Romantic Cottages in the West Midlands

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Amanda - Verified booking

  As soon as we walked into The CornerHouse in Rocester we knew we'd found our spiritual home.

  Beautifully decorated, maintained, furnished and curated, this house in "the JCB village" put a smile on our faces straight away. The flowers on the dining table, a welcome card from Tony & Sue and the beautiful welcome pack, with dog treats, made us feel very welcome indeed. The garden is a super size and really pretty with the, initially shared, driveway opening out into a private, gated, parking area that is a real asset. The garden is fully enclosed for our doggy pals, with plenty of sniffs to explore. We had a couple of minor issues, one being with the smart tv which needed a retune, but Tony was super responsive and came over to sort it out really quickly, which was brilliant! The village is a delight and it benefits from some of the JCB money that comes into the area. A walk around the grounds of the JCB World Headquarters site is well worth it. Although with the extensive birdlife in the grounds and on the lake you do need to keep your dog on a lead. You might even see the boss man arriving or leaving in his helicopter, as we did, how the other 0.1% live huh. Tony and Sue have thought of so many little extras in the house, things like digital scales in the kitchen if you want to cook "properly". The kind of thing that we bring from home, not usually expecting to find them! The lounge / diner is very comfortable and a good size. We didn't get to benefit from the log burner as we were there during a late summer heatwave but we can confirm that the central heating on our last, chilly, evening is super efficient. The kitchen is a delight, and very well equipped, although I would suggest that some tiles or a piece of glass are put up behind the stove top to save the beautifully painted wall from cooking splashes. The two bedrooms are super comfy with plenty of wardrobe and storage space. The bathroom has been well fitted out, although the fixed glass screen on the R shaped bath can make reaching the taps a little bit tricky on the old back, but that's a minor hassle overall. The bed linen and towels are sumptuous, together with proper flannels and liquid soap, bubble bath etc all in beautiful glass bottles. We suspect the products may come from the Eco shop in Uttoxeter but we can neither confirm nor deny that! I think Sue's keeping her sources a closely guarded secret myself ; - ) This part of the country is stunning, however we were somewhat taken aback at the relative lack of dog friendliness locally. Although Denstone Farm shop is lovely being banished with your dog to a wooden hut away from the main building that is quite literally labelled "The Dog House" isn't our idea of dog friendliness. The Ramblers Retreat slightly further afield does the same, we didn't stay there for brunch in the end because sitting in a cramped wooden shed on a cold, wet day in September really wasn't our idea of fun. We can, however, thoroughly recommend BEAR on Uttoxeter High Street. It is properly dog friendly with water bowls easily to hand for you to fill up for your pooch. Over the border in Derbyshire Chatsworth House is really dog friendly too and although there is a separate area for dog owners to sit with their hounds to eat in the Courtyard cafe you don't feel like a pariah. Indeed most of the sofas in that area were being taken up by non dog owners on the day we visited as they are so comfy! Although naturally you can't take your dog into the main house they are very welcome in the shop. A very sensible marketing trick in my humble opinion because you're far more likely to spend money somewhere where you're made to feel welcome. We didn't pay to go in the cultivated garden but the surrounding parkland makes for a great, lead on, dog walk after lunch. The Duncombe Arms in Ellastone in the next village along to Rocester is also very dog friendly, with brilliant service. We had a delicious evening meal there on the Sunday evening. All in all we can heartily recommend The Cornerhouse, we hope you enjoy your stay as much as we did. Thank you again to Tony and Sue for their hospitality.

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• Philip - Verified booking

  First the good news !

