Pool, hot tub and gardens
In delightful deepest Devon, Croft House might be at its most magical outdoors. Two acres of farmland harbour hens and geese, foxes, badgers, deer, and occasional cats. Pick the quince, figs, and fruit. Bask and bubble in the Scandinavian wood-fired hot tub. Fire up the covered pizza oven. Hang around on a hammock.
Soak up the rambling views or just soak yourself in the heated outdoor pool. Try to remove the kids from the Wendy house and outdoor play kitchen in time for a barbecue supper. Eat beneath the fairy lights that hang from the trees. Work off the sausages with some floodlit table tennis. Extend the day with marshmallows around the firepit.
Living spaces
No need to sell you the cellar: it sells itself. Pot a few balls on the pool table, flick your wrists on the air-hockey table, do a Luke Littler with the dartboard, pour a drink from the bar. Hang out in the lounge with its exposed beams, interior stone walls, and 65-inch flatscreen TV perfect for films lit by the flickering flames of the logburner.
Share your stay with resident cats – or don’t. Put them out, as they’re perfectly happy to relocate, especially if you bring your dogs. Break out the board games. Drop your togs in the laundry room. Discover the deep delights of total seclusion, with neighbours over a quarter-mile away and intrusive stressful thoughts even farther.
Cooking and dining
Cooking and dining options here are good. Hang out in the covered barbecue area with the wood-fired pizza oven. Eat out on the veranda with the valley views or under the trees lit by the fairy lights. Cook indoors on the Aga and the two pyrolytic electric ovens with fizz cooling in the wine fridge. Or chill yourself when you call up our pro chefs.
Get together indoors around the chunky table in the farmhouse kitchen. Fill the three fridges with delicious deli from Thorne’s Farm Shop or with big shops from all the major supermarkets. Head out to Crediton’s field-to-fork farmers’ market on first and third Saturdays. And find great wine at Grape and Wine.
Have a night off with takeaways from Crediton Tandoori, Saffron for Indian, or Chef’s Choice for a chippy tea. Enjoy lunches, light bites, and Sunday roasts at the Waterside Café with its lovely koi pond and stream running alongside. Or stay in Cheriton Fitzpaine for filling fare from the Ring of Bells and the Half Moon Inn.
Head out to Three Little Pigs for the chef’s steakburger, a surf and turf or stone-baked pizzas. Try Cairney’s Bistro for a two-course fixed-price menu and great wines, or the
Rose and Crown for big gammon steaks and great Sunday roasts. Or push the boat out and get over to Chagford for Michelin-starred magic at Gidleigh Park.
Bedrooms
Six bedrooms here sleep 20. With no neighbours inside a quarter-mile, you’ll dream deeply and sleep soundly surrounded by two acres of lush fields peppered with hens and geese.
Bedroom one comes with two singles and a sofa bed, while bedroom two offers two singles and two sofa beds. Bedroom three has a double and a sofa bed, and bedroom four two singles.
The fifth bedroom offers two doubles and one sofa bed, while bedroom six provides a kingsize, two sofa beds, and a small double. Choose from three modern bathrooms.
Children Welcome
Homesick kids? No worries. With space for 20 guests (and two dogs by prior arrangement), Croft House lets you bring most of home with you. And, as the motorways give way to A roads and then high-hedged B roads, thoughts of home will recede, and then disappear altogether on first sight of the swimming pool.
Swimming pool? Oh yes. The big, deep outdoor pool here comes heated in the summer months and ready for some splashtastic action. When they’ve done, bigger kids might like to head for the Scandinavian-style wood-fired hot tub or dry off for some table tennis, to be continued into darkness under floodlights.
Outdoor attractions keep on coming here: hang out in the hammock, meet the hens and geese in the next field, spot the sometime-resident cats, and help mum and dad raid the farmland for figs, quince, greengage, gooseberries, walnuts, and fruit. Suppertime? Cook undercover on the barbecue and pizza oven and dine beneath the fairy lights.
Stay out for the firepit with marshmallows on a spit, or come in to mingle around the 65-inch smart TV with flames flickering from the logburner. And amp up the family rivalries in the games room down in the cellar, with the Croft House Olympics. Main events: pool, air hockey, and darts.
What people say
Dark passages, Potter and Pinot Noir
Find Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley in Exeter, hear crazy stories on a tour of the Underground Passages, and tame the wild rides at Crealy Adventure Park. Go Ape at Haldon on the high ropes and zip slides, get muddy at Quad World, and taste top-quality ciders from Sandford Orchards and English Pinot Noir from Swanaford.
