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| | | | Magic of the East
From the Mail on Sunday
It was our first night in Norfolk. We were on our way to the pub on the village green, driving along winding lanes, shafts of soft pink evening sunlight flooding the stillness of pea-green meadows, when we saw the barn owl perched imperiously on a wooden post.
The big, flat, dinner-plate face turned slowly to inspect us with unafraid eyes that seemed to say: 'You're not hurrying me.' The bird preened its chocolate and vanilla breast feathers a little and, with no small measure of disdain at this disturbance, took off to hunt in the woods and river banks for its evening meal of vole.
Later, as we ate Lowestoft crab and sipped Chardonnay in the Brisley Bell, we saw Olly Beak diving and swooping over the darkening cricket ground, putting on a flashy sunset cabaret of irresistible aeronautics.
He wasn't showboating. This was a food hunt, deadly and serious. What a privilege though, indeed thrilling, to see such a beautiful, dignified creature working at the game of survival in the wild less than three hours after we had left the traffic and madness of Central London. It was also an extraordinary opening act to a magical three-day break in a forgotten part of an empty county that has, in places, a strange timeless quality.
I had been to Gateley near Fakenham once before. It was a shot in the dark. We had wanted to stay in a farmhouse and had been told by a friend in nearby Walsingham of one that was buried deep in a sylvan setting with its own deer herd, showground rams and a garden straight out of a Helen Allingham watercolour.
On arrival it turned out to be a classic Georgian, unpretentious but stylish 18th-century gem, all mellow brick, perfect proportions, with climbing sweet peas rambling around the blue open door, a sunroom and a big tabby cat asleep on the best cane chair. What bliss! At night the perfume of the roses is so strong you could bottle it. The only sound in the night air is the odd hoot from our newfound friend.
From Centre Farm it is a 25-minute drive through picture-postcard backwaters fording small rivers, their banks swathed in summer reeds, to the coastal villages of Cley, Wells, Burnham Overy Staithe and Blakeney, where Nelson first stepped into a dinghy and learnt to sail in the creeks and marshes which lead eventually to the cold waters of the North Sea.
The beaches such as Holkham, miles of wide open sand with the sea usually miles away (it was here where Gwyneth Paltrow walked barefoot in Shakespeare In Love), are bracing and perfect for childhood pursuits like crabbing and shell collecting.
In Blakeney, Beans Boats take parties of 25 by chugging wooden luggers out to the sandbanks, where on a good day you will see 40 or 50 common and grey seals, some young pups, some looking like old walruses.
They lie contentedly on the sand, curiously eyeing these boats of humans bobbing about just a few feet away from them, and the more adventurous will dive into the sea to inspect you, their shiny moustached heads set with deep, imploring eyes, surfacing just a few feet away from the outstretched hands of children.
Travel guide: Norfolk
Hollywood stars beat a path to north Norfolk
From the Mail on Sunday
With a bemused grin, the Viscount Coke says: 'I have to admit I didn't really know who Gwyneth Paltrow was. I didn't pay that much attention when they came to film.'
Tom Coke (pronounced 'Cook' - you are informed very quickly!), the son of the Seventh Earl of Leicester and heir to the Holkham Estate, is striding across the huge, fantastic sweep of Holkham Beach; seven miles long and up to a mile wide when the tide is out at its furthest.
The air is full of the sound of calling oystercatchers and the roar of North Sea waves pounding the sand. His springer spaniels Snail and Slug and Irish terrier Hector race ahead across the sand, intoxicated by the vast open space.
We were on the very spot where Gwyneth Paltrow is pictured in that memorable scene at the end of the film Shakespeare In Love.
In the story she is supposed to be across the Atlantic in Virginia. Cinema-goers saw the wonderful swathe of sand fringed by pine trees and assumed that this gorgeous beach must have been in some exotic foreign spot.
Not, of course, the audience at the Regal cinema, Cromer, where Tom Coke finally caught up with the cinematic career of Ms Paltrow: 'When that final scene came on a huge buzz went around the audience and we all said, "Oh gosh, that's Holkham Beach! '
However, the residents of this extremely delightful corner of Norfolk could be forgiven for being a little blase about the movie business.
Not far from Holkham Beach in Wells, Stanley Kubrick shot scenes for Full Metal Jacket when Norfolk was used as a stand-in for the paddy fields of Da Nang.
'It did look very like Vietnam,' admits Tom Coke.
And when All Saints were shooting the video for the song used in the film The Beach, Holkham Beach was used to look like Thailand. And somebody at the Victoria Hotel bumped into S Club 7 filming their video a couple of weeks ago.
