This handsome lodge, full of charm and period features, has been in Rosemary Harma's family for many years, thanks to the Cumberland News.

She explained: "Blackwell Lodge West came into the family in 1972 when my parents were visiting relatives in Carlisle. Lying on the floor beside my father’s chair was the property supplement of the Cumberland News, open at the page showing a picture of the house.

"Apparently, that was all it took! He managed to persuade my mother that they should leave their lovely old cottage in Suffolk and come to live here."

Rosemary thinks that Blackwell Lodge West dates back to the 1830s but was built on the footprint of an older house. Now it is full of Georgian style and original features with a grand entrance hall, dining room and kitchen, galleried landing on the first floor leading to the drawing room, two bedrooms and a bathroom and the accommodation completed with a third bedroom, study and bathroom on the second floor.

The grounds are spacious with a large private driveway, parking area and detached garage to the front while the rear has a secure garden with spacious patio, range of mature trees and shrubs and two sheds.

Rosemary said: "When my parents bought it I understand that little had been done to the house since the 1920s, so extensive renovation work was undertaken.

"This included rewiring and installing central heating, making the second floor into a bedroom, study and bathroom, and making a utility room and boiler room in the semi-basement, as well as redecorating throughout.

"Leslie’s Nurseries at Durdar and Hayes in Ambleside, which was then a relatively small family concern, transformed the garden with shrubs and large trees.

"My mother in particular was a keen gardener and together, my parents set about extending a rose bed and introducing flowering borders. Wherever they lived, they always left behind a beautiful garden. All was complete when I came on my first visit with my first two children in the summer of 1973 and thereafter, we spent many blissful summers at Blackwell."

Rosemary's mother died in 2004 and her daughter Joanna moved into the house with her husband, followed by Rosemary herself and her husband the following year.

"We replaced the bathrooms and kitchen as well as the radiators which had been placed below windows, obscuring the wooden panelling behind them, in good 1970s fashion," Rosemary said.

"We installed a Heatrae Sadia pressure water heater adjacent to the gas boiler in the boiler room which heats the central heating water and insures that both the hot and cold water are under pressure, producing a really efficient shower in both bathrooms. And we redecorated most of the rooms also, as well as doing work on the exterior."

She will be very sad to leave the house which is full of happy memories but now her husband has passed away she will move to Edinburgh where Joanna is living.

"I hope I shall be able to find a place in Edinburgh with something like the peaceful green surroundings I have here," Rosemary said.

"I shall greatly miss sitting around the hall fire of a winter Sunday with good friends and neighbours, before adjourning to the kitchen or dining room for Sunday lunch, or enjoying their company outside on the terrace in summer or in the warm shelter of the conservatory.

"A pleasant aspect of the peaceful position this house holds in the old village of Blackwell is that we are on the edge of the country, while being only two miles from Carlisle city centre. We're on the quiet side of town with, I believe, the easiest access to the town centre and motorway, as well as Penrith and the Lake District."

Blackwell Lodge West, Blackfell, Carlisle, is for sale at £415,000 from H&H King. Find out more here.