Romantic cottages for two in the Peak District
Romantic cottages for two in the Peak District
A disclaimer, just in case anyone thinks I have suddenly grown my hair, affected an American accent and become a wonder housewife overnight: the heroine of this secret-revealing video is not me!
Having got that clear, here are one or two little snippets which are probably more momentous this side of the fence than yours…
The first ‘secret’, to fulfil several recent requests – and in fact this might be the best one of all – is to give you the link to our Fake Bakewell Tart recipe, which we are asked for so very very often.
Perhaps we ought to have a video of this wonder housewife/cook making the recipe? (I think not, probably!)
And now for an eBay delight, about dinner plates, no less… It can’t have escaped recent Tom’s Barn guests that there were only 5 dinner plates on the rack, six or more of everything else. Ever since the sixth and last of our supply was withdrawn from active service we have tried, absolutely in vain, to ‘source’ as they say these days, some Wedgwood Garden Maze replacements, even going to the Wedgwood factory shop in Stoke. I scoured sites that stock odd plates, and kept checking on eBay, where one could find everything possible from soup tureens to serving platters but neery a dinner plate.
Last night our daughter Ruthie rang to say she had successfully bid for SIX on eBay!! Can you believe it? So that is one problem off the list. The alternative would have to have been replacing everything. (Five Stars – everything in a set must be matching…).
The next ongoing ‘issue’ has been a debilitating and permanent difficulty we have all shared in the Orchard Farm laundry department over folding fitted sheets so they’re fit to grace a Tom’s or Douglas’s Barn bed which for a Five Star listing has to have immaculately laundered bedlinen.
Imagine my delight, then, to discover on Pinterest this YouTube video showing one how simple it really should be.
Source: thehairpin.com via Ashley on Pinterest
Considering Parwich is almost in Staffordshire, in a manner of speaking, it is amazing how rarely we venture any further afield than crossing the Dove at Dovedale, lunching/dining at the George at Alstonefield and occasional walks up the Manifold valley.
All that was about to change. We have long had it in the diary for today to pay a visit to the Farmers’ Market in Leek, which takes place on the third Saturday of every month.To add to the lure, Nita and Darren of Ringehay Farm, fellow Premier Cottage owners, had suggested we pop in on our way back, to see them at Ringehaye, three miles this side of Leek. Most fortuitously, we discovered later that their farm is very close to the local RSPB Coombes Valley Nature Reserve…
Everything conspired to make it a very happy day. The sun shone, we managed to find a parking spot quite near the market in spite of all the road works and hold ups, and – more than we could possibly have asked for – our very favourite Bill Bailey jazz group was playing in the market square as we arrived. The image is meant to be a video, but isn’t – and I don’t know why.
We sampled and bought homemade breads, scotch eggs (including a black pudding one), local beer, Staffordshire Cheese Co. cheese and Polish cakes (Poles who have settled in Leek). ‘Purchased out’ we then stopped for a coffee sitting outside in the sun while some Morris Dancers danced, and then wandered back to the car getting a feel of what Leek has to offer in the way of shops. 
The architecture and the history are/must be extremely fascinating but that must be for a google search or perhaps another blog, another day.
There seemed to be the usual national stores like Boots (we saw two branches) but lots also of little ‘Totally Locally’ one-off shops, many looking very attractive. The overall atmosphere seemed cheerful and purposeful, although at the moment somewhat hampered by rather extensive roadworks but once out of the car it doesn’t really matter. And by sheer good luck we managed to get out of Leek extremely quickly.
Our next port of call was the RSPB Coombes Valley Nature Reserve, in a beautiful wooded steep valley setting this side of Leek. We only had time for a quick walk and a couple of chats with two of the very helpful volunteers there but we shall certainly return and feel that many of our guests who are interested in birds and ‘nature’ would enjoy a visit, so we came back armed with pamphlets for our barns.
Then, next stop: Nita and Darren at Ringehay Farm. We were so impressed. Their setting is superb and their stone buildings very attractive: not a pale grey limestone like ours but wonderfully muted shades of grey, pinks and olive greens.
