A barnstorming display of style in Wiltshire

With acres of space inside and out, this barn has been reborn as a family home and a great party venue, reports Cheryl Markosky

There are parties – and then there are parties. Rory O'Neill, from agent Dreweatt Neate in Marlborough, recalls going to what sounds like the housewarming shindig of all time at the Great Barn, in the Wiltshire hamlet of Stanton St Bernard, five years ago. "I thought I was just popping in for a drink," he says. "There was a Hungarian band at one end of the barn and an Irish band playing at the other end. Outside, 140 of us ate lunch under a marquee, while listening to an opera performance. It was one of the best celebrations I've ever attended."

The Great Barn is indeed a great place to entertain. Measuring more than 5,000 square feet and spread over two storeys, this is not a titchy agricultural shack with dark corners and fungi-infested walls. The substantial thatched barn, with its wonderful network of beams, is light, bright and exceptionally roomy. Friends are welcome to stay – who will even find them?– in a property with four bedrooms, custom-built kitchen/breakfast room, entrance/dining hall, a vaulted 40ft drawing room overlooked by two galleries, two bathrooms, walk-in larder, cloakroom and utility room – all on the ground floor alone. The first-floor plan includes three more bedrooms, the music and TV galleries, two more bathrooms and plenty of wardrobe space. A double garage sits alongside the house, which is set in nearly two acres of Wiltshire countryside.

The current owners, the Elliotts, bought the barn with cash from the sale of their original IT business – they used to convert old coaches into mobile training-centres. They obtained the barn from an interior designer who had already totally transformed the interior. He had purchased the barn a decade earlier from a builder who had painstakingly converted it for his own use. Both of the Elliott boys went to Marlborough School, which is only 10 minutes away, but now the family is downsizing as they are starting to rattle round in the museum-sized space.

Overlooking the Vale of Pewsey and the famous Alton White Horse, Pat Elliott says that, as well as the generous size, the uninterrupted vistas and quiet location were what sold the barn to them in the first place. "It is tremendously peaceful and the views are really terrific. We are next door to a farm where crop circles have sometimes appeared, and it is good fun looking at them. We've always wanted to put up a camera and find out how they get there, but we haven't got round to it yet."

Elliott also loves the gardens and rural location: "I can sit in my study and see so many different animals." The Great Barn is off the beaten track – Stanton St Bernard is not on a main thoroughfare – but the hamlet has its own church, riding stables, bridleways and footpaths, and it is only 10 minutes away from the towns of Marlborough and Pewsey.

The Great Barn is on the outskirts of Stanton St Bernard itself and a canal runs through the middle of the hamlet. It is in a conservation area and has superb views of rolling countryside, the Marlborough Downs and Salisbury Plain.

The main-line train from Pewsey to London Paddington takes about an hour. Swindon is 16 miles away, with links also to Paddington, and Andover, that has a run into Waterloo, is 20 miles off. Elliott says it takes her one and quarter hours to drive from the Great Barn to Knightsbridge "on a good day", but add on about half an hour more on a bad one.

"This is a great house," says O'Neill, who adds that it is extremely rare to find a barn like this in the area. "It is unlikely you will find a barn as large and in such good condition. Barns are a very specialist niche market, but already we are getting enquiries about this one." He adds "The village used to be an agricultural community, but many of the more recent inhabitants commute to London. I imagine it appealing to someone who is fed up with London, but who is used to the larger, more unconventional spaces that you get in Docklands or Clerkenwell."

Elliott says that they have already received planning permission to build a pool/leisure complex in the grounds. "We have drawn up plans and the local Kennet District Council has said yes to our idea of having a Jacuzzi and pool with a retractable roof, so you can use it all year round. We were about to build it, but just didn't quite get round to it."

Should we feel sorry for the Elliotts, who are somewhat sad to be leaving their spacious Wiltshire barn? Not really, as they hope to buy a smaller property in Pewsey Vale, although so far they are struggling to find anything that is as nice as their own home. But they also own other property – a place in the Cayman Islands and a flat in London's ultra-chic Beaufort Gardens. "I can see myself tottering down to Harrods with a glass of champagne in my hand, chatting up all the young men as I go," jokes Pat Elliott, who obviously will be getting the best out of the new London flat in the years to come.

The Great Barn is on the market at £1.4m through Dreweatt Neate in Marlborough; 01672 514916.