'There's also a production company talking about another major film here later in the year,' says Viscount Coke.
Travel guide: Norfolk
Still Dad's Army country
Any Dad's Army fan knows that this classic of all British sitcoms was set on the South Coast of England.
But try to find the fictional Walmington-on-Sea there and you'll be almost as hapless as Captain Mainwaring and his men.
In fact, the cult comedy was filmed in and around Thetford in Norfolk and the broadcast by the BBC of two 'lost' episodes is generating an interest in visiting those locations.
The perfect starting point for a Dad's Army recce is the Anchor Hotel in Thetford. The cast used to stay here and at the Bell Hotel, across the river, during filming, and the first scene of the first episode was filmed, in 1968, in what was the Anchor's Norvic Room, but which is now the High Seas Restaurant.
The rare seafront scenes were shot in Lowestoft, in Suffolk, and Winterton, but Thetford was used repeatedly in the 80 episodes of Dad's Army.
It's a compact town, bisected by two rivers, the Little Ouse and the Thet, with narrow streets of flint-fronted houses.
I took a walk down Bridge Street to Newtown, where in one episode the orange-brick pre-War council houses formed the backdrop to a scene in which the platoon practised subterfuge cunningly disguised as dustbins, and down Bury Road to the derelict church of St Mary the Less.
It was in this churchyard that Corporal Jones undertook an obstacle course designed to prove he was fit enough to remain in the platoon.
Over the river is Nether Row, where he showed off his butcher's van, newly converted as troop transport.
Nether Row's terrace of flat-fronted cottages - renamed Percy Street on TV - were used countless times as a backdrop.
When a German paratrooper's parachute got caught on the town hall clock, the warden stood down here and had bottles chucked at him by Pike.
Travel guide: Norfolk
Inns with staying power
From the Mail on Sunday
What makes a successful hotel? Conrad Hilton, founder of the Hilton chain, claimed three reasons: location, location and location. But the success story of a great hotel has a more complex and indefinable plot.
Staff are important: a good hotel can be ruined by poor service and cameo roles played by reception, bedroom and dining room staff can make or break your visit. Once a waiter at Hambleton Hall, Rutland, drove home to get his dinner jacket for my husband who had packed the wrong one. That episode endeared the place to us for life.
You're also looking for comfort, good food and a great atmosphere. Guests are more discerning than ever, but the danger is that many hotels fall into the trap of formulaic anonymity, however luxurious they may be.
What price gyms, spas, conference facilities, DVDs and modems in your room if all these places seem exactly the same? Herein lies the difference between a hotel that is merely good and one that's outstanding.
At the ones I like most it's invariably the stamp of a distinctive owner or manager that makes them special.
Not necessarily because they're particularly splendid or expensive (though some are) but because they are driven by the vision of a shrewd individual with an unusual imagination.
Of the hundreds of hotels I've stayed in three of my favourites in this country fall into this category.
THE INN AT WHITEWELL Forest of Bowland, near Clitheroe, Lancashire BB7 3AT Tel: 01200 448222
We took less than five minutes to book a stay at The Inn At Whitewell, when we stumbled upon it by chance and dropped in for a quick lunchtime snack.
After walking in the windswept countryside of the Forest of Bowland, nothing could have seemed more welcoming than the blazing fire in a comfortably furnished sitting room, gumboots drying around it and a black labrador toasting itself, groaning with pleasure.
But it was meeting owner Richard Bowman that clinched it. A tweedy country landowner type, his deceptively vague manner and the dry humour of his conversation convinced us we'd stumbled on a winner. When we returned for a three-day stay we weren't disappointed. Richard's character is in the best tradition of understated English eccentricity.
His father took on the hotel when he used to shoot in the area and wet his whistle in the bar. Richard took over 25 years ago and, not without difficulty, set about restoring the place.
The kitchen had to be redone after it fell off the side of the building into the River Hodder which runs alongside. Then he did the gents' loos after they crashed into the cellars.
He has superb taste and many of the 17 bedrooms with antique furnishings and peat fires overlook the river, the only concession to modern life are the state-of-the-art music systems in each.
Richard's obsession is antique plumbing and the bathrooms boast canopied baths with water jets and old French shower units with heads the size of dinner plates. You can sit on a thunderbox lavatory and watch the light play over the wild landscape.
