Tom’s Barn Dog Parade

We have had our ‘annual’ (last one was in June 2010) inspection today. It is always a tense moment. There is quite a lot of work beforehand making sure the paperwork is up to date and that one has done everything one was meant to do after the previous inspection.

There is also that underlying nagging worry that a domestic disaster might occur immediately beforehand, like an overflowed bath or a particularly hairy dog but the only disaster of any sort was my ‘fake Bakewell’ which wasn’t quite up to the usual standard but was thankfully still reasonably edible.

The inspector herself was warm, friendly and extremely helpful so in fact the whole inspection passed very constructively and well. The final result we will not know for a day or two and of course we will announce the result…

Meanwhile, on a totally different note, we often agree, all of us here behind the Orchard Farm scenes, how lucky we are with our guests who are always so friendly, pleasant and appreciative – we couldn’t hope for nicer.

But tagging along with these lovely guests are some pretty super dogs. Darren and Tracey who left this morning have just sent a ‘thank you for having us’ email (thank you for coming!) enclosing this gorgeous photo of their Sid lying on the Tom’s Barn doormat. We can’t quite make out the expression – what is going through Sid’s mind?

And while we’re on the dog track, so to speak, here is another beauty, still very young; she has yet to pay her first visit here with Sam and Gary who normally come with their cat but she no doubt will when she has successfully ‘left the nursery’. Meanwhile, here she is with a cuddly toy considerably bigger than she is!

Both photos will look better if you click to enlarge them.

Good Food Recommendations and one good garage

We thought it high time to update our food recommendations (and some other recommendations, too – read on…).

Talking of good food, how lucky we are to have so many really good and attractive pubs and shops in the area who take a pride in food that is good by any standard. And talking of pubs, not surprisingly, the picture remains fairly predictable. Top of the league remains the George at Alstonefield. Practically all of our guests go there, some more than once even on a shortish holiday; all rave about the food and their experience generally, with comments like this appearing all the time.

‘The George at Alstonefield offered excellent food and service and welcomes dogs – highly recommended.’

What reports we have of the Gate are also pretty consistently good; ‘The Gate at Brassington has very lovely food, wish we had found it earlier,’ bewailed some recent guests in the Visitors’ Book. The Gate too now welcomes well-behaved dogs but we do always suggest that it is a good move to ring beforehand just to check that it will be acceptable at both the George and the Gate.

The Druid seemed to have gone off the radar somewhat, recently, but a happy guest in October recommends, ‘Tried the Druid Inn Birchover: the set menu is VERY good value for money’. You may remember that someone recently warned that one need to be a fan of black pudding to truly appreciate the Druid’s repertoire. This didn’t worry John or me, who love a good black pudding, but probably it isn’t everybody’s favourite fare.

Two new places were recommended recently, neither of which we have tried yet but it is always good to have new recommendations – The Hot Chilli takeaway in Ashbourne  –  good for a curry and the Charles Cotton Hotel in Hartington – good for great fish and chips.’

The White Peak Butchery at Tissington remains a great favourite with all our guests, who love the walk there over the hills although the poor couple who walked over two or three days ago found themselves ankle deep in mud at one stage. This is probably a track created by all our guests but it certainly had rained hard for a day or two…

Finally we end with a warm recommendation not for food at all, but for Preston’s garage in Ashbourne. Some guests arrived recently having lost their exhaust somewhere en route up from Devon. Preston’s were impressively quick and efficient ordering and fitting the appropriate parts; our appreciative guests were so grateful not to have to waste more of their holiday than necessary.

What are our guests saying about Tom’s Barn?

‘What a treat to stay here!’

Here is a selection of the latest comments made by our guests in the Tom’s Barn Guest Book.  Douglas’s Barn will follow tomorrow.

All the comments are taken exactly as written,  and can be seen in the relevant Visitors’ Books if anyone wonders if we spend our spare time thinking up lovely comments!

