Welly Bob Cottage

Welly Bob cottage is finished to a very high standard, it’s clear the owners have invested a lot of money to create a quality living space.

Unfortunately for the sake a a few more pounds this would have been a 5 star review. If the owner’s vision was to create a cottage that is a great place for a couple (maybe with a couple of young children) to stay for 1 or 2 nights then they have achieved that but I suspect that wasn’t what they’re aiming for. As a cottage for more than a couple of nights or with more than a couple of adults things soon start to become irritating. Most of the issues are downstairs. In the main bedroom (advertised as having a king size bed), the bed is, in fact, a double (though the headboard is for a king size). When you are used to sleeping in a king size bed a double feels very small. The bed side “tables” are two lovely off-cuts from an oak beam. On first impression these look lovely but you quickly realise they are all but useless as they provide almost no practical use. You then realise there is no bedside light (though there are plugs for them), so the only light source is the main ceiling lighting which means getting out of bed to turn the lights on or off (in a pitch black room as there is no natural light). Obviously you can use the torch on your phone but that shouldn’t be needed. There is a small hanging rail in an alcove but no shelving, drawers or cupboards, so space for clothing is very limited and there is nowhere to put anything like toiletries etc… There is also no mirror in either bedroom (the only mirror is in the single bathroom) which feels like an easily solvable oversight. In the bathroom there is an excellent rainfall shower but as there isn’t a second, adjustable, shower head this meant my wife getting her (long) hair wet every time she had a shower and then back to the issue of no mirror in the bedroom when drying it. Oddly there are also no hooks in the bathroom to hang the lovely towelling robes that are provided. There is an electric towel rail in there which keeps the room toasty warm but why not take a spur of this and fit a heated mirror? The sink in the bathroom is a lovely circular, flat designer sink which (by design) does not hold water so you waste a load of water washing hands, shaving etc… Upstairs there is no kettle and the “Quooker” style hot water tap just wasn’t hot enough to make a decent pot of tea (the small enamel tea pot is also too small to make a brew for more than a couple of people). There are no mats to put hot items from the oven on, so the only option was to risk damaging the quartz worktop or lovely wooden table. We also felt that the cottage was quite cool and initially put this down to it being heated by a heat pump. However further investigation revealed that all the room thermostats were at 15°C or lower. It should be part of the pre-arrival checks for someone to make sure these are at a more comfortable temperature. The cottage was very clean but one of our dogs was obsessed with trying to get underneath the sofa. In the end we moved it to discover half a bag of crisps and the nozzle from the vacuum cleaner underneath.