We didn’t take any photos, strangely, but if you look on their website you will see what we mean. They have at least five rather beautiful dogs (see Jess, just one of them, on the left) and two holiday cottages, one sleeping six and one four and although we couldn’t see inside as both were occupied we came away feeling we would love to stay there. We do not always feel that!
We had a good day. if this blog post sounds too cosily enthusiastic, I hasten to assure you it comes from the heart, no money or promises have been exchanged with anyone, not even Jess!
Once again, smitten with guilt (and disappointment because I really love what feels like a personal letter to ‘you’) I try to cover up an embarrassing week’s absence from the blog.
There seems to be a lot going on in all the different sectors of my life, more than I sometimes find easy to squeeze into the day. One way and another we have had a very full time recently, partly work, partly pleasure, the former tending to have to be squeezed in rather late into the evening when all other commitments have ended, which does nothing for the maintenance of youthful looks or joie de vivre of the next day (and so on)…
Tonight half the village, clutching cushions and bottles of wine, hurried to the village Memorial Hall for the eagerly awaited Parwich Cinema’s one-night’s showing of the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Like many others we has already seen it, but enjoyed it so much we very much wanted to see it again. As John and I approached the hall we were surprised to see that dozens of people were walking away in the opposite direction. Was there some other excitement to which they scurried? No, it turns out the cinema remote control had gone missing since the last village wedding. The spare was safely locked up in the house of someone on a far-off holiday, so the film could not be shown.
So back we all trudged but at least it means I now have time to return to the blog! So it’s not all bad, and the film will be rearranged for a day when the remote control becomes available…
To think back to last weekend, we went to a very memorable 50th birthday party of a friend in Lichfield, followed by lunch with another friend, owner of the beautiful Bronte, who has just moved into a wonderful new to her but very old timbered house near Repton. We sat in the sun all afternoon, something that has not happened very often this year. There followed then a couple of days of meetings and ‘catch up’ then we had the great pleasure of seeing Lorna, a friend from childhood (our parents were friends and we never have not known each other, if you know what I mean) but who now lives in Gloucestershire so we don’t see her that often.
They came to supper on Wednesday, then yesterday, Lorna, her husband and two friends asked us to join them on a walk up the Dove from Dovedale. Having dropped us at the car park, John and Lorna’s husband were to transport the picnic to Milldale where they would meet us for lunch. This significantly meant I had no back up camera pro at my side and would have to rely on my mobile phone camera.
It was sunny and warm and peaceful, once we had passed the scores of school parties on ‘educational’ trips clutching clipboards with questions they could hardly read. One little group of very young boys who approached us for their ‘survey’ were struggling so hard to read their questions they were relieved to pass them to us to read them out to ourselves before answering!
We stopped to photograph a heron (or was it two? We weren’t sure) on the water, patiently waiting for lunch to swim his way. The Dove is so clear we could see the little minnows that he occasionally snapped up, but we could also see what looked like a trout, over a foot long, skulking in the shadow of the overhanging trees. Either the heron didn’t spot him or we were too impatient, but he suddenly flew off. So when we came across another (?) heron later we weren’t sure if it were one and the same.
In my enthusiasm I over-zoomed my mobile phone camera so all but a couple of photos are hopeless. However, to my fortune and pleasure, who should we bump into but Martin and Sue, who were staying in Douglas’s Barn! What a small world… They very kindly gave me their two photos of the heron so all was not lost!
There followed a lovely picnic in the sunshine at Milldale; having had lots of heron views, but no kingfishers. Maybe next time?
A quick 90 second flit over the hills to Brassington to one of our very favourite pubs, The Olde Gate in Brassington. Now, there’s a challenge – can you do it in less? See below…
In fact the walk takes an hour at a reasonably vigorous rate but this speeded up video will show you the route in a minute and a half. Many of our Tom’s and Douglas’s Barn guests – like we ourselves – love nothing better than to walk over the hills for lunch at the Gate, and then back again (only don’t go on a Monday or a Tuesday because they won’t be open!). Before they go for the first time our lovely guests usually – trustingly – ask us for the best route; we then go into elaborate detail and after the first ‘turn right then immediately left over a stile’ their eyes glaze over and you can tell you there are already lost even before they have set off. They consult maps and always get there in the end, but sometimes by a less than obvious route.