“What can you say that has not been said before – sets the standard for others to follow.” July 2010

“Fabulous cottage, perfect surroundings and wonderful weather. Thank you for the extras and Boots.” July 2010

“What a treat to stay here, we’ve loved it. Great walks – the George at Alstonefield was our favourite pub, and okay with dogs. Thank you John and Marion and Janet for everything. PS Do go to the Gate pub at Brassington- it’s wonderful, great locals and great pub grub and good beer.” July 2010

“Had a wonderful hot week, loved the Bakewell Tart and the marmalade. Great place to stay, and thanks for everything.” June 2010

“Another wonderful, relaxing week in Tom’s Barn. Everything is fabulous – especially the warm welcome and the delicious cake…see you next year.” June 2010

“As usual a very pleasant stay, weather not quite as good as we would have liked, but still a lovely part of the country to visit. Hope to be back again next year.”June 2010

“ We had a wonderful honeymoon at Tom’s Barn – the cottage is beautifully decorated, well equipped and in a gorgeous location. Best bits: treats on arrival, especially the marmalade, the artwork and impressive beams, the bath, all the books and info, and finally John and Marion for their warmth and friendliness. Thank you!” June 2010

“Tom’s Barn – what a fantastic find! Had everything we could possibly have wanted, rounded off our honeymoon perfectly. I am sure we will return in the future! June 2010

“We spent a lot of money at H. Smith in Ashbourne – a great selection, especially of wines, and they stock our favourite ones. We recommend Vina Esmeralda 2007 – such a fruity wine for a summer day; we enjoyed sitting outside the front door with a glass!” May 2010

“It’s the finishing touches that make the cottage so special, the cake (that lasted all of ten minutes I add!) the fresh flowers that smell so lovely and freshly laid eggs!” May 2010

“Tom’s Barn the best place we have ever stayed. We have had a wonderful week, always sad to be leaving.“ May 2010

“It’s all been said before, but it’s all true! Our first visit to the Peak District and we loved it…” May 2010

Top Tips: two walks, one wine and pubs that accept dogs

We are always grateful for up to date comments about what to do and where to eat and thought that this thoughtful review, left in the Tom’s Barn Visitors’  book, would be useful for a wider audience. This would  include Douglas’s Barn guests although none of them share the immediate concern about pubs that accept dogs, local visitors to our blog (we all round here appreciate good food and good walks!) and of course  future guests who may be planning what to do in the  time they are here.

(Please note, by the way, that we have  taken on board the comments towards the end about the misleading information re an enclosed garden on our website.  I  changed the description on the website immediately –  our garden is not – and never could easily be  – enclosed so that dogs could never get in or out.  We are sorry about that – in fact we quite often wish we could stop other dogs getting in who frequently have to be discouraged from deciding it might be a good local gents/ladies.)

“Tom’s Barn – what a fantastic find! Had everything we could possibly have wanted, rounded off our honeymoon perfectly. I am sure we will return in the future!

The weather was glorious – a little too hot to do all the walking we wanted to. We enjoyed a walk to the George at Alstonefield  (fab food, allows dogs, but we sat outside; the Bluebell at Tissington (nice meal); Red Lion at Hognaston (the best ever Sunday roast!).

We also walked from Parsley Hay to Biggin and back across the fields and along the Tissington Trail. We ate at the Waterloo (fantastic sandwiches and homemade chips – no dogs allowed but we sat outside) – very hot – 30C – a little too hot for this ten mile walk!

We spent a lot of money at H. Smith in Ashbourne – a great selection, especially of wines, and they stock our favourite ones. We recommend Vina Esmeralda 2007 – such a fruity wine for a summer day; we enjoyed sitting outside the front door with a glass!

It’s the finishing touches that make the cottage so special, the cake (that lasted all of ten minutes I add!) the fresh flowers that smell so lovely and freshly laid eggs!

If we can make one TINY criticism – the website implies there is an enclosed area of garden which is our criteria for booking a cottage, having a dog. It really didn’t matter here as Lily was a good girl and learnt the grass behind the cottage was for business but in the past we’ve had terrible trouble getting her to go in new places, so you might want to reword it on the website.

Having said that though we probably wouldn’t have found this special place if we hadn’t thought it had one. All in all an amazing stay – sad to be leaving, and our thanks to you both. (Another 5* review on TripAdvisor…!)” May 2010

Tom’s Barn – is our ‘dog friendly holiday cottage’ really dog friendly?

We have always welcomed (well-behaved) dogs in Tom’s Barn, and are more than happy to do so. From time to time we have also had other pets, such as cats and parrots but by and large it is mainly dogs. With one or two notable exceptions our dog guests are usually beautifully behaved but even so they undoubtedly create extra work and sometimes damage.

