FORMER village manor Aston House is testament to the changing fashions of architecture, with Jacobean origins hidden behind a Georgian brick facade.

Aston Manor House, as it was once known, is in the village of Aston, near Bampton. Grade II-listed, its period features include sash windows with window seats and shutters, cornicing and exposed beams.

Owner Annie Johnson, who is selling after bringing up her four children there during the last 21 years, said: “There is a very special atmosphere in this house, and everyone who knows it falls in love with it.

“It has a wonderfully historic feel about it, but more than anything it’s a very happy house. It has a soul.”

It fell into disrepair in 1744 and was sold for £42 and five shillings. Four decades later, the new owners added the frontage, a fireplace in the drawing room and wooden panelling in many rooms.

An even later addition was the Kent Tower, built in the late 19th century during the time of William Morris’s Arts and Crafts movement.

The tower, at the back of the house, has unusual bow windows and doors and includes a dining room and master bedroom with picture windows and views over the garden.

Ms Johnson, who plans to move to Oxford to be nearer her daughter’s school, said: “One thing that puzzles me — I would love to know how old the wisteria on the front of the house is. The trunk is so thick I can’t even put my arms around it. I suspect it may have been planted at the time the new facade was added.”

She added. “I love the way that it works so well as a family home, as a place for entertaining and simply as a place to be.

“The kitchen overlooks the garden so you can keep an eye on the children, and our drawing room makes a nice setting for social gatherings. But most of all, it is a wonderfully comfortable house to live in.”

The drawing room and sitting room have original open fireplaces. The kitchen/dining room includes an Aga, wooden kitchen units and stripped wood floor. There is a separate utility room with a Belfast sink and a downstairs cloakroom.

The five bedrooms are spread over two upper floors, including one with an en-suite shower room. There are also two family bathrooms.

The walled gardens include an outdoor heated swimming pool, terrace, large lawn and three timber sheds. A barn beside the house has been converted into a self-contained annexe with exposed ceiling beams and stone walls and includes a sitting room, kitchen, galleried bedroom and shower room.

Aston House is on the market for £825,000. For more information, or to arrange a viewing, contact Carter Jonas on 01865 511444 or visit carterjonas.co.uk.