cottage indu stry - Qantas · the master bedroom’s rare 18th-century oak four-poster bed. The...
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MAY 2008 QANTAS 81 PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES cottage indu s try The English countryside, long the muse of authors and poets, now inspires holidaymakers with a heath wish. WORDS SALLY HOWARD N ENGLISHMAN’S HOME IS his castle. There’s something quintessentially British in celebrating the humble dwelling: snug spaces, low ceilings, erratic floors, a glimpse of sun through leaded windows. It’s a romance that other nations also happily subscribe to. Even with today’s panoply of sun-blessed European holiday options, and the notorious whimsies of the weather, UK country cottages remain a favourite among the globe’s vacationing throngs. “British cottage breaks, especially in great nature spots, are reliably amongst our most popular bookings – at 25 per cent higher than our country average,” says Sarah Chambers of Holiday-Rentals. co.uk. “There’s a marked increase in demand year-on-year, too, especially in the Lake District and along the English south coast.” In the Middle Ages, cottages housed agricultural workers and their families, the term “cottager” denoting a serf in a feudal landholding system, who worked in the fields in return for a humble smallholding and a minuscule cut of the harvest. Much later, with the development of industry, came weavers’ and miners’ cottages, typically two bedrooms with a downstairs domi- nated by an open fire, the nexus of family life. These days, the term is fluidly ascribed, but tends to denote an attractive rural or village property, stereotypically topped with thatch- ing and constructed of wooden beams and whitewashed wattle and daub (a popular building method in the British Isles from the 14th to 18th centuries). Architecturally, cottages are most commonly set across one-and-a-half storeys, with the resident having to walk into the building’s eaves to look through windows set into the dormers. But the winsome bearing of the British country cottage is perhaps less notable than the fun to be had within its (often wonky) walls. Few experiences match returning from a countryside ramble to a welcom- ing cottage and pot of tea brewing on an Aga stove. As Horace put it, possibly while gazing over the thatched heads of the dwellings of ancient Rome: “Avoid greatness; in a cottage there may be more real happiness than kings or their favourites enjoy.” Here’s the plan... Dead poets’ society: the Lake District once abounded with literary giants such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, whose abode (opposite) epitomises the cottage stay dream UK COTTAGE STAYS
Transcript of cottage indu stry - Qantas · the master bedroom’s rare 18th-century oak four-poster bed. The...
MAY 2008 QANTAS 81
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cottage industryThe English countryside, long the muse of authors and poets,
now inspires holidaymakers with a heath wish.
WORDS
SALLY HOWARD
N ENGLISHMAN’S HOME IS his castle. There’s something quintessentially British in celebrating the humble dwelling: snug spaces, low ceilings, erratic
floors, a glimpse of sun through leaded windows. It’s a romance that other nations also happily
subscribe to. Even with today’s panoply of sun-blessed European holiday options, and the notorious whimsies of the weather, UK country cottages remain a favourite among the globe’s vacationing throngs. “British cottage breaks, especially in great nature spots, are reliably amongst our most popular bookings – at 25 per cent higher than our country average,” says Sarah Chambers of Holiday-Rentals.co.uk. “There’s a marked increase in demand year-on-year, too, especially in the Lake District and along the English south coast.”
In the Middle Ages, cottages housed agricultural workers and their families, the term “cottager” denoting a serf in a feudal landholding system, who worked in the fields in return for a humble smallholding and a minuscule cut of the harvest.
Much later, with the development of industry, came weavers’ and miners’ cottages, typically two bedrooms with a downstairs domi-nated by an open fire, the nexus of family life.
These days, the term is fluidly ascribed, but tends to denote an attractive rural or village property, stereotypically topped with thatch-ing and constructed of wooden beams and whitewashed wattle and daub (a popular building method in the British Isles from the 14th to 18th centuries). Architecturally, cottages are most commonly set across one-and-a-half storeys, with the resident having to walk into the building’s eaves to look through windows set into the dormers.
But the winsome bearing of the British country cottage is perhaps less notable than the fun to be had within its (often wonky) walls. Few experiences match returning from a countryside ramble to a welcom-ing cottage and pot of tea brewing on an Aga stove. As Horace put it, possibly while gazing over the thatched heads of the dwellings of ancient Rome: “Avoid greatness; in a cottage there may be more real happiness than kings or their favourites enjoy.” Here’s the plan...
Dead poets’ society: the Lake District once abounded with literary giants such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, whose abode (opposite) epitomises the cottage stay dream
UK COTTAGE STAYS
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THE GRIST MILLOwlpen Manor, near Uley, Gloucestershire.(01453) 860 261. www.owlpen.comLocation: The verdant south Cotswolds in the grounds of one of England’s best-preserved early manor houses. Nearby: The historic cities of Bath, Cheltenham and Cirencester.Why it’s unique: Everything about Grist Mill and its setting is special. The Prince of Wales recently hailed the manor and its adjacent village as “the epitome of England”. One of a number of cottages converted from the manor’s outbuildings, a mill was mapped on this spot as early as 1280. The current building dates from the 19th century, its character-filled features expertly preserved, including beams,
bolting and cleaning machinery. These contrast with fabulous antiques, including the master bedroom’s rare 18th-century oak four-poster bed. The gigantic mill wheel remains in a private garden setting edged by a pond. Notable are the manor’s organic breakfasts and, in season, a tour of the restored Tudor gardens.Price: £855 ($1900) smallest cottage, low season, to £1595 ($3550) a week. Sleeps: Eight.
