Reserve List for Last Minute Availability

Both Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns are fully booked now until August (Douglas’s Barn) and September (Tom’s Barn). But when people have booked well  ahead, cancellations are always on the cards so we are starting a ‘last minute reserve list’ for  those who may have been too late to get the date they wanted earlier.

We get the strong feeling that in spite of – indeed probably because of – the current economic uncertainly more and more people are desperately keen to seize a few precious days away, as far removed as possible from the daily grind, the continual daily stresses and strains, the noise and the rush.

After all, what price can one put on peace and serenity? And to find it is easily available, not far from home yet feeling a million miles away… We’re talking about nothing more mystical than the chance to enjoy some peace and quiet and fresh air and comfort – walking in the beautiful Peak District, delicious meals in lovely pubs, coming back to a warm and welcoming ‘home from home’ (but without your real home’s responsibilities).

Planning ahead is part of the magic – so often people say when they have rung up to book ‘”I feel better already, just thinking of it.” But sometimes, a last minute spur of the moment unplanned trip could be just as exciting. Personally I am full of admiration for anyone who can so organise their lives as to be able to drop everything and go at relatively short notice but we are know that there are many who are.

So, if you would like to be on ‘Cancellation standby’ please let us know. We’ll ask Jeremy our lovely webman to hep us devise a suitable form but in the meantime, we have already started a list. We will always advertise sudden gaps and availability on our website but we appreciate that not everyone is permanently glued to our site so a quick email or text (preferably) or phone call wouldn’t come amiss.

It will be a question of first come, first served – your place on the list won’t mean you are in a better or worse position because the emails would go out at the same time. And we won’t keep your name on the list for ever, unless of course you ask us to!

Tom’s & Douglas’s Barns: our New Website

Our new-look website was launched late yesterday (Wed 12th Jan) afternoon. Jeremy Brough our webman and friend has worked hard on this, and so in a more modest way have John and I. Now it is up and public we are standing back and patiently tweaking oddities but Jeremy has done such a good job we haven’t found too many yet.

But the trouble is when you’ve been looking at something for a while, you tend to see what you expect to see, not always what is actually there…so this is where anyone reading this can help. We’d be really grateful for any comments or suggestions – if there is something incorrect or that doesn’t work properly we’d like to know, please – we need to know!

There is lots more we will put in over the next few months – more info in the More Info section for a start, including more links to what you can do locally, and about local pubs and restaurants. Suggestions gratefully received

Revamping the Website for Tom’s & Douglas’s Barns

We have some exciting news about our website, which sometime next week will transfer to a new format. It won’t look very different, but technically it will be. And it should look (even) better.

In fact, if  we were selling a soap powder I expect the headline would have been ‘New Improved!!!’ ‘Now  even better then ever!!!’ building up one fears to almost inevitable disappointment when the new product often seems a bit of a let down.

So we do hope you won’t be disappointed. The somewhat cautious headline to this post reveals more than a degree of anxiety on my part, not I hasten to say about the part of Jeremy our web man in whose IT expertise we have every confidence. He however has to rely on us, mainly John for photos and me for the content and this is where you might say the weak link is – where our anxieties lie. We’re not actually changing much of what we say but just bringing everything totally up to date and hopefully, where it’s possible, actually genuinely – improving it! It is taking quite a lot of thought and time.

Eventually, and hopefully from the start it really will be new improved and better…

Do ‘bear with us’ as they say if there are some glitches. Any that do appear will be speedily ironed out but if you notice anything please let us know, by phone, email or comment on this post on our blog. There could be some that in our excitement we simply don’t see.

The blog meanwhile will stay as it is, our security blanket. Any urgent messages or disclaimers as the move takes place will appear here!

Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns – Romantic Getaways

We are delighted to report that our barns are featured in the February Country Homes & Interiors magazine, out today, as one of their four selected Romantic Getaways. They must have St Valentine’s Day in mind (which rather impractically for a romantic short break this year falls on a Monday short break changeover but it does mean that four lucky couples have the opportunity to celebrate at least part of the day!).

We haven’t actually seen the magazine  yet, but they kindly sent us  a pdf of the article so we know it exists. We had actually been asked permission some time ago, but had no idea whether it would materialise, or if it did,  what it would say. (Some of you may remember a disappointing build up  to an article about John and me being grey-haired technology whizz kids that the Daily Telegraph was planning last summer…)

We are delighted and relieved to say it looks fine! We immediately had an enquiry for two bookings and it will be intriguing to see if there any more. Even the nearby Tissington Trail is described as being romantic, which, seriously, is quite possibly very true but I’d never thought of it like that before.