  This is a pretty little cottage within the courtyard of a restored & converted stable block. The village of West Felton is a lovely quiet Shropshire village just off the main A5 trunk road but far enough off it to be very quiet and peaceful. All the villagers we met were friendly & chatty and there is a very useful village shop and post office (post office open Wednesdays a.m.only). Sadly the village pub, the Punch Bowl, has seen better times and needs a big chunk of investment to compete with the nearby Queens Head just a mile down the road. Hope it survives ! Oswestry is just a few minutes down the road where there is more choice & several supermarkets. The cottage itself has been updated with new kitchen, bathroom and two very pleasant bedrooms (one with super king bed !). The cottage is small, ok for two but we though four adults would struggle. The refurbished bathroom is downstairs next to the kitchen which can be a bit of a hassle if you need a quick dash to the loo in the night ! This involves negotiating the steep narrow staircase with some strange step arrangements where they meet the bedrooms - needs a lot of care to negotiate safely ! The "not so good" bits ! - We have stayed at lots of Sykes cottages but this is the first one where we almost turned round and left when we saw the lounge carpet. It truly looked as though someone had held a pop festival on it, grubby, badly stained. Only fit for the skip I'm afraid. Really needs a hard floor to be in keeping with the cottage character & to cope with the wear & tear it obviously gets. The place needs a bit of TLC in a few places too - my first shower had to be aborted due to the shower waste not working properly. Had to set to and clean it out which was a bit unexpected. Similar the dishwasher which needed its filters cleaning out to work properly and the detergent dispenser wouldn't close so it was hand washing up - again not a show stopper. To maximise space the lounge has a fold down dining table with some integrated dining chairs - truly the most uncomfortable things we have ever sat on even with the addition of a cushion ! Its a shame that a bit more attention to detail & maintenance hadn't been paid because its a lovely place & could be a lot better. The owners were away when we were there otherwise we would have knocked on the door and explained all of this to them. Don't be put off, its a nice place but bear in mind the downstairs bathroom, steep narrow stairs if you have mobility issues. This is a dog friendly cottage & we had our dog with us - however the two black cats & the free range hens are boss so watch the dog !!

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• Irene Sarah - Verified booking

  We had an amazing stay at TheCorner House over the Christmas period.

  It is a delightful and cosy property with pretty much everything available that you could ask for. We took loads of stuff with us ‘just in case’ and we really didn’t need to! It is beautifully decorated and furnished and we felt at home immediately. The utility room and lovely secure garden was such a bonus with our 2 dogs, especially when the weather wasn’t so great!! We will almost certainly go back as our daughter lives nearby and sometimes she just might not want us in her house for our whole stay!!! Tony and Sue left us lots of little treats and even put up a christmas tree, hung some lights and left us a lovely vase of flowers! When I made an enquiry about something they were quick to respond and would have come to help if necessary (not needed in the end!!) It is perfectly placed for Alton Towers, Uttoxeter races, a short drive to the Peak District and lots of lovely local walks too!! The JCB lake is in easy walking distance of the property and is ideal for a not too long and not too dirty dog walk. The village of rocester itself has a friendly pub, a tasty chippy (which we sampled) and also an Indian takeaway and a local shop (which we didn’t!!). There is a farm shop in the next village and the pies from there were amazing!! It’s only a ten minute drive to Uttoxeter where you have tesco, Waitrose, asda plus lots of smaller shops! All in all, a perfect place to base yourself!

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• Rosemary - Verified booking

  I am Rosemary's companion answering this.

  We had a very comfortable stay even though the weather was not the best. The kitchen was well equipped only one addition needed was a pair of tongs to help turn things over but personal choice. The greeting pack was very good, cupcakes, crisps, a bottle of plonk and a pint of milk, a great start. The drive way was tight for our car to get in with the warning lights going off as I gingerly proceeded through each time. Plenty of room to turn once inside and a great garden, not overlooked. The beds and bedding were clean, comfortable and the heating worked well to keep us cosy in the evening. The bath/shower worked well, only thing I think should be passed on to the owners as they may be unaware is the bath waste takes a long time to flow away leaving one paddling after a shower. The location is central to get to most parts of the peak district easily, situated in a quiet corner of a housing estate. Overall, we enjoyed our stay and yes would recommend.

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• Darren - Verified booking

  The house was lovely and exactly as advertised.

  It was spotlessly clean and had every item you could possibly need. A good location for days out. Perfect for a dog with the secure garden. The only downsides were the 'Alexa run' TV which try as we might could not get a TV guide on so had to go into every app to see what each channel was showing, and the fact the property had only one toilet which was in the main bathroom, which meant if anyone was using the shower/bath/toilet then everyone else had to cross their legs, which with 2 adults and 2 teenagers made it quite difficult in the mornings. Even just a toilet downstairs would have made it much easier. Overall, I would definitely recommend this property to rent and use as a home from home whilst visiting the area

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