The older and more distressed things look the better for Richard. 'I'm against snobbery and pomposity,' he says. Yet guests' comfort is paramount and while he describes his success as accidental, hotels do not enjoy an occupancy rate of more than 90 per cent and a string of awards by mistake.
Travel guide: Norfolk
England's cycling country
The East of England has been seeking official recognition as England's Cycling Country for five years.
Its six counties - Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire - are criss-crossed by 25 themed Cycling Discovery Routes, all of which can be done in a day.
Norfolk, the least populated of the counties, is virtually pancake-flat and perfect for gentle, easy rides.
Its four Cycling Discovery Maps show routes from 20 to 29 miles long, with interesting stops along the way.
Cycling the shortest - The Brecks, from Swaffham - you whizz effortlessly along smooth roads, past fields of pungent yellow rapeseed, twisted Scots pines and farms, glorious in the sunshine.
Cars are few and villages quiet. The EcoTech Centre's windmill and Iceni Iron Age village dot the landscape.
Beautiful, 15th-century moated manor house Oxburgh Hall, Oxburgh, is an essential stop on a Brecks cycle tour.
Intricate tapestry wall-hangings stitched by Mary Queen of Scots are displayed there, as is the bed of King Henry VII, father of Henry VIII.
Still home to the Bedingfeld family, it's run by the National Trust. For lunch, Danes Head pub in Beachamwell has hearty, home-cooked English food.
Cyclists after a challenge should not rule out Norfolk. Thetford Forest's tricky, highly technical "black" route is for advanced mountain bikers only. National Cycle Network 13 links Thetford, Fakenham, Watton and Dereham. Website www.breckland.gov.uk has more.
Travel guide: Norfolk
Hideaways to set hearts fluttering
Love will, of course, find a way - Romeo and Juliet on a balcony, Heathcliffe and Cathy on the moors, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet on the Titanic.
But why make things difficult? Why not a meeting place that's breathing romance before either of you has taken your topcoat off?
There are such places in Britain, here is a small selection.
AT THE SIGN OF THE ANGEL
Lacock, Wiltshire. Tel: 01249 730230, www.lacock.co.uk
The fireplaces in the three cosy dining rooms are magnificent; burning brightly, stacked either side with logs and big enough to roast an ox in.
The atmosphere in this 15th-century wool merchant's house is so powerful that tables set with crystal and silver look wrong - pewter tankards and platters seem more appropriate.
Narrow stairs, low doors concealed in age-dark panelling, squeaky floors, bulging walls, bedrooms with latched doors - keys are far too modern - and a resident ghost make for a break that is out of time.
Fortunately the bedrooms - six in the house, four in the garden cottage - are en suite and the food, high-quality English traditional, is well up to the standard of the silver, crystal and candelabra.
Scenes from costume dramas such as Pride and Prejudice and Emma were filmed in near-perfect Lacock.
This year it's Harry Potter in the Abbey cloisters rather than Colin Firth in the High Street.
Travel guide: Norfolk
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| | | | Swimming naked in the murky Melton depths
North Norfolk is essentially a solidly agrarian county, but it does also have wonderful country houses. Some, such as Houghton and Blickling, are Queen Anne beauties and open to the public.
Others, like the faux baroque Sennow House, built by the descendants of Thomas Cook and hidden in hundreds of acres of woods and lakes just two miles from Centre Farm, have an aura of timelessness, of nothing very much having happened here for a hundred years or so - which is mysteriously enchanting.
There are ruined houses here, too, that compel and draw you into them, still somehow redolent of the grandeur they knew in more gracious times, their sad broken brickwork and rotting chimneys sighing at their bankrupt state, yet still proud, like aristocrats who have simply fallen on hard times and will not beg for understanding.
Melton Constable is such a house. Its George I facade is achingly beautiful. It is set in a majestic parkland, landscaped with lakes and woods that might have been painted by Constable.
Director Joseph Losey shot The Go-Between here, a film which made me first fall in love with the idea of Norfolk. He filmed Alan Bates, the farm estate manager with whom Julie Christie, the squire's daughter, falls in love, swimming naked in its deep, dark lakes and Margaret Leighton plotting among the purple rhododendrons.
Various businessmen have tried to save Melton Constable. Indeed, a part of it has been converted into spacious apartments, but the main house lies ruined almost beyond any hopes of salvation - except for that facade, which strangely is as beautiful as it was in its youth. It is a haunting place.
Hotel furniture was shipped from India
If north Norfolk wasn't already shaping up as the in place to be at the moment - the likes of Stephen Fry, John Major, Les Dennis and Amanda Holden are among the list of those who have taken up residence here - the opening of the Victoria Hotel will prove an irresistible lure.