Apparently Country Homes & Interiors doesn’t have a website as such which for these days is unusual but they are on Facebook and they have given us the Country Homes and Interiors Facebook link. I’m ashamed to say it has been a particularly busy day for us today and we haven’t even had the time to follow it up ourselves but will do so. Whether it will show the relevant article I’d say is doubtful, but it is a lovely magazine…

A White Christmas for Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns?

It looks highly likely the snow will stay.

Both lots of Christmas guests have arrived safely, and managed to get their cars up the final slope. The barns are warm and snug as usual, and feeling very Christmassy especially with the snow outside (although there’s a paltry amount compared to what we had nearly a month ago!). John tried to capture  an idea of what snow there is in this image on the right – if you double click on the image you get a better idea of how nice it all looks.

We managed to find two small – but almost perfectly formed – Christmas trees and with a bit of holly and poinsettia not to forget the usual lilies and a plate full of Orchard Farm’s unique Christmas Bakewell and mince pies both barns look quite inviting and jolly – it would be tempting to book ourselves in but both barns are already booked for Christmas next year so we’ve clearly missed the boat there…

We brought home yesterday a new LED, HD Ready and goodness knows what else white flat screen TV for upstairs in Douglas’s Barn, pleased to update things as usual but even more pleased to beat the VAT increase in the New Year.

Now all we have to do is wrap presents and wait for Ruthie and Nick to arrive, separately, from London. Sara and her family meanwhile are enjoying the summer sunshine in Australia so no white Christmas for them.

Chatsworth Attic Sale

We had a very busy week but not so busy that I couldn’t be tempted to go to this momentous sale with our very good friend (our parents and grandparents were friends) Liza, who drove here from near Oundle on Monday, armed with her £30 Chatsworth Attic Sale catalogue, weighing 4lbs and looking like an extremely glossy telephone directory.

The sale was conducted by Sotheby’s and held over three days in a series of marquees down by the river in the Park. The Duke had stressed that it was an attic sale, essentially stuff they didn’t want or could no longer spare the space for, much of it coming from Devonshire House and other Devonshire family homes. On Monday we attended the preview, and along with scores of equally enthralled viewers ogling, dozens of dealers furtively measuring and noting, and any number of Americans talking excitedly into their mobile phones – such history, such breeding…

Indeed, such grandeur and such tat, all on such a big scale. It was wonderful. Adam marble fireplaces at least ten foot tall, dinner services for 90 but with many of the plates seriously chipped, cracked and riveted; indeed. The catalogue was extremely interesting and helpful, describing the context of each article, with relatively modest guide prices.

Liza and I felt we had to go for something, so left a bid for bathroom set which was coming up on the second or third day and which we could split into two – two china jugs and large bowls, soap dishes, two very glamorous potties and a large footbath. Our top bid was £400 (well over the guide price) but it went apparently for £1,300!

The next day, Tuesday, we managed to find seats on the front row, apparently five rows beyond Jerry Hall, but we didn’t know that until we heard it on the news later. Down one side of the marquee were about 12 to 15 people with computers, landlines and mobile phones taking Internet and telephone bids; the press was ranged along the other side. Just in case, I registered as a possible bidder and was given a ‘paddle’ numbered 5176 with which to bid if the unlikely opportunity arose.

Needless to say it didn’t. The prices were vast, as were most of the articles – an enormous length of George 11 chandelier chain (no chandelier) went for £22,000; a marble George 11 fireplace went for  £470,000 and a door (higher than most ceilings) £30,000, and so on.

What an experience! I wouldn’t have missed it for the world but sadly Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns will have no marble fireplaces or chandeliers chains installed – no cherished piece of the Devonshire family history for us to brag about.

‘Champagne & Shopping’

This will only be of interest to local friends and readers of our blog but I can’t resist sharing a tip/putting in a plug for this event.

The 2010 annual DRCS Shopping Fair takes place this week at the Maynard in Grindleford (S32 2HE for those reliant on a Satnav.)

Om Wednesday between 4 – 8 pm will be the ‘preview’ with sparkling wine, canapes and the chance to have the pick of all the exciting things for sale – plus the chance of possibly winning a diamond…! Tickets £10 per person.

