HOME, as they say, is where the heart is. The question with Location, Location, Location TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp is: which one are we talking about?

First, there is her home in London, one of those swanky places between Holland Park and Notting Hill, where she and her property developer partner Ben Andersen and their children Bay Atlas, four, and Oscar Hercules, two, are based for the daily grind of school and work.

Then there is Meadowgate, her six-bedroom holiday cottage near the beach in Welcombe, North Devon, which she famously restored and kitted out with recycled furniture, local arts and crafts in her TV series, Kirstie's Homemade Home.

And then there is the ivy-clad, centuries-old manor house, near Honiton, in East Devon, which she and Ben really do love to call home. A stunning 30-acre pile just outside Broadhembury – a picture-postcard village filled with 16th century thatched cottages.

The property is set against the beautiful backdrop of the Blackdown Hills, and reached only after negotiating long, narrow country lanes before finally arriving at an impressive pair of wrought-iron gates, which open electronically before you.

As you drive down through the trees to the beautiful property, parts of which date from the early 1500s, you are aware, as Kirstie herself would say, of the "wow" factor.

Clearly this is a much-loved family home, although, for reasons of work and schooling necessity, mostly a weekend one for its main occupants, at the moment.

A stunning pile, it was owned for many years – indeed, centuries – by the wealthy and titled Drewe family, but in the 20th century it changed hands several times before Ben landed it.

"This house is Ben's pride and joy, something he absolutely loves, and believe me he'll be carried out of here in a box," says Kirstie, as the two of us settle down, mugs of coffee in hands, in front of a huge roaring log fire in Ben's study – a room of baronial proportions.

"He'd live here all the time, but sadly my step-children live with their mother in London, and we're in London every week. But this is our home."

She sighs. "Actually, it's a difficult house for someone like me, because it's an impossible house to keep tidy, and I am a very tidy person."

For someone who has made her living out of talking about houses, she is curiously reticent in describing her own, although she's proud to say it has a Jacobean addition. How many bedrooms does it have, for instance?

"Well, let's just say that, at the time of the 1902 census, it had a staff of 42."

It's easy to see why Ben – who built up his property empire after leaving school at 16 – fell in love with it. It is a house made for Christmas, and by now a huge Christmas tree will be twinkling away in the hall, which rises up through two floors of the house.

"I come from a Christmas nut background," confesses the woman who has appeared on our screens for four nights this week in Kirstie and Phil's Perfect Christmas.

"As usual, we'll be going to pick our tree from Nick, 'The Christmas Tree Man', who farms on the other side of Broadhembury. He's already rung me this year and said, look, can you come and pick it out early because it takes you so long to decide... the problem is we need a really tall one.

"I live in Devon and I'm committed to Devon. We buy everything for this house in Honiton or Exeter; we have a strict policy," she insists.

Kirstie is the daughter of Charles Henry Allsopp, 6th Baron Hindlip, former chairman of world-famous Christie's auction house. Her mother Fiona is an interior designer.

Her rise to TV stardom was nothing short of meteoric after her career skills as a property finder brought her to the attention of Channel 4 bosses.

One of the things Kirstie, 39, loves about Ben, 49, is that he remains determinedly in the background, shunning the limelight of her celebrity. "When he met me he didn't know who I was," she says.

"He's incredibly supportive of what I do, in every respect. Ben is a property developer: he buys houses and he does them up. He buys buildings and breathes new life into them. Actually it's quite difficult, because there are a couple of projects he's involved with in the Westcountry that I really want to promote, but he just says, 'don't'."

Pressed on what these projects could be, she whispers "Exeter Castle" before clamming up and going all coy. A quick look on the website, though, tells how the ancient castle is now being turned into "the best venue in the Westcountry – a vibrant hub of art, music, food and drink, with a ballroom for weddings and parties and conferences, and a gallery for special events".

A special event for a wedding, between her and Ben, perhaps? They are, after all, engaged. "I have absolutely no doubt that Ben and I will be married at some point in the not too distant future," she says, a huge aquamarine ring sparkling away on her left hand (a replacement for the real one that she lost). "We just haven't got around to it."

Kirstie's Homemade Home, by Kirstie Allsopp, is published in hardback by Hodder & Stoughton, priced £20. Kirstie's Homemade Home is on Channel 4, Tuesdays at 8pm.

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