Tom and his wife Polly, Viscountess Coke, have taken the Victoria, once a rather humble pub, back into the management of the Holkham Estate.
They undertook a six-month programme of renovation and restoration with an Indian feel to the design.
The furniture and furnishings were bought on a shopping trip to India for the princely sum of £10,000 and brought back in a container.
The Victoria reopened this month as a very smart, small hotel. 'We wanted to be careful that it would retain its place as the village local,' says Viscount Coke.
'Before it reopened, locals were saying that it would be too posh for them but when they came to the opening party, people took up their old places at the bar and were perfectly happy.'
No doubt they also appreciated the fact that Tom has insisted that beer should be kept below £2 a pint.
The Vic, as it is known, is just a five-minute walk from the famous beach whose charms ought to keep most short-break visitors perfectly happy for the duration of their stay.
But five minutes in the other direction stands the extraordinary pile of Holkham Hall. Described by famously hard-to-please architectural writer Nikolaus Pevsner as the most classically correct home in Britain, Holkham Hall was originally the country seat of Lord Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke, whose criminal court duties included prosecuting Guy Fawkes and Sir Walter Raleigh.
The exquisite rooms of the house contain an extraordinary wealth of art, including paintings by Claude Lorrain, Rubens, Poussin and Van Dyck.
Preserved unchanged landscape
I find Pike Lane - no relation to the 'Stupid Boy' - and go on into Guildhall Street. The Guildhall itself, a slightly eccentric Victorian building, became Walmington-on-Sea's town hall.
After lunch I drove north, on a die-straight road, through the pine plantations of Thetford Forest via Brandon, whose village station stood in for Walmington's.
I headed for the Stanford Battle Area where, in July 1942, 118,000 acres was evacuated so troops could train in secret for the eventual invasion of Europe.
The 500 or so inhabitants of six villages - Stanford, Buckenham Tofts, West Tofts, Langford, Tottington and Sturston - were displaced.
Today, the villages are still marooned in a vast no-go area marked Danger on the map and, on the ground, with signs warning: 'Army Training Area, No Admittance Without Permit'.
Within the restricted zone the landscape has been preserved unchanged for 60 years. In this area, which you can enter only by prior arrangement, Dad's Army's military exercises were often filmed.
At Buckenham Tofts, Warden Hodges challenged the platoon to a cricket match and fielded his secret weapon, played by Freddie Trueman.
At West Tofts Church, the platoon advanced on their token enemy behind portable gravestones, and on Frog Hill the sequence which closes each episode was shot.
Norfolk to Nottingham
THE HOSTE ARMS The Green, Burnham Market, Norfolk PE31 8HD Tel: 01328 738777.
The village of Burnham Market, dubbed Chelsea-on-Sea, has earned its name via the sophistication of the people who holiday on the wild Norfolk coast, yet it retains a strong local identity.
There's a lively buzz at The Hoste that derives from owner Paul Whittome's shrewd distillation of the best of both these worlds. He spent two years trawling hotels all over England to create his own from his impressions of their best features. His idea works.
The historic building is both a village pub and a hotel with an excellent restaurant. There are five separate dining areas - choose the one that suits your inclinations, dress up or go in straight from sailing.
In the bar the likes of actor Stephen Fry and restaurateur Rick Stein rub shoulders with locals, including a pair of brothers from the next village who have been drinking on alternate nights at The Hoste for more than 30 years.
When Paul asked why they never came on the same night, they said because they only had the one bike.
He's carried out endless improvements over the 10 years since he took on the hotel. He's built a conservatory, extra bedrooms and a white garden.
Paul comes across as a big, bluff, bear of a man, affability itself. Being somewhat deaf, when on a rare occasion a guest complained at length about a meal he replied: 'Oh good, I'm so glad you enjoyed it.' No one is faintly deceived; Paul doesn't miss a trick and that's why his hotel is such fun to stay in.
LANGAR HALL Langar Hall, Langar, Nottinghamshire NG13 9HG Tel: 01949 860559
Imogen Skirving, owner of Langar Hall, in Nottinghamshire, believes a hotel should be fantasy.
In tribute to Barbara Cartland, who stayed every year en route from Scotland, she created the Barbara Cartland bedroom, a profusion of pink toile de jouy in which she used to hold court with her Pekinese and invite Imogen in 'for a gossip'.
The hotel has also won a Good Hotel Guide Cesar award for 'utterly enjoyable mild eccentricity'.
