Wayside

First impressions of Wayside wholly positive - quaint thatched cottage in lovely and quiet village, well equipped, warm, good shower and constant hot water, comfy bed: attractive pub within 40 metres but to close 16.

5.2026 (for good?). Morning birdsong in long garden much appreciated. However, first impressions deceptive. Cleanliness superficial - dust and dirt in room corners, on skirting boards and under the bed. some windows and door thresholds rotten. Shower floor held disgustingly ingrained dirt. I scrubbed (yes, scrubbed) it with a stiff yard brush and bleach, to little effect. A builder/decorator could make the necessary renovations in short order. I have stayed in cottages, usually via Sykes, for around 20 years and this is the first time I have been moved to make negative comments. I understand that this property is for sale and that the owners have not been on-site for a considerable time. I suggest that Sykes (managed by Dream Cottages) remove it from their portfolio.

A fantastic cottage in a quiet, rural part of Dorset.

Fully equipped with everything needed for cooking and cleaning. Very comfortable beds and sofas. On arrival, the garden was untidy and needed weeding and the lawn required mowing. A phone call speedily resolved the issue and Paul, the gardener, put everything to right. The local pub, The New Inn, served a wonderful Sunday roast, but only opened for short hours at the weekend. Would definitely return here again.

Booked this over Christmas 2025.

Absolutely amazing cottage. Great facilities. Perfect location. Stoke Abbott is a dream village. Excellent local walks. Will be booking again throughout the year. Fulfilled my dream of having a Christmas in a cottage in the countryside!

Lovely cottage deep into rural Dorset

Bring what you need, there is no salt in the sellar or pepper in the pot, barely any pictures on the wall and the place, whilst comfortable enough and nice and warm is not designed to add to your holiday experience, instead it relies on the beauty of the county and quaintness of the village.

The shower needs a good dose of lime scale cleaner and for some bizarre reason a king size cover was put onto the double duvet causing discomfort and a constant fight with additional unnecessary sheeting, but don't bother to ask for anything to be done about it as we were told "Housekeeping said NO".

Beautiful cottage with everything we needed provided (including reasonable Wi-Fi) and good place to stay for visits to places of interest nearby.

However, information book needs to be updated - for instance, no petrol station in Beaminster, although the map provided shows there is. Drawer with leaflets needs to be weeded out as there were a few letters addressed to “the resident”. No mention of the beautiful clear spring just up the road. Parking more than a little difficult (although we were advised of this and one of the cottages further up the road had builders working so extra vans parking) but it is a very narrow road (for us Townies!) all the way from Beaminster and feel this should have been mentioned.

We had a really lovely stay at the cottage.

It has everything you need in a lovely setting. We made friends with the neighbours and helped when when a tree came down. We loved it. Such a nice village, close to walks, attractions and just really nice. Garden is very sweet and perfect for the dog, who enjoyed the sunny mornings. Overall would highly recommend.

First sight lovely old country cottage but in desperate need of a deep clean kitchen worktops need changing for more hygienic ones wood was black and rotting around the taps cooker smoked every time you used it reason being spilled food in grill and oven moving onto the garden overgrown brambles hanging over pathway and grass in desperate need of cutting which we had noticed been reported in visitors book on several times in fact my husband found the mower and cut the grass where he found some left over dog poo from previous people probably because it was difficult to see because of the long grass also parking is difficult it on a very narrow lane with private residence cars taking up the space outside the cottage most days we parked further up the road which isn’t very good for disabled visitors .

If the cottage was brought upto standers then I would recommend it but not like it is now it’s lacking love Marilyn and Peter Hopkins 24/30 of August 2025

Had a lovely stay cottage was great in a beautiful location.

The cottage was well equipped with everything we needed and was very comfortable.

A really powerful shower was very welcome as the weather was warm for the time off year. It was just a shame the outdoor furniture hadn’t been cleaned and the grass was overgrown even though we did still enjoy being out in the garden and didn’t let it put us off. A beautiful area to stay and explore.

Lovely cottage comfy and warm .

