A picturesque home on a small private estate close to the sea in Aldwick

Sunny Aldwick is renowned for its expansive private estates, but not all of us may be aware of the private lanes that are also tucked away in this leafy part of the coast, each with their own friendly communities.

6 Coastguards Parade

Barrack Lane

Craigweil-on-Sea

01243 267026

Discreetly situated off Barrack Lane on Cypress Way, immediately opposite the entrance to the Craigweil Estate, John and Judy Fisher’s pretty 1970s bungalow, Strawberry Cottage, is at the far end of one such small private estate of just nine individual houses.

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John said: “The road was first developed in the 1920s and was originally owned by one of the residents.

“When she died and her house came up for sale about five years ago, as a group of residents we decided to buy the road for a pound from the executors.

“It’s now a little private company – all the residents are members, we all have right of access and we just have a meeting once a year to decide what we’re going to do.”

It will be a wrench for the couple to leave Strawberry Cottage.

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Judy, who is the keen gardener of the family, said she loves its exceptionally spacious, south-south east facing garden, which is filled with soft lawns, trees and established beds.

She said: “It gets the light when the sun sets in the evening, so you can have a drink in the last of the sun.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Judy is largely in charge of gardening: “I just get John to climb ladders if I want things chopped off!

“It’s so interesting ... There are little nooks and crannies and walkways between fences.

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“There’s also the wildlife – we get one or two friendly foxes who come and have a sunbathe, plus coloured jays and lots of little tits after the berries, fruit and seeds.

“It’s picturesque year-round – it was beautiful in the snow and in the autumn the light sparkles in the cobwebs.”

Another big plus is that Strawberry Cottage is a level ‘ten-minute trot with the grandchildren down to the beach’.

The sea is so close John and Judy can hear the waves on a rough night, ‘although we’re far enough away to feel safe!’, but they said it is also just a five-minute walk down the road to the hairdresser’s, beauty parlour and a ‘nice shop that sells anything you miss out buying’.

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Judy said: “If you walk out of one of our back gates, you can get through to the number 60 or 600 bus to Chichester in two minutes.

“Or, if you walk 15 minutes, you can get to the library, the GP and the Rose Green shops are another five minutes, with a Co-op, takeaways and a post office.

“When we walk down on Saturday to get the paper, everybody says hello and the road itself has a little community.”

The couple said they thought Strawberry Cottage would suit someone in their fifties down to the ground: “You can put the grandchildren up when they come to stay and the garden is nice and entertaining.

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“There’s plenty to do without being boring – it’s not just a question of taking out weeds!”

An individual detached chalet style bungalow on an extensive plot within a few hundred metres of the shopping parade and a level walk to the beach.

Originally constructed in 1970, it has been updated to provide a homely feel with a feeling of space.

Generous entrance hall, cloakroom, kitchen/breakfast room with walk-in larder/pantry room, utility/laundry room, sitting room open plan to dining room, conservatory, study/home office, master bedroom with large en-suite bath/shower room, further ground floor double bedroom/formal dining room.

First floor landing and bedroom with modern en-suite shower room. Double glazing and a gas heating system via radiators.

Price £750,000