Self catering cottages in Herefordshire
| country: | England, UK |
| location: | Marden, near HerefordSee map here |
| price: | From £250 - £430 per cottage per week (sleeps 4-5). Price depends on season and choice of cottage. |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
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introduction to Self catering cottages in Herefordshire
Jean and Paul welcome you to their award winning eco-friendly cottages in Herefordshire. Tastefully converted from the former barn and cider press, they combine 4 Star comfort with many features designed to reduce our ecological footprint. Nestling in a peaceful rural hamlet, yet on a local bus route, they offer easy access to the market town of Leominster and the Cathedral city of Hereford. Each cottage sleeps up to 5, we have lovely walks from the door, a large child-friendly garden, and provide all bed linen and towels. We are happy to take bookings for short breaks, as well as full holiday weeks, or even longer stays.
Both cottages are fully heated, are light and airy, have spacious halls, large dual aspect living/dining rooms and modern fitted kitchens. Peace Cottage also has a downstairs cloakroom and a woodburner. Upstairs there is one double bedroom and one with twin beds, both with lovely views over the gardens and surrounding countryside. Both recently refitted bathrooms have showers, washbasins and low flush WCs, and Peace Cottage also has a bath. There are colour TV’s, combi DVD/VCR’s, stereo systems and wireless internet, and we have lockable cycle storage.
Both cottages have dedicated sunny outside sitting areas, and guests are welcome to enjoy the main back lawn and also the front garden and wildlife pond (and frogs!). Excellent walks will take you past lakes, through woodland and to the local river, and on to a Nature Reserve. There is also a hill fort and several pubs and tea rooms within walking distance.
Also within a 4 mile radius we have the excellent ‘England’s Gate’ country pub, Broadfield Court vineyard with good food restaurant, a golf course with tea room, Shortwood Family Farm, Hampton Court Castle and Gardens, Queenswood Country Park and Arboretum, and plenty of places where you can enjoy fresh local produce.
Within 8 miles, and accessible by our local bus, is both the Cathedral City of Hereford and the market town of Leominster. Hereford’s attractions include the Cathedral and the Mappa Mundi exhibition, the Cider Museum and the Waterworks Museum, Art of Living Holistic Health Centre and organic café, and all the usual facilities of a small city. Leominster is full of historic buildings and has a brilliant range of local shops, including numerous antique shops and book shops. Within the area there are many places where you can enjoy and buy excellent local and organic produce.
Both cottages are fully heated, are light and airy, have spacious halls, large dual aspect living/dining rooms and modern fitted kitchens. Peace Cottage also has a downstairs cloakroom and a woodburner. Upstairs there is one double bedroom and one with twin beds, both with lovely views over the gardens and surrounding countryside. Both recently refitted bathrooms have showers, washbasins and low flush WCs, and Peace Cottage also has a bath. There are colour TV’s, combi DVD/VCR’s, stereo systems and wireless internet, and we have lockable cycle storage.
Both cottages have dedicated sunny outside sitting areas, and guests are welcome to enjoy the main back lawn and also the front garden and wildlife pond (and frogs!). Excellent walks will take you past lakes, through woodland and to the local river, and on to a Nature Reserve. There is also a hill fort and several pubs and tea rooms within walking distance.
Also within a 4 mile radius we have the excellent ‘England’s Gate’ country pub, Broadfield Court vineyard with good food restaurant, a golf course with tea room, Shortwood Family Farm, Hampton Court Castle and Gardens, Queenswood Country Park and Arboretum, and plenty of places where you can enjoy fresh local produce.
Within 8 miles, and accessible by our local bus, is both the Cathedral City of Hereford and the market town of Leominster. Hereford’s attractions include the Cathedral and the Mappa Mundi exhibition, the Cider Museum and the Waterworks Museum, Art of Living Holistic Health Centre and organic café, and all the usual facilities of a small city. Leominster is full of historic buildings and has a brilliant range of local shops, including numerous antique shops and book shops. Within the area there are many places where you can enjoy and buy excellent local and organic produce.
rooms, food and facilities
We have two cottages, both of which are fully heated, light and airy, have spacious halls, large dual aspect living/dining rooms and modern fitted kitchens.
Both cottages: Have colour TV’s, combi DVD/VCR’s, stereo systems and wireless internet, and we have lockable cycle storage. Both cottages have dedicated sunny outside sitting areas, and guests are welcome to enjoy the main back lawn and also the front garden and wildlife pond (and frogs!).
