“This is so hard but I hope I can middle through and it makes sense!”
!
First impressions were amazing. The farm is quaint, and very picturesque. The Barn is stunning. The original features and quirky layout left us oohing and aahing, grinning with every new discovery.
A quick explore of the farm and we found some stunning areas. The host Jackie was lovely and told us we could go anywhere, just to be careful around the farm machinery (especially the kids). She told us if we stepped over the little electric fence in the lower field we could walk under the railway bridge and there was a beautiful circular walk around the wooded wetland, pond and river.
The upper field had lovely sheep and led up to stunning views of the area. Around the barn itself were a couple of little areas with a picnic bench and a little mown area and bench. The kids lost their shuttlecock in the very thick bushes within an hour of playing.
Out the back door of the barn a collie dog was enclosed in an old outbuilding. She barked wherever we went past as she didn't like our dog being in her territory. If you take a dog you will need to keep it on a lead at all times due to the chickens, cats and sheep on site, plus there is no secure area so if they don't have perfect recall you'll lose them (and with some of the contents of the outbuildings it's definitely not reccomended to let them roam).
The old buildings were trypical farm buildings, full of scrap and all sorts of things horded for when they will be useful. The chickens free ranged. I think they were moulting so not looking their best. Their house was enclosed with some fencing and I assume they were shut in at night. We never heard the rooster in the morning, only later in the day.
Inside the barn itself the furniture had seen better days. I liked the mismatched, antique furniture but it was very rickety, some of the handles had broken and it didn't feel all that stable. The bed was comfortable. Being an old barn the ceilings and beams in places were very low and my partner cracked his head on the bathroom door one evening.
The barn has small low windows. It is very dark inside and you need the lights on most of the time. Unfortunately some of the lights were broken, bulbs gone, etc. The extension lead in the ground floor double bedroom was very temperamental so the lamp would go off or flicker. On the other hand there is a glass roof between the lower bedroom and bathroom where light floods in. Unfortunately the lower bedroom has a quirky little window above the door with no curtain so light came in at the crack of dawn.
It wasn't the cleanest place, but all the important areas were clean. A few cobwebs never hurt anyone and just added to the charm.
The toilets flushes were very dodgy. I don't know if it's because it is on a septic tank (big notices warn not to flush anything but toilet paper, not that you should in any toilet really). The rolltop bath is lovely but it would have been more helpful to have another shower as 9 people trying to shower after a day at the beach took forever. The towels provided were tiny, just one each, and only a couple of hand towels and tea towels for the week meant we had to use the washing machine a lot.
The kitchen is ok. Not really equipped to cater for a family of 9 but we managed. The ovens are small so you always have to use lots of trays and use bothe the fan and convertional over meaning things cook in different times. You may want to bring some knives as the ones there are blunt and small.
A big issues for our family (17, 15, 14, 14, 11, 10 and 7) was the WiFi. It was just a TPLink boosted from the main house. It couldn't cope with all our devices, only just managed to let us use Google maps on our phones to plan trips out. I thought the kids might spontaneously combust but luckily we had the switch and they could play some games offline!
The reason I say this is so hard is because, despite the problems we ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!!! I would book again in a heartbeat. The area is stunning. I already knew I loved it but I found even more to love this week. Being less than perfect meant I was able to relax a little more with the kids rather than stressing about keeping it spotless. It wouldn't take much for this place to be utterly outstanding, but I think that would push it out of our price range!
So my advice is, book it, but go prepared. Take your own towels. Take some oven dishes and knives. Take tea towels and hand towels. Take washing machine tabs. Take some board games, colouring stuff etc for the kids. Download stuff to watch, listen to, play etc so you don't need the WiFi. Enjoy being disconnected for a while!
