South Wales Escape to the Country

and they have been immortalised by some of the nation's greatest artists, such as JMW Turner.

Where are we? Stick around and I'll show you.

'In today's show I'll be trying to help a couple realise their country dream.

'But expectations are high...'

It does feel nice, doesn't it?

It does, and obviously it depends how the rest of the house fits in with it.

-Yeah.

-But yeah, still open-minded.

'..so I take a risk with the mystery house.

'But it could go down the pan.'

I mean that's the - we'll call it an en suite, loosely.

-It doesn't have a loo, fortunately.

-Just as well.

Well, today we are in South Wales,

and these are the spectacular Aberdulais Falls.

Their potential for generating energy was realised back in 1584,

when they became the driving force behind the growing copper industry here in the valleys.

What's more, there's been a water wheel on this site for centuries.

It's thought this is the largest electricity-producing water wheel anywhere in Europe.

It's easy to see why the natural beauty of South Wales inspired poets such as William Wordsworth.

Stretching along the coastline there are Riviera-style beaches,

but head inland and you'll discover valleys that give way to dramatic mountain ranges.

Once dominated by rural landscapes,

the region dramatically changed during the Industrial Revolution,

when it was exploited for its coal and iron reserves.

But despite this, many areas remain untouched,

and are as beautiful today as they were in Wordsworth's time.

Today's property hunters are looking for a complete change of scene.

Diana's lived in this three-bedroom Victorian terrace in Teddington, Middlesex, for over ten years,

and Charles moved in with her 14 months ago.

But where Diana's a townie through and through,

the same can't be said of her other half.

I only intended to come to the city for a brief adventure, two years perhaps.

30 years later, here I am, I'm still here.

The move is certainly overdue,

so having found his princess,

Charles is keen to whisk her back to his kingdom.

I was born in South Wales, near a lovely little town called Porthcawl.

I still have relatives there.

My mum and sisters are there. It's a beautiful area.

I have lots of family there.

Funnily enough, I have a connection to Wales anyway.

My mother and father actually met in Wales.

They were evacuated there in the wartime.

I still have letters from my mother to my father

that she wrote in 1943, '44,

all this I've rediscovered since meeting Charles.

-It has brought it together, hasn't it?

-It has.

Charles recently retired from the police force, and is already indulging in his hobbies.

Plus Diana plans to leave her career in marketing when they up sticks.

But it's not just the quiet life they crave.

Moving to the country is going to change our lives.

I can see us gardening two or three days a week, surfing, golfing,

so I think we'll be busy in a different way.

So the potential to surf and play golf is on the list,

but there are plenty more requirements to get their house-hunting hearts racing.

We've talked about our dream home a lot.

We want it to be a period property, lots of traditional features.

A big kitchen-diner.

I'd like a walk-in pantry,

to fill it up with homemade preserves and lemon curd.

A utility area, so we can wash our dog, Henry, so he stops getting mud everywhere.

Outbuildings, with the potential of holiday lets

to have a small income stream coming in.

And land. Minimum one acre, probably two.

We'd never consider buying a property on a main road.

All that noise. Just no, no, no.

So they'd rather not have close neighbours,

but want to be near Charles's family

in his home town of Porthcawl.

It's big ask,

and whether it's achievable depends on how many pennies they have in their pockets.

Our budget for the move is £450,000.

However, if we find the potential for holiday lets, we could go up to £500,000.

Well, Charles and Diana's move has, it seems to me,

got less to do with relaxing and taking it easy, as it has with

filling time with their hobbies, and embracing an outdoor lifestyle.

Now, their £450,000 isn't bad, but they are prepared to go to 500,000,

if we can find them a holiday let as well.

That will certainly keep them busy.

Charles and Diana want their dream property to be within

an hour's drive of his family in Porthcawl.

But to deliver on the other things on their wish list,

we're going to have do a bit of border hopping into the county of Carmarthenshire.

Over the next couple of days, we'll show them three fantastic houses.

But before I reveal how much they cost,

they'll need to guess the price.

And then there's our mystery house,

ready to challenge what they think they want from their new home.

Well, guys, welcome back to Wales.

Now relatively speaking, you've only just met,

about 18 months, two years ago, but from the get-go,

you've decided that you want a place in the country.