This August Bank Holiday our son Nick and (English) daughter Ruth (as against our Australian daughter, Sara) came home for the weekend. Nick arrived a day earlier than his sister and we confided to him our problem and he immediately offered to do a video. Needless to say we accepted with alacrity, so much so that I did not think of changing into more elegant walking gear than my unironed ‘work’ trousers and an old cotton top.
Off we set, without any to-do and certainly no time to think of a more fetching outfit. It soon turned out that his idea was that I should be filmed from behind, as I stride purposefully out, clearly negotiating each turning in the route. I fancied pointing out the beautiful views and the particularly attractive farm one passes, but Nick felt this would be nothing but a distraction when the whole aim of the exercise was to get to the pub, order a pint of Pedigree and decide what to eat from the list of Specials.
I was allowed a sneaky ‘cuckoo’ at the Cuckoo Gate not far from our house for which I am grateful. We love that echo!
This is very much a first, tentative attempt to provide a visual route map. We would receive any suggestions and advice gratefully, and above all, please let us know if it gets you to the Gate without a hitch, even if not in 90 seconds.
Parwich Hall and gardens
Fischer's, from the gardens
Not until next month but I have to put it in, Robert and Alice Shields are opening their gardens at Parwich Hall in aid of the Friends of the Peak District which should be a lovely event especially if the weather is good and if you’re staying here it is only a few hundred yards away so not far to go.If all this activity has worked up a bit of an appetite, a real top top tip is to book yourself in at Fischer’s for their 20.12 Luncheon. We can vouch for this personally and cannot recommend it too highly. You can of course add another course, and wine…but you need not if you wish to keep to budget. Needless to say we did not. Afterwards you can stroll in the lovely garden and admire their organic veg patch or if the weather is obliging, just sit in the sun and feel happy that you came! The offer goes on until the end of November. We shall certainly be returning, several times.
A new dimension to the Tom’s Barn blog… Well, you didn’t expect to get a sports report, but on the other hand, you weren’t perhaps counting on the Olympics.
To our regret when everyone was applying for tickets to the Olympics we didn’t really bother. Probably all the misery-guts who were predicting disasters left right and centre didn’t help but had we known the excitement and pleasure the games are giving everyone now we certainly would have been less apathetic. However, thanks to our friends Deborah and Martin who invited us to join them at Old Trafford for the football Brazil/South Korea semi-final, we can say we have attended an Olympic event!
Everything was wonderfully well-organised. We had terrific seats, and were also fairly near a big television screen. The football itself was unimpressive. I have watched enough football including many prep school matches to know how exciting a fast-moving and tactical game can be and this was not. Goodness knows how Brazil even managed three goals: both sides seemed to spend most of the time patting the ball back and forth between themselves generally moving toward their own goal rather than the opposition’s.
Far more interesting was the crowd – nearly 70,000. Good-natured, well-behaved and all enjoying the occasion even if not the football. There was chanting, drumming, Mexican waves and plenty of amusing costumes. 
The only jarring note was being aware of the fact that Team GB was beaten by South Korea, who last night looked as if they couldn’t beat a soul. So, to repeat myself, a great occasion, unimpressive football. Did the papers say the same I wonder?
Super Saturday it really was! Gripping television and inspiring performances by our athletes including Jessica Ennis who comes from Sheffield. We watched entranced, together with no doubt most of Britain unable to tear ourselves away even to write a blog post (sorry) but now I have successfully wrenched myself away from the tennis doubles, having had the satisfaction of seeing Andy Murray romp through to a singles Gold medal apparently easilybeating his old rival, Roger Federer apparently (they make it look so simple…).
Our daughter Ruthie came up from London, which she reports as buzzing with excitement and a real atmosphere of goodwill and happiness whilst the roads and tube stations are pleasantly quiet and crowd free! We met her at Derby station, and before we allowed ourselves to start watching the games 
we stopped off at the Gate in Brassington for a delightful lunch, eaten in the sunshine in the garden almost on our own (was everybody else already watching the box?). I had Goats Cheese en Croute, with Pears and Walnut and truly delicious it was. The photos here have none of John’s expertise as I simply pressed and clicked with my mobile phone camera. without much thought of anything other than capturing the moment.
