Autumn viewing calendar is open — weekday evenings and Saturday mornings. Request a slot
Dawn Roam Marin Ashcombe · Estate Agent
Menu
Book a viewing
Early morning light across the brick front and bay windows of a detached family house

Wrenfield · Cassel Quay · Harrow Downs

Houses shown properly, at the hour they look their best.

Dawn Roam is a one-person practice. Marin Ashcombe values, photographs, lists and accompanies every viewing herself, so the person who answers your question is the person who walked the house.

See current listings Arrange a valuation
Coverage
Three neighbourhoods, walked weekly, nothing taken on outside them.
Viewings
Always accompanied, booked in 45-minute slots, never doubled up.
Currently
Three homes on the market and two coming in November.

On the market

Current listings

Every entry below has been measured, photographed and surveyed on foot. Where something needs work, it says so here rather than in the second viewing.

Red brick Victorian terraced house with a white front door and low garden wall
Wrenfield

Four-bedroom Victorian terrace, south-facing garden

Guide £615,000

A wide-fronted terrace with the original hallway tiles intact and a rear extension added in the last decade. The loft room is comfortable but has a restricted head height at the eaves — worth seeing before you plan a fourth bedroom around it.

Specification for the Wrenfield terrace
Bedrooms4 (three doubles, one loft room)
Bathrooms1 family bathroom, 1 ground-floor shower room
TenureFreehold
HeatingGas combi, boiler replaced two winters ago
OutsideSouth-facing garden, rear gate to service lane
ChainOwners have found onward, flexible on timing
Book this viewing
Bright living room with a linen sofa, timber floor and tall windows facing the water
Cassel Quay

Two-bedroom warehouse conversion, third floor

Guide £398,000

Open plan with the original cast columns left exposed and a lift to every floor. The service charge covers the roof fund and the riverside walkway, which is why it sits higher than the block across the basin — the budget is published and I will send it with the particulars.

Specification for the Cassel Quay apartment
Bedrooms2 (one with fitted storage wall)
Bathrooms1 bathroom, 1 en-suite shower
TenureLeasehold, long lease, share of freehold company
ParkingOne allocated bay in the undercroft
OutsideJuliet balcony facing the basin
ChainVacant, available on completion
Book this viewing
Detached cottage with a pitched roof and mature planting along the front path
Harrow Downs

Three-bedroom stone cottage with paddock frontage

Guide £529,000

Solid walls, deep sills and a wood burner that genuinely heats the ground floor. There is no mains gas on this lane — heating is oil with a tank in the side store, and I would budget for secondary glazing on the north elevation in the first year.

Specification for the Harrow Downs cottage
Bedrooms3 (two doubles, one single or study)
Bathrooms1 bathroom with separate WC
TenureFreehold
HeatingOil-fired, wood burner in the sitting room
OutsideFront paddock, stone store, parking for two
ChainProbate sale, no onward chain
Book this viewing

Field notes

What the three areas are actually like

Written from walking them, not from a brochure. If an area is wrong for you, it is cheaper to find out on this page.

Wrenfield

Late Victorian terraces on a grid of narrow streets, with a working high street at the north end and a park that absorbs most of the weekend traffic.

  • Stock is consistent — most differences are extension quality, not footprint.
  • Permit parking on every street; one permit per household.
  • Check for previous cellar tanking before you plan a basement room.
  • Corner plots carry side returns and price accordingly.

Cassel Quay

Converted warehousing and newer infill around a working basin. Flats dominate; houses here are rare and usually sell before a portal listing goes live.

  • Read the service charge and the reserve fund before the price.
  • Lift access varies block to block — several conversions have none.
  • Evening noise is concentrated on the west side of the basin.
  • Ask about cyclical external decoration years; they arrive in clusters.

Harrow Downs

Scattered stone cottages and a handful of post-war houses along two lanes. Quiet, dark at night, and dependent on the car for anything beyond the village shop.

  • Mostly off mains gas — expect oil, LPG or a heat pump retrofit.
  • Broadband varies sharply by lane; check the specific address.
  • Septic drainage is common and needs a compliance check.
  • Boundaries are often hedge lines; get the plan checked early.

Selling with Dawn Roam

How a sale runs

Five stages, one person across all of them. You will have my direct line from the valuation onwards.

  1. 01

    Valuation visit

    An hour at the house, room by room, followed by a written figure with the comparable sales it rests on.

  2. 02

    Preparation

    Photography booked for the light the house actually gets, floor plan measured on site, particulars drafted for your approval.

  3. 03

    Launch

    A quiet week to my registered buyers first, then open listing if it has not found its buyer.

  4. 04

    Offers

    Every offer put to you in writing with the buyer's position, funding and chain length checked before you decide.

  5. 05

    To completion

    Weekly progress calls, solicitor chasing, and a single point of contact through survey, enquiries and exchange.

House keys resting on signed paperwork at a kitchen table

Plainly put

What the fee covers

One percentage, agreed in writing before instruction, payable on completion. No listing fee, no withdrawal fee, no charge for anything on this list.

  • Professional photography, floor plan and written particulars
  • Every viewing accompanied in person, including evenings and Saturdays
  • Buyer position and funding checks before any offer reaches you
  • Sales progression through to completion, including chain chasing
  • Board, portal listing and re-shoot if the season changes the house

Before you get in touch

Questions worth asking

What is a valuation actually based on?

Completed sales of comparable houses in the same streets over the preceding months, adjusted for condition, plot, aspect and any planning already in place. Asking prices of unsold competition are context, not evidence. You get the comparables in writing so you can argue with the figure.

Do you take sole agency instructions only?

Yes, on an eight-week initial term with two weeks' notice after that. A one-person practice cannot justify its fee competing with two other boards on the same house, and the quiet launch week only works if the buyer list is genuinely mine.

Who conducts the viewings?

I do, every time. Slots run 45 minutes so there is space for a second circuit and for questions in the kitchen afterwards. If you would rather be out of the house, leave a key — most sellers do.

How do you handle a long chain?

I map it at the point of offer: who is buying what, which solicitors are instructed, which mortgage offers have dates on them. Then a weekly call to every link. Most chains fail from silence rather than from a real problem, and the map makes the silence visible early.

Can a house be sold off-market?

Yes, and in Cassel Quay it often is. The trade-off is reach: a quiet sale protects your privacy but tests the price against a smaller pool. I will tell you honestly whether the register is deep enough in your bracket before you choose that route.

Do you handle lettings or property management?

No. Sales only. If you need a letting agent or a managing agent I will point you to people who do that work properly, but I will not take a referral fee for it.

Get in touch

Book a viewing or a valuation

Tell me what you are trying to do and which area you are looking at. I reply to every enquiry myself, usually the same working day, and I will say so plainly if I am not the right agent for it.

Your details are used to answer this enquiry and nothing else.