Hill View is in the heart of the conservation area but is not itself listed so a new owner could easily put their own stamp on the spacious home.

That's what current occupant Kath Carruthers did when she moved in 18 years ago with husband Brian. She remembers that buying the house, in Market Hill, was an easy decision to make.

""We just walked into the kitchen and that was it, it was sold to us. We didn’t even look upstairs. I just said, ‘Yes, this is it’. I think it was just because it’s a lovely kitchen, it’s a huge space."

Hill View dates from the very start of the Georgian era - 1714 - and was built as Wigton Free Grammar School. It was probably reconfigured as a residential property in the early Victorian age.

It is also next door to the Black-a-Moor pub where writer and TV presenter Melvyn Bragg was brought up.

Kath's home is full of period features such as plastered beams, picture rails, old fireplaces and exposed floorboards in many of the rooms, which she and Brian stripped and polished themselves, lifting the floor coverings that were there when they moved in.

"There’s a lot of history around the house," she said. "We’ve still got the old range in the kitchen and it does work although we haven’t used it for many years.

"The bread oven is there too. We were never tempted to take it out, it has to stay with the house, it complements it completely."

Something else that won't be moving with her is the kitchen table which is a real piece of Wigton history.

Kath said: "It was a tailor’s table from the original Redmayne’s factory in Wigton, the tailors which set up in 1868 and are now in Savile Row. I don’t know when they actually shut down but this was the cutting table.

"It has to stay with the house because it won’t fit anywhere else. I’ve had 14 people sitting around it when we’ve done Christmas dinner, albeit at a push, but you can definitely get 10 people sitting quite comfortably around that table."

The dining kitchen is one of the three large downstairs rooms in Hill View, alongside the living room and drawing room which both have ornate cast-iron fireplaces with basket grates. There's also a utility room and front sun porch which is Kath's favourite space, where she loves sitting with the dog.

She said: "There are three big bedrooms and the bathroom upstairs. It’s a long house and doesn’t really go back but all the rooms are really big."

During their time in Hill View, Kath and Brian have transformed the interior, installing a new bathroom - consisting of a fine Victorian suite with double-ended bath with claw and ball feet - new kitchen and new windows.

They also enlarged the back garden with land purchased from the house next door.

Kath said: "We’ve now got a huge garden at the back. You don’t realise there is a garden as such and people are often quite overwhelmed when they come in and see the size of the garden, they don’t expect that much space.

"There are great views. We have a decking area where you can sit looking over the hills and a shillied area. It’s low maintenance now with views. It’s south-facing and is a great area for entertaining."

Sadly Brian passed away two years ago and Kath now shares her home with their only son Robert, 18.

She said: "It's a great house and just needs another family to put life back into it. It’s time for us to move on and another family to make their memories in here now."

Hill View, Market Hill, Wigton, is for sale at £235,000 from Hopes Estate Agents, tel. 016973 43641. More details here