Ruthie and I decided to walk back home, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine and working off just some of the large lunch we’d enjoyed. We left John to take the car back, but he had his camera with him so he was happy about that. Those of you who know the walk will recognise our route, turn left out of the pub, and turn right when if you go straight on it takes you to Bradbourne…
Having turned right and rounded the bend at the top of the hill, we saw a herd of 25 cows and heifers on the lane, munching happily on the verges. We could see no open gates so hoped that by walking gently on we might be able to encourage them to return to the field they’d obviously escaped from.However, they set resolutely off at a spanking pace and we soon realised they’d need to be intercepted before they got into the B5056. 
The B5056 may only be a B road but it carries a fair amount of traffic bound for Longcliffe and Bakewell, and the lane meets it between two blind corners.
We rang a local farmer, who didn’t know whose cows they were but said he’d ring around. We waited anxiously but nothing happened, and becoming seriously concerned we rang the non-emergency police number. Waiting for them we climbed over gates onto a field at the side of the road and walked briskly along hoping we’d be able to get back onto the lane in front of the cows and at least encourage them away from the main road. At this stage two men rushed up in a truck and between them (90% and us10%) we managed to get the herd into a spare field where they propped up an gate against the entrance.
Feeling pleased with our little adventure we carried on down the now cow-free lane to the B5056 where we waited for the non-emergency police person to turn up. Having given them my name we did not fancy them turning up to view a field of happily grazing cows looking quite at home albeit in a strange field – but they weren’t to know that – and would no doubt have put my name down at the top of their list of nut cases who make fake calls to the police!
They did turn up, forty minutes after we rang. The action was all over by then, but they were very appreciative, probably only realising then that there could have been real mayhem had the cows got onto the road (on the bend between two blind corners) with cars piling up against them from both directions.
thanked us and drove off up the lane to inspect.
Then the heavens opened! It is the first time in all the years we have been walking to the Gate 
that we have got wet, but we certainly got rained upon this time. However, it wasn’t cold and buoyed up by our adventure, the good lunch and fresh air it didn’t matter, and John was at home with warm towels on the Aga, tea and cake (and the Olympics) at the ready.
The icing on the cake, so to speak, was our friend Aida from next door, who popped in later with a tray of the most interesting looking mushrooms she’d bought as a present for us from Wirksworth Farmers’ Market. Conceding that they were photographically beautiful, John wasn’t sure about the wisdom of eating them until Ruthie concocted the most delicious and delicately flavoured pasta and mushrooms for supper from our River Cafe cookbook which he ate with the greatest of gusto and absolutely no restraint whatsoever and lives to tell the tale.
And now we settle down snugly and totally inert to watch Hussain and others stretch themselves physically. Perfection!
Today, Tuesday 24th July, has been wondrously hot, the hottest day of the year, apparently.
I tore myself away from the computer (EQM re-assessment being an urgent priority, went outside complete with sun hat, Factor 50, and ‘All Passion Spent’ by Vita Sackville-West, my book for our book club meeting tomorrow night. I settled on one of our lovely wooden ‘loungers’. The air was still, the sun shone, the odd bee buzzed and in the far-off background one could hear our local farmers, frantically getting in their silage which has been such a worry over the last few wet weeks.
I lasted all of ten minutes – someone brought up in the tropics who used to play tennis in the midday tropical sun… It was too hot! Too hot to read, too hot to even think of taking a photograph. It was such a relief to come back into the cool of our lovely old house with its thick stone walls which mean it is never too hot, never too cold.
So back I went to the computer. And now rather late in the day I must tackle my second read of the book which, incidentally, I am loving. (I will report back after book club.)
A little bridge on the way to Tissingon
Just when I was beginning to wilt anyway, John came into the study and said he was thinking of a trip to Tissington plus camera to see what was going on there at the pond and what about lunch at the Tissington Coach House? Leaping at the chance we decided that he would be driving with tripods etc, but I would walk over to meet him there and (hopeful) be offered a lift back with him in the car.