How did that conversation come about?

On one of our first dates Charles was saying he wanted to go back to Wales.

I thought, well, to be fair, I always wanted to go somewhere like the Lake District,

or somewhere more...just open and away from the towns.

So when he talked about Wales, I thought, yeah, that counts as countryside.

Well, there's a lot of it here!

Give us a sense about the house.

How important is the property over location?

It is very important.

I think we've described the house in detail,

about what it would be like and what it wouldn't be like.

So we have said the house and garden probably trumps over location,

depending on when you go and see it.

So if you walk up and fall in love with it, that will do it.

Yeah. I think we've said, we'll know it when we see it.

We've got three fantastic properties for you to look at.

-The weather couldn't be better. Let's get cracking.

-Brilliant.

Charles and Diana's budget is flexible.

£450,000 is the minimum, but there's the potential to go up to £500,000

if we can find them a property with a holiday let as well.

Neighbours are a no-no, but they want a house with character,

that has a big kitchen and some land to play with.

Location-wise, Charles' home town of Porthcawl is all-important,

and they want to be within an hour's drive.

We're starting our journey just 20 minutes from Porthcawl,

in the village of Taibach, in West Glamorgan.

With popular coastlines nearby,

the busy village is a desirable place to live,

and it's just a short seven-minute drive away from our first property.

Although the neighbours are fairly close, this house is set on the edge of 12,000 acres of prime forest,

giving it a lovely rural feel.

Converted in 1996, this is a rather distinctive home.

Here we are. House number one. What do you think?

-It's in a fantastic location.

-Small.

Don't be deceived. It's currently set up as a yoga retreat.

That's interesting.

So there's a lot of space

to accommodate not just you, but an annexe, should you wish.

-OK.

-The question is, how are you going to arrange it?

-We'll see.

I can't wait for you to figure it out. Come and have a look inside.

Right, in you come.

-Right.

-Yeah, wow.

-It's yellow!

It's a little yellow, to be fair. I'm sure you can see through that.

The main thing is what space we have to offer you.

-So open mind?

-Open mind.

-Good, right.

-Hm.

-The yellow theme continues, as you can see.

You haven't got to spend any money on this at the moment.

But let's say somebody had bought it, a friend of yours,

and they asked what you would do, that's the way to look at it.

-OK.

-You can't give up just yet! Come on! Have a little faith.

'Not quite the reaction I wanted. Let's hope we can do better in the next room.'

This is currently set up as the principal living room, OK?

It is lovely. It is nice. It's got a nice, relaxed feel about it.

-It's getting cosier, isn't it?

-Yes.

-It does feel nice, doesn't it?

-It does feel nice

and it depends how the rest of the house fits in with it.

But yes, still open-minded.

-The key thing is how you fit in with the rest of the house.

-Good point.

'So before going upstairs, I'm going to show them

'some of the other opportunities to be had on the grand floor.'

This curved archway is where the annexe thing might come to life.

You've got a downstairs shower room and loo,

then in there a little utility room. Then it gets you into here.

Your guests would potentially have another door there

-out to the yard.

-I see what you mean.

-So just by shutting that door...

-It would be self-contained.

-Exactly.

But this door here...

-This is quite surprising. This would really make the annexe begin to work.

-OK.

Come in here.

THEY CHUCKLE HAPPILY

-What a fantastic space.

-Yeah!

The idea would be that you've got these two doors here,

-if you put a wall across there...

-I see where you're going.

Your guests potentially have got bedroom/living room,

whatever you want it to be.

How you arrange those two rooms is up to you.

It means that upstairs is not encumbered by your guests.

-You would get the whole thing.

-Excellent.

On the first floor, there are three bedrooms

currently made up as dormitories for yoga retreat guests.

There's also a bathroom with a shower.

-Come on in.

-OK.

I would suggest that this would probably be the best master bedroom.

I would say I agree. Again, I think potential.

You've also got this, which is quite nice.

-A little thing in there.

-En suite.

I think this gives you more of an idea of what you could do with it

because the decor here is more homely.

Diana seems unconvinced,

but I reckon I've saved the best till last.

Look at that view. Isn't that amazing?

And this is the garden. This is what you've got.

Your area extends pretty much within the fenced area.