'I used to serve champagne wearing my Wellingtons,' Imogen remarked, 'but I don't do that any more.'
The elegant hall was built in 1837 and Imogen grew up there before inheriting it from her father, but without a penny for its upkeep.
Her background in the art galleries of Paris and London made her an ideal curator of Langar's paintings and furniture, but to keep it as her home she began a B&B business. Guests loved the house, its classic parkland setting and Imogen's welcoming style so much that they returned, and Langar evolved into the charming hotel it now is.
Langar is run by Imogen and chef/business partner Toby Garratt with seamless efficiency and profits have been poured back into creating 12 pretty bedrooms.
There's an intimate study almost touching the church next door, a white sitting room and the restaurant in a pillared hall where food is better than at many grander hotels. Imogen's latest triumph, Paul's Bar, is named after Paul Smith, the designer and frequent guest.
Recovering from foot-and-mouth
"Cycling is the one thing that the East of England really stands out for, we've got the best here," reckons regional tourist board chairman Jonathan Bowman.
Even so, the area suffered during last year's foot-and-mouth crisis when the countryside was sealed off to visitors, although cycling was possible on roads.
A new Lords of the Manor route opening in North Norfolk this summer aims to draw cyclists back to the region.
Tour operator Suffolk Cycle Breaks saw overseas bookings plummet in 2001 post foot-and-mouth and September 11.
"The phone didn't ring for a month after September 11, except for the occasional call," says owner Andy Patton. "Having said that, we had our best year yet for UK bookings."
He adds: "Overseas bookings accounted for about a third of business and we're working on getting more to come."
Cycling even along Norfolk's flat roads leaves you saddle-sore if unused to it - and it's worse hours later.
That's the down side. On the up, you've got the freedom to go where you want, lock up and leave your mount on a whim, and see pretty corners of the county.
Norfolk is manageable for any age. One man who hadn't been on a bicycle for 50 years managed 12 miles in The Brecks during the week he was there.
Both bicycle day hire and weekly cycle packages are possible in East England.
Suffolk Cycle Breaks (01449 721555) has 16 B&B packages in the region, from £133 for two nights.
Website www.visitnorfolk.co.uk has more on local attractions Oxburgh Hall, Grimes Graves, EcoTech Centre and Iceni Iron Age village at Cockley Cley. Ring the regional tourist board on 01473 822922.
Norfolk and Yorkshire
THE OSTLER'S HOUSE, Hedenham, Norfolk. Tel: 01386 701177, www.ruralretreats.co.uk
How's this for escapism? A strikingly decorated and furnished cottage with a wood-burning stove in the sitting room, an abundance of beams and vaulted ceilings and a private garden overlooking the grounds of a fine Elizabethan house.
Ostler's, part of a renovated Tudor barn, is one of three detached 15th-century cottages standing in the grounds of privately-owned Hedenham Hall.
It has a beamed, en suite bedroom complete with canopied bed. You can enjoy walks in the private grounds and the handsome city of Norwich is close by. There is even a spare bedroom for friends.
Add the generous welcome hamper - wine, cheese, milk, tea, coffee and groceries - and you have all you need.
THE WHITE SWAN, Pickering, Yorkshire. Tel: 01751 472288.
We arrived at this old stone inn after a cold, wild day on the North York Moors and were instantly enveloped in warmth and light.
It was bliss sipping walkers' reward - whisky and ginger wine - in front of the toasty-hot log fire in the snug.
This family-owned coaching inn, built as a four-room cottage in 1532, has had a makeover. When Victor and Marion Buchanan left high-flying City jobs to take over from Victor's parents, they brought a touch of southern luxury with them.
The welcoming atmosphere and traditional comfort remain, but now, new bathrooms sparkle and bedrooms are crisp, fresh and nicely co-ordinated.
Good local food, including fish and game, is praised by locals as well as visitors; the wine list is serious.
And there are all those romantic walks on the Moors.
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| | | | The beaches are deserted
But it is the new hotel which is grabbing local attention. Especially when the furnishings arrived last month.
'The Indian theme convinced many people that we were actually opening a curry house,' says Polly.
Her husband says that the new hotel project symbolises the Holkham Estate's growing shift towards tourism as a source of income and he was determined that they got things right.
He says: 'We undertook considerable research, visited hotels and restaurants and combined this with our own needs of being able to go somewhere with a young family.'
The Cokes have children aged two and eight months.
'We wanted to provide a quality setting, good food using fresh, local ingredients wherever possible and beautiful rooms where people can relax and feel refreshed.'