So off he went and off I went.
It is such a pleasant walk: relatively short but with plenty to stop one feeling bored, with bridges to cross and stiles to climb; it is steep enough in parts to make it necessary to stop from time to time to enjoy the view and take one’s time over some photographs (point and shoot mobile phone camera in my case).
The views are stunning with nothing to mar the scenery but the occasional farm looking like part of the landscape anyway. It is blissfully quiet, and all one could hear this morning was cows, munching grass, loudly, and the bleating of sheep. I met precisely two people, a couple strolling along in the opposite direction.
It's not too late to turn back...
The hall was looking lovely in the sunshine although you wouldn’t guess it looking at my photographs so I haven’t bothered to include them. In front of it were scores of girls in blue, apparently Girl Guides from Poland, who were relaxing on the grass waiting to be shown round the hall.
We lingered as long as we could, soaking up the sunshine and the pleasantly drowsy, summery atmosphere before driving home over the ford. Then back to the computer, but feeling wonderfully refreshed.
A Busy Orchard Farm bee
Using ‘Social Meeja’ is a networking must for individuals and a marketing must for small business and large corporations. The large organisations have huge departments, and budgets; little people like us have nothing to call on but ourselves in a day which doesn’t grow any longer. It is very exciting, but it is also very sobering to think that we are all in thrall to the Microsoft and Google type giants who are continually competing to woo customers to their tills.
Yesterday we learnt in a fast-moving workshop that Google+ is a must, as is Pinterest, and what about LinkedIn? And Facebook has completely changed all its rules so we must learn them, and Twitter – a mass of hyperlinks and self-promotion perhaps should (or so it seems to me as a Twitter ignoramus). Everything is getting slicker, quicker, different. How quickly things change…
Twelve years ago when Tom’s Barn was first born as a ‘top of the (then) range’ luxury holiday cottage for two, we did not even have a website. At first we used a letting agency, and as one of several thousand properties we featured in their brochure. The whole process of booking was lengthy and time-consuming as all our correspondence was done by post and guests paid by cheque. The agency jealously guarded the rights to ‘their’ property and strongly discouraged returning guests or others from trying to make any independent approaches at all, even when they had not provided a booking for the dates in question.
We quite soon decided to break away from the agency. As we launched out into the scary unknown, we realised there was a price to be paid for exciting independence in terms of cash and hard work and as well as everything else we would have to provide our own publicity. We designed our first, extremely amateur leaflet ourselves (soon replaced by an extremely expensive but much more ‘grownup’ version. Then we commissioned our first website which we thought was wonderfully sophisticated but was actually rather lumbering and cumbersome and we had to rely on the very patient designer man to make every change that was necessary which could mean waiting months.
We were accepted to join Premier Cottages who also had a website, but also cumbersome in current terms. And now we are on our fourth website version, the majority of bookings are done online, all correspondence is done by email. And do we have more time now that everything is so slick? For all sorts of good reasons the answer seems to be less than ever…! The not so good reason is the lure of social networking – enjoying what you can do, and trying to get to grips with what you are still tackling. Facebook is the biggest time-waster, but such fun. I have started with Pinterest and Google+ and am determined to make a go of both, eventually. Of the two Google+ is thought to be potentially very important for all sorts of Google-significant reasons including featuring well on Google searches.
My current dilemma is I can’t seem to find more than about ten of our friends, colleagues and business contacts who use it yet. If any kind soul reads this who can help out, please let us join circles!!! Otherwise, just pity me.
I have had the pleasure of managing Tom and Douglas Barns for 10 Years and felt it was time to enjoy a bit more of my retirement. The barns will continue to be holiday cottages and will be maintained to the standard that all previous guests have enjoyed. The only change is that Sykes Cottages […]
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The weather has been so wet but our barns offer a cosy retreat in beautiful countryside. Why not pack a bag for a few days and have a break . We have extended our spring prices until mid June and reduced our summer prices. It would be lovely to see you for a few days […]
