Greenwood House, at Kirkland near Wigton, is a late-Georgian house listed built around 1825 as the dowager house to the now demolished mansion of Crofton Hall. As soon as NHS worker Sharon and Gareth, associate director for Grant Thornton, saw it, they knew it was their perfect home.

Sharon said: "I knew the Penrith and Lowther area because my family had a holiday home there but Wigton was new to me and Gareth didn't know it either as he is from Northern Ireland. But we both loved Cumbria and spent about two years looking for a house here.

"When we saw Greenwood House we thought,' That's the one'. There’s a feel about the house when you’re in it. It’s really spacious and very welcoming and has a homely feel.

"It has some really lovely features. My husband fell in love with it because of the fabulous fireplaces – his family background is antique restoration, fireplace restoration, that kind of thing.

"He always says that the fireplace in the front room sold the house to him. It’s stone and really unusual. The estate agent said he had been in many houses and he hadn’t seen a fireplace like it."

Gareth added: "What attracted us to the property was it classical Georgian facade ‎with portico entrance. ‎Then there are the stags that adorn the front entrance which form part of the actual Grade II listing of Greenwood House.

"Some say that the children in Wigton think Santa Claus lives here sometimes because of the reindeer at the gates. Might be true ‎but I hope it is not a case of mistaken identify as I have the grey hair and belly but need to work on the beard!

"The house has retained many of its period features including parquet floors, fireplaces and ornate cornices and soffits.

"All of the censuses through the 18 and 19th centuries give ‎an interesting insight into the residents of Greenwood who have mainly held senior downstairs roles at Crofton Hall, including head coachman and head housekeeper personnel.

"Sir Melvyn Bragg ‎used to enjoy coming out to Greenwood House as a child to play in the grounds as his mother helped out around the house."

The property has four reception rooms, five bedrooms and two bathrooms in the main house, as well as an adjoining three-bedroom cottage and separate barn that could be converted. The large grounds, of about one and a half acres, include orchards, paddock, bordered lawn, garage and additional parking.

The kitchen and dining room area was reconfigured by the Kellys: "We fitted a new kitchen and utility area and other than that we haven’t had to do a lot to the house, we moved straight in. It has been well looked after," said Sharon.

"My favourite room is the front sitting room with the fireplace, it's really nice and calming overlooking the garden. One of the unusual things about the period features is that we’ve been told the cornicing on the ceiling was done by the Venetian craftsmen who did Crofton Hall."

Gareth said: "It has been a fantastic family home for us over the past 10 years. Stef and Jared have loved it as an endless playground.

"The orchards date back to the 1850s and more recently have allowed us to live a bit of the good life and for a while we trade our apple crop for cider‎!

"You never own a property like this, we are all merely custodians doing our bit to preserve and enhance it ‎for the next generation to hopefully do the same."