Hope Cottage
This attractive fully heated cottage has two bedrooms and was recently renovated, with new pine kitchen and newly fitted shower room. Downstairs the light and airy hall has plenty of room for coats and boots. The spacious dual-aspect living/dining room is well furnished with comfortable seating, pine dining table and chairs, dresser and well-stocked bookshelves.
The new kitchen has integral gas hob, built-in electric oven and extractor hood, one and a half bowl sink, microwave and fridge freezer, with pleasant views over the rear terrace and garden. There are good quality cooking utensils, and generous quantities of crockery, cutlery and tableware. Guests in Hope Cottage are welcome to use the washing machine in our utility room. Sunny outdoor sitting areas back and front.
Upstairs are two good-sized bedrooms, both overlooking the garden and surrounding countryside, and a shower room. The front bedroom has a double bed, large dormer window and some exposed beams. The rear bedroom has twin beds, large dormer window and washbasin. The newly fitted shower room has an extra large shower enclosure with Mira power shower, washbasin, wc and Velux roof window. Cot, high chair and third child’s put-u-up bed all available if required.
Peace Cottage
This attractive fully heated cottage, which is slightly the larger cottage, has two bedrooms and was recently renovated, with new oak kitchen and newly fitted bath room. Downstairs the light and airy hall has plenty of room for coats and boots, and there is also a downstairs cloakroom. The spacious dual-aspect living/dining room has exposed beams, and is well furnished with comfortable seating, cosy woodburner, oak dining table and chairs, dresser and bookshelves.
The newly fitted kitchen has integral gas hob, built-in electric oven and extractor hood, one and a half bowl sink, microwave, fridge freezer and washing machine, with pleasant views over the rear terrace and garden. The kitchen is extremely well equipped with good quality cooking utensils, and generous quantities of crockery, cutlery and tableware. Sunny outside sitting areas.
Upstairs there are two good-sized bedrooms, both overlooking the garden and surrounding countryside, and a bathroom. The front bedroom has a double bed, large dormer window and exposed beams. The rear bedroom has twin beds, large dormer window, washbasin and exposed beams. The newly fitted bathroom has a bath, separate shower enclosure, washbasin, wc and Velux roof window. Cot, high chair and third child’s put-u-up bed are all available if required. Both cottages are no smoking.
Family and baby friendly: We welcome families with children, and supply games, books, videos etc for children’s entertainment. We also have a large child-friendly garden, which is ideal for outdoor play and games. We are less than 3 miles from Shortwood Family Farm, which has many attractions for children.
We welcome families with babies, and provide cots and high-chairs.
Cycling and walking friendly: We welcome cyclists and walkers, have secure bicycle storage, and are accredited Walkers and Cyclists Welcome.
Pet friendly: We welcome dogs in Peace Cottage, and there are wonderful walks from the door that your
dog will really enjoy! We are at present unable to accommodate dogs and pets in Hope Cottage.
By air: The nearest airport is Birmingham, with rail connections to Hereford.
Both cottages: Have colour TV’s, combi DVD/VCR’s, stereo systems and wireless internet, and we have lockable cycle storage. Both cottages have dedicated sunny outside sitting areas, and guests are welcome to enjoy the main back lawn and also the front garden and wildlife pond (and frogs!).
Hope Cottage
This attractive fully heated cottage has two bedrooms and was recently renovated, with new pine kitchen and newly fitted shower room. Downstairs the light and airy hall has plenty of room for coats and boots. The spacious dual-aspect living/dining room is well furnished with comfortable seating, pine dining table and chairs, dresser and well-stocked bookshelves. The new kitchen has integral gas hob, built-in electric oven and extractor hood, one and a half bowl sink, microwave and fridge freezer, with pleasant views over the rear terrace and garden. There are good quality cooking utensils, and generous quantities of crockery, cutlery and tableware. Guests in Hope Cottage are welcome to use the washing machine in our utility room. Sunny outdoor sitting areas back and front.
Upstairs are two good-sized bedrooms, both overlooking the garden and surrounding countryside, and a shower room. The front bedroom has a double bed, large dormer window and some exposed beams. The rear bedroom has twin beds, large dormer window and washbasin. The newly fitted shower room has an extra large shower enclosure with Mira power shower, washbasin, wc and Velux roof window. Cot, high chair and third child’s put-u-up bed all available if required.
