Kent self catering accommodation, near Canterbury, England
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
Canterbury has three park and ride bus facilities which all provide regular parking into the town centre shops and visitor attractions to relief traffic into the city. There are also regular buses to and from Canterbury to Bridge.
Regular recycling is encouraged and made easy by fortnightly collections from the doorstep. We use this ourselves and encourage all our guests to recycle whenever they can during their stay. We use low energy light bulbs throughout our house and cottage wherever possible. We get our wood for the woodburners from a local renewable source.
We support both English heritage and National trust as members, attending many of the local properties in this area several times a year and displaying their literature in our cottage for guests to refer to and visit if they wish.
When we moved into our house with adjoining cottage there was some repair and renovation to be done. We are fortunate to have a roof made of kent peg tiles so when we needed to replace some of these tiles we had to use kent peg tiles again. We have used local carpenters to repair and restore rotting window frames and as it is a listed building we had to keep everything within character of the age of the building. The chimney breast and outside walls that have needed repointing have been done with lime and mortar rather than concrete which would not allow the house to move and 'breathe'. The damp cellar needed water proofing and again so as not to affect the structure of the building this was drylined and again this still lets the room 'breathe'.
Community
A local farmers market sells good produce in the village two Saturday mornings every month which is well attended and supported by us and our neighbours. We also support the local community events in the village which are a regular event such as coffee mornings, book fairs, village and school fetes. The three local pubs all serve food and drinks and welcome families and are all within walking distance from the cottage. Menus of the pub/ restaurants are displayed in the cottage. We have visited and tasted food from the pubs and spoken to the landlords about our holiday cottage and said we were encouraging our guests to visit the local pubs by displaying their menus for which they are very grateful. A copy of the local village magazine is available in the cottage for guest to see and this provides dates and times of the local church services as well as events in the village and adverts for local shops displaying their opening times. Charlton Lodge in the nearby village of Bishopbourne puts on entertainment from outdoor theatre, music events, craft fairs and dance classes amongst others which we support and advertise in the cottage with leaflets of up and coming events. We display a large amount of local places that are worth a visit and a visitor book where we encourage guests to recommend places to go. If we get enquiries about bookings for dates already booked we recommend one or two other places to stay nearby and this is reciprocated.
Landscape
Elham valley is a beautiful area to discover on foot and the cottage displays several walking books on local routes to take as well as literature about other walks in the surrounding areas. Bridge is a village steeped on history and the book about local history is displayed in the cottage for guests to read. Living and raising a family in the area of Canterbury now for over 20 years we have an enormous amount of local knowledge including places to visit for families with young or older children. places of historical interest such as the Cathedral, English heritage and national trust properties, places to walk and enjoy the beauty of the countryside, seasides and cliffs, places to enjoy animals and wildlife, such a Samphire Hoe, Howletts wild animal park, Blean Wood, local amenities such as supermarkets, Doctors, cinemas, and theatres and good places to eat in the city centre and in the local villages. We try to provide a fair and honest opinion when asked about local places and whether they are worth a visit.
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