Lovely view surrounded by 12,000 acres of forestry.

-How wonderful.

-The trees, the birds.

-A beautiful panorama.

Enough space here to create, well, more than one garden.

Well, this is our first property

so who's going to have the first price guess of the week?

-Er...

-Ladies first, I think.

I think I'll go for £465,000.

I'm going to say around £400,000.

This is on the market for £425,000.

-OK, that's doable.

-It's very doable.

Yes. Now you know what you have to spend

and what you've got left over, go and have an explore.

See what you might do with it and I'll catch up with you later.

Great. OK, thanks.

On the market at £425,000,

this barn conversion is well under their budget

but it's a tricky property to get your head around.

However, there is plenty of space to turn it into a lovely home.

There's also the opportunity to create

self-contained holiday accommodation.

The large gardens are set on the edge of 12,000 acres of forest,

so there's somewhere for Charles and Diana to explore.

It might need a bit of work so it's balancing whether or not

we'd be prepared to carry out the work to make it the dream place.

If we did the work to the house and got it exactly how we wanted,

I think we would still have an issue over being so close to people literally across the lane.

I think that might stop it being that dream house.

Our property search has brought us to the county of Carmarthenshire.

It's just 50 minutes from

Charles's family in Porthcawl.

The town of Llandeilo is an easy seven-minute drive from our second house,

which boasts stunning views over the surrounding valleys.

It all seems a world away

from Charles and Diana's home back in Teddington, Middlesex.

Originally, this cottage dates back to the Edwardian era

and has been sympathetically refurbished to a very high standard.

-Isn't this gorgeous?

-Very nice.

-That's so pretty.

-Classic chocolate-box image, really.

-Wow.

-And it's immaculate.

-Your face is an absolute picture, isn't it?

-Can we go in?

All right, if you ask so nicely. Come on.

'So far, so good. With any luck, inside won't disappoint either.'

-The closer you get, it's even more exciting, isn't it?

-I love it.

Right, grab the door, Charlie.

-OK, Diana. Yeah?

-Yeah.

-That's nice. I like that.

-Seating.

-Place to cook.

Yes. As a lovely cottage kitchen/diner goes...

This is more like it for me.

-It does come with a walk-in larder.

-Ah, OK.

-Tick?

-Big tick.

-OK.

-And a lovely boot room and utility.

-Big tick.

It's all through that door there.

You've only got to incorporate the kitchen into here.

That's good because they were two of the things that we wanted.

Across the hallway, there's also a small conservatory-cum-boot-room

and opposite that there's a cosy dining room with exposed stonework.

I'm heading straight to my favourite room of the house.

-So this is the principal living room.

-Nice.

It's nice. It's got plenty of light.

Love it. Beautiful window.

-Huge picture window going out to the garden.

-Yeah, with my seat in it.

It does look like a beautiful room for relaxing, just having a flop.

-Are we getting a sense that this is a warm property for you?

-I think so.

A better fit and a much better feeling when you walk in.

It's immaculate as well.

On the first floor, there are more immaculate interiors.

Either side of the hall is a single bedroom, a good-sized double

and a third room that's currently made up as a twin.

Plus there's a modern family bathroom.

So this is the master.

I think for pretty obvious reasons, really. What do you reckon?

Very nice indeed.

Loads of storage here.

It's a lovely room.

-You're going to wake up and see the year passing there beautifully.

-Fantastic.

This house is gaining some great reactions.

Let's hope they keep coming in the garden.

This is quite quirky because that door comes off the upper floor

and gets you out to this upper end of the rear garden.

It's beautiful. It's really well maintained. Everything is immaculate.

Let's go down to this bit of lawn over here.

So, do you like it?

Yes, we like it. It's a beautiful property.

Look at it. You get a real sense of what those windows are doing.

-They're just soaking in this gorgeous garden.

-Absolutely.

Let's think about the money.

What do you think this is worth in this current setting?

-I'm going for spot-on £450,000.

-Yeah? Diana?

-I think 465.

-465.

I would not be surprised to see this on the market for £465,000

but I am delighted that it's on the market for £435,000.

Go and explore through that archway. See what else you get.

-I'll catch up with you later.

-All right.

-Brilliant.

There are no holiday-let options with this property

but price-wise it sits comfortably under their minimum budget

at £435,000.