The fair continues all day Thursday from 10 to 4: no champagne or canapes but snacks and drinks available from the hotel itself. Tickets for the day £5 (Or £2.50 if purchased in advance – let me know via the blog or email and I can arrange it)..

The Derwent Rural Counselling Service (DRCS) is a small but well-respected charity based it Bakewell, which provides professional counselling for local people. Last year approximately 3,000 hours of counselling were provided. Clients are asked for a donation which represents roughly 25% of the cost of providing the counselling hence the constant need for funds.

The Friends of DRCS (I am one!) work hard to support the service. We have organised this event, and next month a Comic Revue which also will be an excellent event. (John and I both appear on the stage but there are also many more extremely talented genuine pros. More about that later.

Celebrate New Year in Douglas’s Barn

What a treat for someone!

Do you fancy a memorable week in Douglas’s Barn at the end of the year, seeing out 2010 and welcoming 2011?

We have just learned this evening that the week is unexpectedly available again, having been booked for months by the same couple as came last year and had so wanted to repeat their happy time.

Unfortunately they suddenly find themselves unable to come here after all and we – having turned away goodness knows how many enquiries – are suddenly faced with a prime blank week on offer. What a chance for someone!

Our New Year week this year goes from Wed 29 December until Wed 5 January. The price, all found, is £555; we don’t on principle put the price up from our normal High Season rate for Christmas, New Year or indeed any of our Bank Holidays.

We would normally advertise the fact on our website too, but my laptop has been in a prolonged internet sulk since the Apple Macs arrived and refuses to connect in spite of all inducements. At present the laptop is the only computer from which we can edit the main website, as against the blog which is in WordPress so the only thing  we can do is to tell the world via our blog…

That will all change the minute Jeremy our webman returns home from Spain (next week) and moves the whole website over to WordPress, but, meanwhile, we are left powerless and unable to write a single word on the website.

It will be intriguing to see how long we wait before the week is snaffled up. It is a bit late but there is always likely to be someone who hasn’t found that perfect place yet and Douglas’s Barn might just turn out to be what they were waiting for. Let’s hope so.

Peak Park Perfect

When Simon Tyler of Highlight Media produced our main video a month or so ago, we really wanted to give everyone a flavour of both our barns and their setting, so everyone could have an idea of what they ere coming to in the widest sense.

We ended up having to jettison an awful lot of what we now call ‘footage’ but even so we ended up with a six minute video, which is long by modern standards.

This seemed such a waste, so we came up with the idea of using some of the scenes we had had to cut in the interests of brevity and viewers’ boredom threshold in a second shorter video which would concentrate solely on the barns and their immediate surroundings. It is short and snappy to an extreme.

It is very new, not yet up on our website, but you can take a look by clicking on this Peak Park Perfect link or by going to the Tom’s Barn YouTube channel.

Let us know what you think but don’t embarrass me by commenting on my voice or my delivery. It’s already perpetual cringe for me…

Extra ‘Little Extras’ and a Hungarian Goosedown Duvet

Technological excitements may be all right for some – for those of us poised here at the very nerve centre of the barns at Orchard Farm for example – but may be of little immediate interest or benefit to anyone else.

By chance, after a long-awaited trip to London to see Ruthie and Nick we do have  some more obviously useful practical purchases to add to the list of what you can expect  when you stay here. Firstly, stung by a guest’s admittedly only semi-serious comment about the lack of a bean slicer each barn can now boast a very modern-looking model  from Divertimenti in Marylebone High Street!! It wasn’t immediately  clear how one is even meant to use it but I am assured they do what they’re meant to.

On a more serious note, we have bought each barn a set of (quite tasteful) plastic picnic-ware from John Lewis for barbecuing and  meals outside; we felt they would be much lighter to carry in and out, and less likely to break if dropped while doing so.

And finally, on an even more serious note,  we have bought a Hungarian goose down duvet for our guests in each barn. In case anyone is feeling we are going over the top, they were (very) reduced in the Duvet & Pillow Warehouse August online sale;  we have one ourselves which we bought last year and it is brilliant – wonderfully warm and light – indeed lighter than the proverbial feather so I hope they will be enjoyed. Of course, we will still have a choice for those with feather allergies or that simply prefer a synthetic duvet.

That’s all the excitements  for the moment.