CHAPEL HOUSE Penycwm, Pembrokeshire.(07926) 069 725. www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/15265Location: On a vantage point overlooking the sparsely beautiful and wind-licked Welsh Pembrokeshire coast.
Nearby: Walks on the secluded beach next to Chapel House, or along National Trust walking routes to Newgate Sands. A short drive to the city of St David’s, the UK’s smallest, and one of its most picturesque, cities.Why it’s unique: A beautifully restored (five-star rated) 18th-century chapel, with original character including stained glass windows, beams, chapel nooks and pulpit in the main bedroom. Have breakfast in the light cast by the cottage’s stained glass windows, then take off to ramble over the wild, white Pembrokeshire sands. Dolphin watching, kayaking and coasteering (clambering/swimming around the coast) are available for the more adventurous.Price: £500-£850 ($1100-$1900) a week. Sleeps: Eight.
thatching a plan
Have breakfast in the warm light cast by the cottage’s stained glass windows, then take off to ramble over the wild, white sands‘‘
St David’s Head, Pembrokeshire
Chapel House
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Each cottage has a private garden and terrace, with cooking herbs in the cutting garden. Unwind with a game of croquet‘‘
Burford’s Cotswold stone (and above right)
Weir House, Bruern Cottages
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COTTAGE STAYS UK
ROSE CASTLE COTTAGENear Tarn Hows, Coniston, Cumbria.(08704) 584 422. www.nationaltrustcottages.co.ukLocation: Amid the soaring peaks and spectacular cobalt waters of the English Lake District.Nearby: Unmatched walking, hiking, sailing and fishing.Why it’s unique: A 19th-century Grade II-listed cottage blessed with one of the most picturesque locations in the Lake District, on the highland to the east of Tarn Hows, a famous Lakes beauty spot. The cottage was part of the great 1600ha Monk Coniston estate created in the early 19th century by James Garth Marshall, a wealthy Leeds industrialist. It’s an ideal base in the heart of the Lake District for walking, fishing or simply soaking up nature’s bounty. Indeed, two nearby houses of immense literary heritage testify to the Lakes’ long-standing history as muse. The Georgian Wordsworth House in
Cockermouth is the birthplace of the poet William Wordsworth; and Hill Top, a petite 17th-century house in the hamlet of Near Sawrey, is where Beatrix Potter wrote many of her children’s stories.Price: Seven nights, £304-£965 ($662-$2100) depending on season. Sleeps: Up to four.
BRUERN COTTAGESChipping Norton, Oxfordshire.(01993) 830 415. www.bruern-holiday-cottages.co.ukLocation: On the grounds of the imposing Bruern Abbey Cotswolds country house in the Evenlode Valley, an accredited area of “outstanding natural beauty”.Nearby: A cluster of famously picturesque Cotswolds villages: Great Tew, with its thatched cottages, the romantic ruins of Minster Lovell, the Slaughters, Guiting Power and Bourton-on-the-Water. The handsome towns of golden Cotswold stone such as Burford and Moreton-in-Marsh.
Why it’s unique: Bruern’s cottages were converted from mellow stone Victorian outbuildings originally built to accommodate the horses, carriages and grooms of the exceptional Bruern Abbey Cotswolds country house (visible through the trees across the road opposite). The 12 (five-star rated) cottages are fitted out with open fires, antique furniture, four-poster beds and a welcome pack of local produce. Each cottage has a private, enclosed garden and terrace, with cooking herbs planted in the cutting garden. Unwind by having a punt at the classic British summertime game of croquet on the neatly groomed lawn to the front of the cottages, then unwind further at the on-site Spa at the Stables. Perfect for those who’d rather take their mud sweet-smelling and squeezed from a bottle than knee-high.Price: From £741 ($1585) a week at Saratoga (sleeps two) in November, to £6325 ($13,340) a week at Weir House (sleeps 10) in August.
