Three properties on the market in the village of Aberford

In fact, it dates from at least Iron Age times, and its name, according to its Conservation Area management plan, means “Eadburg’s ford”; the village lies at the confluence of Cock Beck with the much smaller River Crow.

As the midway point on the Great North Road between London and Edinburgh, it developed the typically linear format of the rest-stop village.

Nowadays, the A1(M) running parallel with its Main Street makes Aberford a good place for commuters. The M1 is just a mile down the road, and Leeds is a twenty-minute drive away. Wetherby and Tadcaster both take just 15 minutes and there are good bus links.

Many of Aberford’s original limestone houses still stand, and have been added to over the last 40 years, further elongating the village.

The nearby estates of Lotherton Hall, Parlington Hall and Becca Hall had a big impact on the village’s development, and while Parlington is nowadays little more than a memory, Becca Hall is still a family home and Lotherton, with its grand house, rare bird collection and deer park, is open to the public.

Aberford still has its village shop, village hall and church, and the small but well-supported Aberford C of E Primary School (Good, Ofsted 2018) is partly housed in the village’s tithe barn, which dates from 1716.

Until relatively recently there were three pubs in the village – welcome reminders of the village’s coaching days – but now there’s just one, the Arabian Horse.

Just outside the village, Hulen is a stone-built semi-detached period house with three bedrooms, a bathroom, hall, kitchen and three reception rooms. One of these, the sitting room, has a huge, open-sided fireplace with large metal hood and heat-exchanger, and there are also solar panels on the roof. Outside, there are gardens to three sides, a large vegetable plot, a garage with off-street parking, summerhouse, large greenhouse, stone outbuilding with gardener's toilet and log store.

On the northern edge of Aberford, 12 Haverthwaites Drive is a detached bungalow with three bedrooms, a shower room, kitchen and large, open-plan lounge and dining area. There are solar panels on the south-facing roof, plus front and back gardens, greenhouse, shed and single garage.

Finally, near the centre of the village, 22 Abbotts Close is an extended semi-detached house overlooking open countryside. It has four bedrooms, one of them on the ground floor, access to a part-boarded loft, a bathroom, hall, kitchen, two reception rooms and a home office extension. Outside, there are gardens with seating area, workshop/shed and off-street parking.