Househunter

Flitton Mill, Devon

This cream-washed cottage lies in the middle of nowhere, just south of Exmoor National Park. A flagstone footbridge leads from the garage, stables and vegetable garden over the old mill stream to the cottage and main gardens. Inside, the 18th-century former mill house has a bread oven in the sitting room fireplace, an Aga in the kitchen, a breakfast room, dining room, four bedrooms and the capacity for a self-contained annexe. It is being sold by Webbers in South Molton (01769 573181) with an asking price of pounds 165,000.

For what it's worth

In the same week that house builders reported a 20 per cent fall in the number of new homes started last month compared with September 1994, a study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation predicted a huge rise in the numbers of homes needed over the rest of the decade. The Rowntree report sees a need for 150,000 to 160,000 new private homes a year until 2001 and at least 90,000 houses for tenants in the social sector. Yet builders are pulling out of the industry or being forced to offer part-exchange deals to shift the property on their books. Either the statisticians have got it wrong or there is going to be an explosion in house-building in the next few years.

Who's moving

David Soul, who played Hutch to Starsky, has rented a canal boat from the Little Venice office of Chestertons. The actor, currently performing in cabaret in London, has taken on the two-bedroom, two-bathroom barge for a year. The lease includes a canalside garden.