We do ask that owners keep them off the chairs and sofa, and certainly away from upstairs. For owners whose dogs are reluctant to abide by the rules we do provide dustsheets for the furniture, and until recently a nursery gate to prevent enthusiastic dogs from going upstairs, but as we know ourselves, this was a real pain to fit and use and the odd dog sneaked his way up and one can hardly blame them. (Although some of you may remember one unforgetable experience here that we’d like to forget but can’t quite, yet, and we do blame that dog.)

However, our latest Visit Britain Inspector last month commented very critically about evidence of scratch marks from doggy claws on the wooden stairs and hinted heavily that this was a serious blot on our Five Star/Gold Award status… So David, our wonderful joiner friend, has come to the rescue; he has designed and built for us a lovely wooden gate (it still needs varnishing but there’s only so much we can do in five hours on a Friday) permanently fixed to the foot of the stairs. The next challenge is somehow to eradicate or disguise/hide those wretched scratch marks on the steps – more news on that score later.

So far so good on the dog-friendly score. But we have had pointed out to us by a recent guest – owner of a beautiful (and beautifully trained) Rhodesian Ridgeback I would happily have kidnapped – that on our website we claimed to have an enclosed garden. Well, I am afraid she is right, and we don’t. I was in fact very surprised to discover I had claimed that the Tom’s Barn garden was enclosed; my excuse is that I wasn’t thinking of it in terms of dogs particularly – what I meant was that it was self-contained.

Happily, the owner in question was tactful enough to say she was glad they had been misled, because they simply wouldn’t have booked had they known the true facts. They had had a lovely time and they – and their dog – were very charming guests, and they hope to come back (and we hope they do).

Meanwhile, we have thrashed around how we could make the area truly self-contained without going to the expense and disruption of building stone walls etc – any suggestions gratefully received. Meanwhile, please note, our garden is not enclosed.

Our romantic cottages for two – what does Visit Britain think?

Well! What a day!

Changeover day with a Visit Britain inspection thrown in for good measure… we have never had that before. In the past, the inspection has taken place mid-week which is rather inconvenient for our guests but generally easier because,  when all is said and done, our first priority on a Friday is to have everything ready, sparkling fresh and welcoming  for our guests and not to have them arrive while we are showing the inspector around, as happened today. Fortunately, both lots had been before.

We had a very pleasant and extremely thorough inspector (thank goodness for our wonderful Janet and Carol!) who seemed pretty happy with things generally but less impressed with the state of the Tom’s Barn stairs which she felt showed unhappy evidence of the odd sharp-clawed dog  scrabbling up them.

We have already arranged with David, our wonderful joiner, who is going to build a wooden gate at the foot of the stairs and do what he can to iron out the worst of the gouges. The other thing we have to do, which we had already planned anyway, is to replace the easy chair and footstool in Tom’s Barn, which although actually spotlessly clean, no longer looks so.

Douglas’s Barn appeared to pass muster without comment (hope I’m not deluded). What we were hoping for, after all our refurbishments in Tom’s Barn, was for Tom’s Barn to go up that one vital point (from 91% overall to 92% ) to join Douglas’s Barn in the exclusive Gold Star ‘club’.  Last year we were told the only thing between us and a Gold Star was the cooker, and that has been replaced with one that is very definitely not old fashioned…

So all we can do now is sit and wait (and start looking for that new chair).

An unforgetable experience

We love dogs, and dog owners, and really love to welcome them to Tom’s Barn. For ten years we have had the privilege of welcoming model dog owners, with well-behaved and well-controlled dogs.

We could never understand why many other holiday cottage owners shuddered at the thought of accepting dogs. We now know why.

We are still recovering from a nightmare experience (just deserts for being smug, possibly). After a short break with two apparently uncaring owners and one lively and untrained boxer we have had to scrub and disinfect under the stairs, wash all the bedding three times, take the sofa covers and the duvet to the cleaners, clean mud out of the bath and get an electrician in to replace both smoke detectors (don’t ask!).

There’s no excuse. We do ask that dogs don’t go upstairs or sit on the furniture; knowing that life isn’t always ideal we provide dust sheets just in case and we can always provide a stair gate on request.

Anyway, after much time and effort on Janet’s part, helped by Carol, John and me, Tom’s Barn is sparklingly clean again – almost cleaner than ever if that is possible – with no evidence at all of the earlier mayhem!

And I don’t know why I am writing this, really, as I know one will be preaching to the converted, but I just had to get it off my chest. We have all found the experience quite unsettling. Let’s hope it is another ten years before we have a repeat nightmare, if we have to have one at all.