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Cornwall juts out into the Atlantic... coastal walks along jagged sandstone cliffs, surf beaches, small hamlets in wooded valleys‘‘
A Cornish coastal ramble might take you
to Millook Haven
Hawker’s Cottages
Full steam ahead to Railway Cottage
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HAWKER’S COTTAGESCoombe, Morwenstow, near Bude, Cornwall. (01628) 825 925. www.landmarktrust.org.ukLocation: A small hamlet of cottages near Bude in Cornwall, the county jutting out into the Atlantic in south-west England. Nearby: Snaking coastal walks along jagged sandstone cliffs. Surfing beaches of Summerleaze and Crooklets (Bude).Why it’s unique: This small Cornish hamlet – consisting of a watermill, mill house and several cottages built among orchards around a ford on a shallow stream – was recently bought and restored by the Landmark Trust, a preservation charity established in 1956 to rescue architecturally important buildings. The hamlet crouches at the junction of two wooded valleys, 800m from the sea at Duckpool, where waters expose an expansive sandy beach at half tide. The Hawker’s Cottages – a duo of classic stone, cob and thatched cottages – are named after the famous poet, antiquarian and
eccentric, the Reverend Robert Stephen Hawker, vicar of Morwenstow, who lived in Coombe briefly in the mid-19th century. The bedroom in cottage one, with a window in the form of a cross, is said to have been Hawker’s study.Price: £348-£1668 ($758-$3631) for a seven-night stay.Sleeps: Cottage one sleeps up to five; cottage two sleeps six.
RAILWAY COTTAGEStation House, Station Lane, Thuxton, Norfolk. (01362) 850 950. www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/9050Location: Thuxton, a village in the low-lying county of Norfolk.Nearby: Cycling and rambling, fishing at Barford Lakes, an 18-hole golf course.Why it’s unique: Imagine being roused from your silken slumber by the toot of a passing train horn. For the many rail enthusiasts (and long-suffering partners) the prospect does appeal to, this is perhaps the ultimate in quirky British getaways.
Converted from a 1912 railway station waiting room, Railway Cottage abuts an acre of private wooded land, boasting, somewhat incongruously, a private barbecue gazebo. It’s also on the seasonal Wymondham to Dereham steam line (running to a summer timetable), so a steam train will probably stop at your doorstep most weekends and Bank Holidays, and between July 5 and August 31, also on Wednesdays.Price: £195-£295 ($425-$642) a week.Sleeps: Up to four.
LUCKER MILLAlnwick Estate, Alnwick, Northumberland. (01668) 219 941. www.alnwickcastlecottages.co.ukLocation: On the grounds of the Duke of Northumberland’s estate in Alnwick.Nearby: The dramatic scenery of the Northumberland border and coast, including the imposing Norman Bamburgh Castle, set on a ragged basalt outcrop, and the ancient Holy Island of Lindisfarne.
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Steel yourself against the stiff breezes with a draught of the Lindisfarne Mead – the fortifying honey-based alcoholic tipple‘‘
Puffed out on the Perthshire moors
Alnwick Castle gardens
DIRECTORY
www.nationaltrustcottages.co.ukA unique collection of more than 350 properties in outstanding locations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
www.landmarktrust.org.ukRescues historic buildings and resurrects them as holiday homes.
www.english-country-cottages.co.ukMore than 3000 UK properties, from converted farmhouses to medieval castles.
www.marsdens.co.uk West Country holiday homes specialist.
www.scottscastles.com From Scottish castles to small cottages.
www.cottages4you.co.uk Properties across the UK and Europe.
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk Holiday properties worldwide.
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For airfares call Qantas on 13 13 13 or visit
qantas.com. For holiday packages to the UK call
Qantas Holidays on 13 14 15.
Why it’s unique: A Grade II-listed flour mill, sympathetically restored into two interconnecting cottages, with handsome, exposed, dark wood beams and ample room for a family to spread out across its three floors. The cottages are owned by the Duke of Northumberland’s Estate, noted for its forbidding medieval castle, used as a location for the Harry Potter and Elizabeth films. The current Duchess of Northumberland’s $76.5m gardens (the most ambitious new gardens created in the UK since WWII) are also a huge draw, with an imposing cascade, quirky tree-house restaurant and Poison Garden, featuring ornamental cannabis and opium plants. Use the cottage as a base for exploring the timeless landscapes and castles of the English-Scottish border country. Steel yourself against the stiff breezes with a draught of the Lindisfarne Mead – the fortifying honey-based alcoholic tipple brewed on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, just off the coast.Price: £340-£895 ($740-$1949) a week, depending on season.Sleeps: Five or six, 11 combined.
CLAYPOTTS COTTAGENear Blairgowrie, Perthshire, Scotland. (01208) 821 341. www.scottscastles.com (property CS010-2)Location: Amid the rugged moorlands, forests, lochs and glens of mid-Scotland.Nearby: The natural bounties of the Cairngorms National Park, the UK’s largest. Golf courses at St Andrews, Carnoustie, Gleneagles and Rosemount. The stately homes of the Balmoral royal estate.Why it’s unique: The last word in getting away from it all. This remote, whitewashed cottage is on a magnificent Scottish Highland estate that spans more than 1500ha, set against a soaring backdrop of hills. The cottage fronts on to a country lane in a peaceful glen, its private garden leading down to the River Isla, a tributary of the River Tay. Wonderful walking from the door, with a wealth of bird-watching, fishing and boating on the nearby hill lochs. You’ll possibly rub shoulders with British royalty if you opt for a spot of pony trekking on their family estate at Balmoral.Price: £440-£1050 ($965-$2300) a week.Sleeps: Six. �
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