“The cottage address is Thropton but it is in fact a five mile drive away, down narrow roads or a walk across three fields, ok in the summer but not on a wet autumn day.”
The heating system cannot be put on a timer and the instructions explicitly state that it can be put on for an hour at a time by pressing a switch in the boiler room. So you have to keep getting up and pressing the switch to maintain any degree of warmth. No matter how many times you do this, the bedrooms and bathroom never got warm and it was not pleasant, in the morning, to have to get up and either put on the additional radiators or go downstairs to put on the heating. It was frosty overnight on two nights so the bedroom was positively Siberian those days! It is inconceivable, these days, that you are not allowed to have the heating on a timer.
The cottage was relatively clean but did have a general air of not being cared for. There was old spilled milk in the fridge which had turned cheesy, and particularly horrible to find, hairs in the bath plughole.
The equipment was just about adequate for a self catering holiday, although having said that I wouldn't want to try and cook a Christmas dinner! There wasn't a full set of glasses and the impression is that it is old unwanted stuff that has been used to equip the cottage.
We have had four self catering holidays this year and this cottage falls far behind the others, at every level and is poor value for money. One positive was the welcome pack, but why no tea or coffee?!
The overwhelming feeling is of cheerlessness and a place that is unloved and not cared for.
I could not recommend a stay in this cottage and would, obviously, not return there.
