With her first child due next month, star splashes out on a riverside retreat

It's the second house they have bought in as many months. But for Kate Winslet and husband Jim Threapleton, this is somewhere they can really call home.

The actress is believed to have bought the somewhat unusual £250,000 property - an old pumphouse overlooking the Thames - in time for the arrival of her first child next month.

After widespread reports of her being plagued by a stalker, she and the 26-year-old film director were believed to ahve been keen to find a comfortable home away from teh city.

The star of Titanic is said to have instantly fallen for the 1930s property, which was converted four years ago and has had only one previous owner.

The three-storey detached building boasts some four bedrooms. The master bedroom also has a small balcony.

The house faces the entrance to a waterworks which was yesterday strewn with rubbish and two burnt-out cars.

Nevertheless, 24-year-old Miss Winslet is believed to be delighted with her new purchase and looked happy and relaxed yesterday as she returned from a shopping trip. In July, the coupled bought a £200,000 Japanese-style house in West Cornwall.

At the time, she said she wanted the all-wooden holiday home- a misture of pine, sycamore and cedar - to help her relax during a break from filming her new movie based on Robert Harris's Second World War thriller Enigma.

Miss Winslet is the latest in a string of celebrities, including Catherine Zeta Jones and Madonna, to have her pregnancy under the media spotlight. The actress also recently revealed how her husband was thrilled at the prospect of becoming a father.

They married in 1998 and she said starting a family had become 'the most important thing' in their lives.

Following the birth, she plans to take a seven-month career break. But she has certainly kept busy until now.

Five months into her pregnancy, she was working long hours on Enigma - although her generous bump did not prove to be quite the asset it might have been.

She played the character of Hester whoe prgnancy was considerably more advanced than her own, which meant having to wear special padding.

Miss Winslet also recently signed a contract to become the voice of Enid Blyton by reading her stories for a series of talking books.

She was signed by Choirion, which owns the intellectual property rights to Blyton's books.

The first in the series, The Enchanted Wood, is set to be released in September, followed by The Faraway Tree and The Fold of the Faraway Tree next year.

By Mark Reynolds (Showbusiness Reporter)