Beautifully refurbished, this cottage boasts a large kitchen

complete with larder and a boot room for Henry their dog.

There's also a well-maintained garden

with stunning views of the neighbouring woodland and valleys.

When we first saw this house in the lane, it was a delight.

In the kitchen I could see that very quickly we could turn it around

into something that would really suit us.

I love the walk-in pantry. That's on my tick list, a big thing.

All my homemade jams and chutneys filling it up come the autumn.

A great space to wash the dog

when he comes in muddy from the field, which would be good.

At the moment I'm struggling to think of many downsides.

The one main downside is that we don't want to be overlooked

and we are overlooked here near the house.

That could be a big sticking point.

It's been a mixed day for our very own Prince and Princess of Wales,

but as the sun sets, there's still much more to come.

What style of property? Give me a sense, a picture.

If you were to draw it, what elements would it comprise?

It would probably be farmhouse style.

It would have a big kitchen dining area with the range cooker

and maybe the old bread oven in one side

-and the dining room would have an inglenook.

-Yes.

Lots of light, light is important to us.

Lots of light and lots of space to be able to move out into a beautiful garden.

-What you're describing is effectively a small Georgian manor house.

-Lovely.

It would be lovely if we could get it for half a million!

-Even better!

-We've got one more property to come.

-It's mystery house time.

-Is it a Georgian manor house?

-You'll have to wait and see.

-With 25 acres!

THEY LAUGH

Still in the county of Carmarthenshire,

we head to the village of Brechfa

just over an hour's drive from Charles's home town of Porthcawl.

Our mystery house is five miles outside the village itself,

which has a local shop for all those everyday essentials.

For anything else, you need to travel further afield.

From the outset, Charles and Diana asked for around an acre of land

and after two properties,

I know how strongly they feel about being overlooked by neighbours.

The scale and remoteness of the mystery house

are not exactly what they've asked for,

so I'm certainly taking a risk with this one.

Set deep in the surrounding forest,

this house is uncompromising in its rural character and situation.

-A little more isolated, as you can tell.

-Which is just what we wanted.

-Is that what you want, though? This is the mystery house.

-Lovely.

-That's gorgeous.

-There's a lot to it, this one.

-I can see it's lovely.

All the birds.

Now, yesterday, that second property, I really liked it.

-But you had a concern over the neighbour?

-Yes.

-Is that one too close?

-A bit, yeah.

OK. Supposing it wasn't a neighbour.

-Supposing it was your holiday let?

-That would good!

-Just right.

-Well, it is. That's your holiday let.

-That's wonderful.

'Perfect.

'This holiday accommodation was a cattle barn in a previous life,

'but now it's a comfortable cottage, with a double bedroom

'and open-plan living area, complete with kitchenette and bathroom.

'The current owners gain a reasonable income by letting it out

'for 40 weeks of the year

'to mountain bikers keen to explore the epic forest.'

'The farmhouse itself is over 150 years old.

'I really hope Charles and Diana like its rustic features.'

-What do you think of this?

-Yes. Perfect.

-Isn't it cosy?

-Lovely.

It all rambles a bit, but it's got that really lovely...

You've got the space to do stuff, haven't you?

The range cooker over there - even if everything else went, you could reconfigure.

And these are lovely,

these fantastic butter-making slate troughs,

which they have utilised as an additional sink-cum-drainer.

-It's charming. I can see what we can do with it.

-Let's continue.

'Great responses. Let's see if the next room is as inspiring.'

-So, off the kitchen is this.

-Ah.

-Look at the stairs.

-The stairs are perhaps the feature of the room.

-Quirky.

Quite medieval in feel.

I like it, I like the idea of it, the flagstones on the floor.

Love this floor, beautiful.

This is essentially one of the more historic parts of the building,

but there is a generous two-storey extension through that door,

which has provided downstairs two reception rooms.

One is currently set up as a bedroom

and there is also a shower room down there as well.

Well, let's tackle those stairs and go up. Have a look.

'On the first floor of this family home,

'there are three good-sized bedrooms either side of the hall -

'two singles, and one that is currently set up as a twin,

'but would easily take a double bed. Plus, there is a bathroom.'

-This is the master.

-Wow. Good! Amazing. The bath!

