This is a lovely home for sale with a building plot and barn with planning permission for residential conversion.

The main house has been in Joan Dixon and Mary Murray's family for many years but the sisters are now selling, after their plan to keeping it as a holiday home fell victim to ill health.

"Joan and I were born here and have many happy childhood memories of the house, garden and surrounding countryside," Mary said. "We were real country children and knew where all the wild flowers grew and the birds were nesting and son on.

"The house was built in 1881 with a blacksmith’s shop where the garage is now, where the horses were shoed and wheels and other things were made."

The house has been in their family since 1936 when their parents John and Betty Bowman married and moved in. John ran a haulage business from the premises.

"His main task was to take the farmer’s animals to and from the auction mart and he also transported sheep all over the country from the lamb sales held in Scotland," Joan recalled.

"Our mother Betty had the village shop in what is now the dining room and a poultry business; she reared her hens from day-old chicks until they were ready to lay.

"They also kept a pig and a couple of goats when Mary and I were young so they both had very busy lives."

John died in 1958 aged 52 and Betty continued the haulage business after her younger brother Ernie joined her in partnership. Eventually they retired and Betty carried on living at Holly House until 1996 when she died.

Joan and Mary decided to keep the house and refurbish it with a view to making it a holiday home, but due to ill health that didn’t happen so they have now comprehenively renovated it.

It has been rewired, damp-proofed, replastered downstairs and reskimmed upstairs. The old floors downstairs were removed and they are now insulated and concreted. New ceilings with coving were also installed.

"The tiled fireplaces and Parkray were replaced by a stove in the dining room and a tiled fireplace with wooden surround in the lounge, both run on LPG," Mary added.

"A cast-iron fireplace in a bedroom was removed and installed in the sitting room and we have put in oil-fired central heating."

The traditional double-fronted house now has three reception rooms, kitchen, porch at the back of the house, landing with traditional arched window to the side, study and four-piece bathroom.

Joan says that the gardens of Holly House is a real sun trap: "It is a pleasure to be in with lawns, mature flower beds, shillied paths and a shrubbery area.

"And when you travel down into Gaitsgill, you enter an oasis of quiet and peace, plus it is often two or three degrees warmer than in Carlisle.

"The house is at the end of the village, with the back looking up the village and the front of the house facing south over the garden and the paddock which stretches down to the River Roe."

The building plot for sale in the orchard has planning permission for a four-bedroom house and garage, while the barn has approval for a two-bedroom cottage. There is also the possibility purchasing a paddock of almost an acre.

Joan and Mary are sad to sell the property as it has always been part of their lives and holds many happy memories.

"But we feel it is now time to let someone else enjoy it as a family home and we hope that they get as much pleasure from it as we have," they said. "We will still have have our memories!"

Holly House, Gaitsgill, near Dalston, is for sale at £325,000 from PFK Estate Agents. Find out more here .