Everything we needed and more . Christmas tree was a nice touch and made us feel very welcome . Thanks for a lovely stay

We had a lovely stay at 1 Wayside , the cottage was lovely,clean and had all the equipment there you would need, we absolutely loved it and will definitely book to visit again

Lovely comfortable cottage in a beautiful village.

We would definitely come back

We like our stay very much.

We understand old Cottages are prone to cobwebs and there friends, but some of these had clearly been there for a while. We were instructed to leave our rubbish in the bin outside the back door, however this bin was full and let's just say it wasn't a pleasant smell being exuded from it. We moved it to the other end of the patio but you wouldn't have wanted to eat outside with that aroma. We had to dispose of our rubbish ourselves. Most properties we have stayed in tell you when the bins are collected and what to put out, this property didn't which might explain why the bin was full. However this wouldn't put us off staying again! We loved the TV and choices of what to watch in the evenings, Hazel loved having a roam in the garden and it was a perfect location for all our favourite places we like to visit in Dorset.

A lovely cottage with a decent sized, secure garden.

The brambles in the hedges were a bit out of control but not a problem for us. It’s a shame the outside tap suddenly started running and would not turn off leading us to isolate the water at the stopcock. Because of this we cut our stay short.

Generally fine, the cottage was a bit bare on the walls, and I was surprised there was no welcome goodies or logs to start a fire.

A generally positive experience.

A nice friendly village, nice village pub and a lovely cottage with a nice garden. It would have been nice to have a few logs and fire lighters to light the fire on the first evening (it was cool!). Also why is there not a bin/facility for recycling paper/cardboard/glass - everything had to go in the refuse bin!

Basic furniture.

Could do with making a bit more cosy, homely. General tidying up inside needed but definitely the garden calling out for a quick weed & sweep on patio area. New patterned rug in front of log burner would be better as the one there is rather tatty & dirty! A few logs for the fire on arrival would be nice & a board game or two. No butter dish or champagne glasses. Beautiful village though but not sure I’d stay at this property again as very basic. Village pub ok for a drink in the garden…food menu didn’t look very appetising.

This is a cosy and comfy cottage but it is in need of some general maintenance.

The painted floor badly needs attention as does the garden. Whilst appreciating it is a country cottage and therefore the garden and flagged area need not be perfect it did look rather unkempt. It absolutely did not spoil our stay there but we were tempted to pull some weeds out.

The cottage is in the most picturesque village in easy reach I lots of places.

Great local pub (shame it was closed) . Cottage was warm and cosy and bed comfortable. Internet was not working for 3 days so no tv or phone. Fixed by Openreach on Thursday. The cottage had everything you need The cottage needs a thorough cleaning especially in the corners. Would recommend a deep clean, new paintwork and the garden needs a good tidy up . The rugs in the lounge need to be thrown away as they are dirty and badly stained very grim. We would come back if the cleaning was carried out. We had a lovely holiday.

Lovely cottage, comfortable beds and well equipped kitchen.

Nice big fluffy towels and bed linen. Nice enclosed garden for our dog. Only issue was the lack of internet and mobile phone signal. We tried the instructions for connecting to the internet but it did not work. Not a big deal but inconvenient when trying to arrange meeting up with family. It was a quiet location disappointed that the local pub The New Inn was closed as it looked a good place to have a meal.

I'll mention this first as it did impact my stay, although the cottage is lovely.

It was difficult to contact someone at Sykes/Dream Cottages when the cooker began acting up and I was nervous that there could be an electrical issue that needed attention. As an older person travelling alone, it would have been more reassuring, particularly with no cell phone signal at the cottage to have had a more timely response to my emails or to be able to contact the owner. Hence the four stars instead of 5. One suggestion, the listing said that fuel is supplied, but there were 2 small pressed logs and no kindling, perhaps the listing should clarify what is actually provided (or that fuel for the woodstove is not provided). The cottage is lovely and well equipped, the bed was very comfortable. The ground floor shower is great.

All in all an enjoyable stay in lovely surroundings.

A few things let it down. The main oven didn't work, fortunately there was a separate grill. Some of the cutlery still had food remains on it. The door seal on the log burner was hanging off and should really be repaired before it is used.