The Mendips
Sleeps 21-27
Somerset
Hot tub, gardens and grounds
Get up early for the sunrises; stay up late for the sunsets. Here on the edge of the Mendips, everything in between is gloriously unhurried, a collection of moments stitched together in loose, lazy patterns.
Bring your dogs for the ten-acre grounds, with three lawns sprawling over three acres. Picnic by the pond. Barbie your steaks in the sunshine. Marinate in the hot tub, then chill with champagne around the firepits. The surrounding fields are full of tame sheep which come to their names, as well as horses a donkey and tame calf! In April and May you can help the owners in lambing season with bottle feeding the lambs. Keep your eyes peeled for a lovely jubbly Reliant Robin. Whatever you do, don’t hurry: that would be rude.
Living spaces
Pick from the barn with room for eight, or farm, which hosts 12. Park up at the farm and drop your bags in the huge hallway, with two sitting rooms and an airy conservatory both complete with a logburner to pick from. There’s room here for gregarious groups or solo flyers happy to bury their heads in a book.
The barn’s equally special and equally spacious. Get a log fire going around the easy chairs in the kitchen while you wait for dinner from the electric oven and range cooker. Or pile onto the L-shaped sofa and beanbags in the living room or sneak out to the snug to binge a boxset on Sky or Netflix.
Bring your devices and stream away on the 4G. Get some banging tunes going on the Bluetooth speaker. Or ask Alexa about the weather. The Mendips is the perfect do-as-much-or-as-little-as-you-please bolthole where friends, families and hens get to congregate, celebrate and appreciate the silence, the stillness and the serenity.
Cooking and dining
A country kitchen in the farm with four-oven AGA should bring out the apron-attired beast in you. But if kitchens aren’t your domain, call up Amy for restaurant meal kits, private chef nights, afternoon teas or weekend-away meals. Or maybe it’ll be canapes on the lawn or a hog roast from Demaine Artisan.
Your cottage holiday wouldn’t be complete without the lip-smacking anticipation of wheels on the drive and a ring on the door, so order your takeaways from Fireaway Pizza, Hong Kong Chinese and Spice Club Bridgwater for Indian. Pop out for big breakfasts with thick bacon and scrummy sausages to Ollie’s Café.
Head down to the village for Cajun chicken or pub steak at the White horse Inn. At the Packhorse, sole stuffed with white crab meat on a bed of samphire in a cream prawn sauce with sautéed potatoes tastes as good as it sounds. And the Fox and Goose in Brent Knoll does a fine line in home cooking made to order.
Restaurants include The Old Thatched Cottage for steak and seafood right by the ocean. Try the kleftiko, trout aux amandes or chicken souvlaki. Hit Il Michelangelo for a true taste of Italy and a view of the channel. Or head to La Vela in Burnham-on-Sea for lasagne, risotto, pizza and pasta.
Bedrooms
There’s serenity and stillness on the outside here and a quiet serendipity mixed with a blast of wow on the inside. Six bedrooms in the farm and another three in the barn cater for friends, families and hen parties of up to 20.
What’s better than a roll-top bath? Maybe a mezzanine? How about a roll-top bath on a mezzanine? Bag the master bedroom and it’s yours.
Bedrooms one, two and three are superkings with shared bathrooms, while four and five are superkings with private bathrooms.
Bedroom six is a twin, while seven, eight and nine are king-size rooms, with bedroom nine offering a private bathroom. The barn provides a sofa bed in the snug. Four bedrooms come with smart TVs, while roll-top baths and luxury showers abound. Futons and travel cots are also possibilities.
What people say
Gorge on local attractions
Splash and swim at Ridgemoor Pool, ride the waterslides at Brean Splash Waterpark, play England’s eighth best golf course at Burnham and Berrow, or cycle or canoe the canal. See Britain’s biggest gorge at Cheddar, and panto and comedy at Bristol Old Vic. Or pack your buckets and spades for beaches at Burnham and Brean and Berrow.