Major emphasis has been placed on the hotel's restaurant which is under the supervision of Harrow-educated chef Henry Cumming. Cromer crabs, Brancaster mussels and fresh and smoked eels from Holkham's own lake are among the ingredients that Cumming will be featuring on the restaurant's menu.
The accent in the hotel and the restaurant is on informality: 'One of the most important things is that visitors to the Victoria have fun; we want it to be a fun place for guests and for the team running it.'
Just three-and-a-half hours' drive from Central London, this part of Norfolk feels as if it might be on a different planet.
The roads are empty and the beaches deserted. A substantial attraction, Holkham Hall, for example, gets just 30,000 visitors a year.
For the official opening, why not invite Gwyneth Paltrow over to perform the ceremony?
Viscount Coke smiles. 'She wouldn't be interested, would she?'
It's the sort of ending even Shakespeare would love.
Travel facts: Contact The Victoria on 01328 710469/711008 or www.victoriaatholkham.co.uk
Charming Suffolk villages
To the north of the restricted zone is Watton Airfield, where the men tackled a runaway secret weapon - a giant, radio-controlled wheel packed with high explosives, which chased Jones's van.
Dad's Army location shoots always took place in summer in what you might assume was an idealised, now lost, English countryside. In fact it's still here, just as it was.
The proof is to the south of Thetford, in a clutch of charming Suffolk villages that also had regular appearances in the show.
I took a walk from Honington, where I recognised the parish church with a pretty little school alongside it. Here, Captain Mainwaring heard the bank had been bombed.
Racing off to ensure the money was safe, he commandeered a horse and cart and careered off down a lane which fords the Black Bourn and doubles back to the next village, Sapiston.
A couple of miles down the lane is the village of Bardwell, where across a field is a splendid 16th Century pub called the Six Bells which also played a part and has a picture of the Dad's Army cast on the wall.
It was almost as if they were there with me.
TRAVEL DETAILS:
For guided tours in the Stanford Battle Area write to: Headquarters, Stanford Training Area, West Tofts Camp, Thetford, Norfolk IP26 5EP (01842 855235).
Bressingham Steam Museum in Bressingham, near Diss (01379 687 386) opens on March 23 2002 and has a permanent exhibition of Dad's Army memorabilia.
Accommodation: The Bell Hotel, Thetford (01842 754455), the Anchor Hotel, Thetford (01842 763925) and the Six Bells at Bardwell, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (01359 250820).
There is a Dad's Army Appreciation Society and its website is www.dadsarmy.com
Oxfordshire and Snowdonia
THE LAMB INN, Sheep Street, Burford, Oxfordshire. Tel: 01993 823155
As you step on to timeworn flags and take in the old country chairs and well-polished tables, the discreet amounts of gleaming brass and shining copper, the antique soup tureens on deep-set window ledges, you know you've struck lucky.
Comfortable sofas - including one magnificent settle with a draught-excluding back at least 5ft high - nestle round briskly burning log fires in the three lounges.
After 20 years' devotion, Richard and Caroline de Wolfe have got the style of this mellow stone Cotswolds inn to perfection.
Guests eat wild boar or rabbit, venison or duck at candle-lit tables in the spacious dining room. Breakfast is excellent; bedrooms stylishly furnished.
Centuries ago, when Sheep Street was Burford's main thoroughfare, farmers crowded into what is now the best bedroom, with magnificent four-poster, leant out of the mullioned window and chose which shepherds to hire.
NANTLAS, SNOWDONIA, NT Holiday Cottages. Tel: 0870 4584422, www.nationaltrustcottages.co.uk
The full address - Nantlas, Near Dolgellau, Gwynedd - is hint enough about the romantic isolation of this National Trust holiday cottage, and it lives up to the dream.
You feel safe and sheltered from the world in the snug timber and stone cottage for two set in the spectacular Snowdonia National Park.
Surrounded by magnificent scenery and secluded in the wooded Dolmelynllyn estate, it is close to Rhaeadr Ddu, one of Wales's most spectacular waterfalls.
This intriguing and comfortable 19th-century cottage - recently redecorated and with a spanking new bathroom - was originally built to house a telescope for the scientifically-minded occupants of nearby Dolmelynllyn Hall.
Cosy chairs sit either side of the coal fire, which will be ready laid when you arrive, with set tea tray to hand. Don't forget the champagne, chocolates and groceries - the main shops are about five miles away in Dolgellau.
More properties in the National Trust Holiday Cottage brochure (0870 4584411).
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