Peace Cottage
This attractive fully heated cottage, which is slightly the larger cottage, has two bedrooms and was recently renovated, with new oak kitchen and newly fitted bath room. Downstairs the light and airy hall has plenty of room for coats and boots, and there is also a downstairs cloakroom. The spacious dual-aspect living/dining room has exposed beams, and is well furnished with comfortable seating, cosy woodburner, oak dining table and chairs, dresser and bookshelves. The newly fitted kitchen has integral gas hob, built-in electric oven and extractor hood, one and a half bowl sink, microwave, fridge freezer and washing machine, with pleasant views over the rear terrace and garden. The kitchen is extremely well equipped with good quality cooking utensils, and generous quantities of crockery, cutlery and tableware. Sunny outside sitting areas.
Upstairs there are two good-sized bedrooms, both overlooking the garden and surrounding countryside, and a bathroom. The front bedroom has a double bed, large dormer window and exposed beams. The rear bedroom has twin beds, large dormer window, washbasin and exposed beams. The newly fitted bathroom has a bath, separate shower enclosure, washbasin, wc and Velux roof window. Cot, high chair and third child’s put-u-up bed are all available if required. Both cottages are no smoking.
Family and baby friendly: We welcome families with children, and supply games, books, videos etc for children’s entertainment. We also have a large child-friendly garden, which is ideal for outdoor play and games. We are less than 3 miles from Shortwood Family Farm, which has many attractions for children.We welcome families with babies, and provide cots and high-chairs.
Cycling and walking friendly: We welcome cyclists and walkers, have secure bicycle storage, and are accredited Walkers and Cyclists Welcome.
Pet friendly: We welcome dogs in Peace Cottage, and there are wonderful walks from the door that your
dog will really enjoy! We are at present unable to accommodate dogs and pets in Hope Cottage.
how to find us
By rail: The nearest railway station is Hereford (7 Miles), although Leominster (8 miles) can also be used if you are coming from the North. There are several buses a day from outside the station in Hereford right to our door, and one in the afternoon from Leominster, and we are happy to collect guests if there is no convenient bus. By air: The nearest airport is Birmingham, with rail connections to Hereford.
how this holiday makes a difference
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Environment
We have been here since 2005, and it has given us a wonderful opportunity to put some of our ideas and ideals into practice. It was particularly important to us to minimise our environmental footprint, and so we were delighted when we recently won one of the national ‘Best performer’ Awards in the Green Tourism Business Scheme. We currently have their Silver Grading, but by following their recommendations and making other improvements, we certainly hope to be up to ‘Gold’ by the time of their next visit. When we renovated the cottages we installed solar panels and woodburners to reduce our use of electricity and oil. We installed showers and low flush toilets in order to cut down on water consumption. We insulated the lofts with a combination of Warmcel (recycled newspapers) and sheepswool, and used environmentally friendly paints throughout. We installed energy efficient appliances and low energy light bulbs in order to reduce our electricity consumption, and monitor water and electricity consumption every month. We buy our electricity from Ecotricity, who are a green company who invest all their surplus revenue in the construction of new wind farms. We only use environmentally friendly cleaning materials, and this helps to keep our septic tanks running smoothly, and so we can deal with our own sewage. We recycle bottles, cans, cardboard, newspapers, plastics, and make special arrangements to deal with hazardous waste. We also have organic composting facilities, and a green cone for other food waste. Our gardens are organic, and we offer seasonal surpluses from our veggie garden to our guests. We encourage wildlife, and have a large natural pond for our resident frogs, toads and newts. We have planted a small orchard, and also have a tree nursery, and we are currently (2009) in the middle of a four year project to plant over 20,000 native trees on our land over the border in Wales. We always try and mend things, rather than throw them away, and often re-use things that other people have discarded. We actively encourage guests to support us to minimise our environmental impact, and encourage them to incorporate some of our ideas into their own homes. Community We strongly promote all the local attractions and encourage guests to use the local bus service, and will collect guests from the station if there is no convenient bus. We support local suppliers and contractors, and are members of the local Greenlinks organisation. Our welcome baskets (complimentary for stays of a week or longer) include a selection of local, organic or fair-trade produce. We buy many items in bulk from a workers’ co-operative. We make regular donations to both Friends of the Earth and to Tree Aid (a small charity working to support communities and the environment in Africa’s drylands. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |
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