnlike storage area and two paddocks.