Forty years ago Thurstonfield was a village with just 60 or so homes where everyone knew their neighbour. Now there are nearly three times as many houses but the neighbours are just as friendly and are one of the reasons that Lorna Hillmann will miss the place when she moves.

She and her husband Mark are selling up to be nearer their children. "We've lived here for 40 years and brought our three boys up but they're all in the South now," Lorna said. "We’re aiming to move nearer to them because they’re beginning to produce grandchildren."

The Hillmanns' home, Meadow View, is in the older part of Thurstonfield and is a delightful cottage with early origins. Some of its walls are constructed with clay dabbing which fell out of favour in the 1850s and the rest of it was rebuilt in the late-Victorian period.

It has a host of period features including beamed ceilings, dormer windows, pinewood woodwork and balustrade and an original Victorian fireplace.

There are two reception rooms, a separate dining area, kitchen and downstairs cloakroom with four bedrooms and a family bathroom upstairs.

Lorna said: "We were attracted to Thurstonfield because it has friendly neighbours. It has changed over the years, the number of houses has increased a lot so we don’t know everybody which we did when we first came because there was only about 60 houses then. It’s doubled if not trebled in size.

"The house is very old, the middle bit is clay dabbing walls. The sort of two-up, two-down element was put on about 1896 by a stonemason from Kirkbampton whose son was still living in the village when we came. He was in his 80s then so we got the history of the house from him.

"We’ve put on an extension of a garage with a bedroom above it in 1986 so it’s changed over the years.

"We don’t know what the original house was like. We’ve looked on tithe maps and things like that and it looks like it could have been a cottage or a barn but there are only two walls left that are clay dabbing and the rest of it is 100 years old."

She said that one of the bedrooms has a small room off it which could be made into a separate room with the addition of a wall, or alternatively become an en-suite to the adjoining bedroom. It sits above the kitchen so all the plumbing is in place.

Lorna and Mark, who worked as a senior library assistant and civil engineer respectively, have made quite a few improvements to Meadow View over the years.

"We’ve put central heating in, double glazing everywhere and rewired," said Lorna. "We put in a new bathroom upstairs a couple of years ago so it’s very modern, and a new porch on the front for coming into the house and a car port.

"We still have one original fireplace in the sitting/dining room. The main living room we use has a modern multi-fuel stove - putting in this logburner is the latest thing we’ve done."

The gardens surrounding the cottage are stunning, all thanks to Lorna's eye for design and Mark's grass-cutting abilities. They have fruit and ornamental trees, shrubs and bushes, a water feature and raised vegetable beds.

The couple enjoy them from their new favourite room which is a garden room built a few years ago with stove and double patio doors to a terrace.

"It’s got to the stage where we’re partly moving because we want to be near our children but we’re partly moving because the garden has become too much hard work for me," said Lorna.

"We’re downsizing dramatically. I’ll miss the neighbours and I’ll miss the house in a way but it’s a family house and there’s only two of us rattling around in it."

Meadow View, Thurstonfield, is for sale at £337,500 from Hopes Estate Agents, tel. 016973 43641.