Yes, that... We'll call it an en suite, loosely.

-It doesn't have a loo, fortunately.

-Just as well!

Yes, but it's got everything else.

It's got a cottage feel,

but not that crammed-in cottage look about it.

It doesn't feel crammed in. It's got this nice high ceiling.

-And lots of light coming in.

-Lots of light.

-And what a view.

Well, let's explore that. Have a look - this is gorgeous.

'Charles and Diana seem to love the view, and it's no surprise,

'because open the French doors in the master bedroom

'and you have the perfect vantage point to take it all in.'

-Wow.

-Not bad, eh?

-Not bad at all.

And this allows you to take in some of the other bits and pieces that come with it.

Needless to say, you get this yard, and this paddock ahead of us

is also a bit of it.

A bit of it.

'I say "just a bit" because with this property

'you get a massive 11 acres of land to explore.

'There are three fields, three duck ponds, some stables,

'beautiful glades and the river,

'which the owners of the property have rights to fish in.

'So that is substantially more than Charles

'and Diana's requested one acre of land for a veggie plot.'

So, here we are at the end of our house tour of the mystery house.

Let's have a think about the price

and see if that also brings a smile to your faces.

I think this has got to be right at the top end of our budget.

I'd say 495.

I'll go for £485,000.

485,000, you are the eternal optimist, aren't you?

OK, well, I can see how much you like this.

The good news is that it is under budget, but only by 50 quid.

So it's 499,950.

But I do think it offers you, once again, fantastic value for money.

Go and have a look around,

see how you would mould this into your future home, I hope.

-I'll catch up with you later.

-Brilliant.

-Thanks.

This remote smallholding comes in at the very top

of their budget at just under £500,000.

But for that, they get a splendid holiday let with a potential

income of £8,000 a year,

along with 11 acres of land, including a river.

The five-bedroom house has some splendid features,

like a stone staircase in the living room,

but will this remote haven win them over?

It's a great house, a wonderful garden, and lots of room.

The house itself is full of character.

Most of the rooms are excellent,

maybe a slight bit of tweaking. Apart from that, it's good.

I love the mystery property, I think it has everything that

we put on our wish list, and more besides.

Well, here we are on the banks of the river at the end of our house search.

-Have you enjoyed yourselves?

-Enormously.

-We had a fantastic time.

Let's remind ourselves of the three properties that we looked at.

We started off above Port Talbot in the hills. What did you think of that one?

The location itself was quite splendid, amongst those beautiful mountains and forests.

But your concerns were...what?

Partly it was the fact there were some neighbours very close by.

And once we'd worked through what we could fix, and then looked at what

would be left, even the bits that were left were still not quite right,

and we are after our dream.

Well, I thought we'd found your dream with our second property,

that gorgeous wisteria-covered cottage with a fantastic garden.

Absolutely, it was a chocolate-box cottage.

But you had a concern over the neighbour,

which rather took me by surprise.

I think what that helped us do was really figure out how important

it was to have that exclusivity and feeling of privacy, and it really

made us think that's one thing we didn't want to compromise on.

Well, that I can certainly relate to, which is why

I was very excited about taking you to our mystery house, with

its 11 acres, with the holiday annexe - an absolutely delightful property.

Beautiful house, very little needing to do with it.

Fantastic potential for the garden, and all that beautiful land as well.

We could picture ourselves in that property, and it was difficult to leave, wasn't it, really?

We were going out and saying, "Look, that's probably ours, that's probably ours."

It was a beautiful place.

So what's going to happen next with Charles and Diana?

Well, we're definitely going back for a second viewing

-in the next week, and we'll go from there.

-Brilliant.

Well, I highly recommend living in this part of the world,

and it would be a joy if you moved in. It's been a pleasure. Good luck.

Thank you, thank you very much for your hard work and efforts.

-Pleasure.

-It's been great.

Well, there's no two ways about it, when you're blessed with

glorious weather, fantastic properties, and wonderful buyers

like Charles and Diana, you know you're in for a treat.

So this week has proven. We've seen some fantastic properties.

But I have to confess, if they don't buy that mystery house,

I just might.

If you'd like to escape to the country in Scotland, Wales,

Northern Ireland or England

and would like our help, please apply online:

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd