You arrive through the great hall, beneath a double staircase in carved oak, and climb to a front door on the second floor. Inside, the entrance lobby keeps the practical things neatly out of sight, with a laundry cupboard for the washing machine and tumble dryer and two further storage cupboards, before opening onto the main living space.

It’s a room of real scale, close to 24 feet square, with tall windows on two sides and the woodland canopy filling every one of them. There’s room for a proper dining table that seats eight without crowding the sofas, and the kitchen runs along one wall with a generous island and space for stools, so whoever’s cooking stays part of the conversation. It suits a quiet morning with the papers just as well as a long Sunday lunch with the whole family.

The principal bedroom is a calm, generously proportioned room with a tall window looking out to a mature cedar. It has its own dressing room lined with wardrobes and an en suite shower room finished in Valencia tiles. The second bedroom sits at the opposite end of the apartment, which gives visiting family their own corner, and it’s served by the bathroom next door with a full bath. Both bedrooms are carpeted in soft, neutral tones.

The apartment is only part of the story, though. Wildernesse is a country house in the traditional English sense, and the way of life here follows suit. The ground floor rooms belong to everyone who lives here: the great hall with its parquet floors, a library lining the landing, quiet lounges with deep sofas and tall windows, and a bar with a black marble fireplace that has a way of becoming the natural place to meet friends before dinner. Just 23 apartments share the main house, with eight mews houses in the grounds, so it feels like a home rather than a hotel.

Dinner itself might be at the Pavilion, the restaurant set in the gardens, a vaulted timber room with arched windows looking out over the lawns. The chef cooks with locally sourced produce, family and friends are welcome to join you, and on the evenings you’d rather stay in, meals can be brought to your door.

The whole lower ground floor of the house is given over to wellbeing. There’s a tiled lap pool lit by tall windows, a sauna and steam room, a fully equipped gym, a stretch studio and treatment rooms for bespoke therapies, with classes such as yoga and Pilates and personal trainers on hand. A concierge can arrange transport for a trip to the theatre or into town, guest suites are available when family come to stay, and dogs are very much part of life here, with their own washing facilities for the muddier walks. Should needs change over time, additional support is available within the house too.

Outside, the grounds open out from the formal lawns and the fountain into parkland and woodland, with lit paths that make an evening stroll as easy as a morning one.

For anyone leaving a much loved family home in and around Sevenoaks, this is a rare kind of move, one that doesn’t ask you to give much up. The space is still here, the gardens are still here, it’s simply that someone else looks after them now. And with the town less than two miles away, the life you’ve built locally stays exactly where it is.