Very comfortable & charming cottage in the grounds of Grade 2* country house with gorgeous 8 acre garden. Pre-book access to outdoor pool */ tennis court , table tennis. Wonderful walks & solitude in Stour Valley. Beach 30 minutes. 2 dble bedrooms, 2 bath, smart TV, private entrance, log burner. Dining/sun terrace with tables, chairs, etc. Ideal for couples, friends or families of up to 4
By arrangement: use of tennis court* and pool* in season- pls check at booking
The space
2 en suite bedrooms, COTTAGE wing of Grade 2 country house in 8 acres of garden & Stour Valley. Stunning views, countryside & birdlife. Romantic, charming, blissfully comfortable, cosy & warm. A (painful) former guest wants me to warn you that there may be feathers in the soft furnishings.... Your own dining terrace plus 2 sunbeds and daily use of the Tennis Court and outdoor Table Tennis by arrangement when available. The swimming pool will be heated and available every day from 9am to 2pm and very often again in the afternoon during July and August. . If your stay is dependent on pool or tennis, please ensure I know this from the start so there is no disappointment. Please read on to see current news and updates or follow @HorkesleyHall on insta and FB for pics.
Please note that we have to charge £40 surcharge for stays of less than 3 nights - this is part of your agreement if you book for 1 or 2 nights and due on arrival please.
Chisholm's was originally the housekeeper's cottage for our family house, and is romantically cosy rather than cool modern spacious. It has been completely renovated with 2 bedrooms, one double with an excellent en-suite shower, and the other with 2 single beds with an en-suite bath and a shower over. It has a kitchen/sitting room with a round dining table, log-burner and television and wifi. There is a desk in the hall which is ideal for a laptop, or to write or even revise!
Chisholm's is the perfect place for a romantic, private long weekend away, just an hour's train journey from Liverpool Street, or for 2 couples or a family to spend some very special time in comfort and an enviable country house location which would be difficult to match.
We provide board and card games, books, and with a bit of notice, a high chair and travel cot for stays over 4 nights. HOWEVER, please don’t be surprised or disappointed if you let me know 24 hours beforehand that you want extras and I can’t provide them - this is a family-run Airbnb, not a world class hotel! There is no porter, doorman or room-service!
As well as Chisholm's, you will be very welcome to enjoy our beautiful 8 acre garden. There is also a tennis court which you are welcome to enjoy by prior arrangement, and a well-equipped beach hut is available to rent at Frinton beach (30-40 mins drive depending on season) - please see my other listing. The garden has several seating areas, including a sun terrace with table and chairs for you to sit and read the paper with a cup of coffee and listen to the church bell chime on the hour, and the endless birdsong. We would simply ask that you respect our family privacy as we will yours - there is masses of room for us all! Please do note though, it is a 4 person cottage. 5, even if one of you is a few weeks old, IS A SQUASH! You've been warned - and we can't accept 5 guests in future. HOWEVER, we do have a lovely Pavilion, with a kingsize bed and bathroom, tv and kitchenette which is opposite the cottage. If you'd like to bring more than 4, this is sometimes also available - please just ask.
With advance notice, we are delighted to light the log-burner.
A full manual is in the cottage. Local interest includes towns (Colchester, Sudbury, Bury St Edmunds) museums (The Munnings Museum at Dedham, The National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket) beaches (Frinton, Aldborough) pubs and restaurants. There are also excellent gardens to visit, including the Beth Chatto Garden, Hyde Hall and East Bergholt Place, and fabulous walking and cycling through the Constable country of the Stour Valley.
Chisholm's is 5 miles from Colchester, and is only 50 minutes to an hour by train from London. However, there is no village shop and I can’t recommend the pub - there are excellent pubs and shops within 4 miles or so, but a car is advisable.
We will try to accept all bookings we are comfortable with, but one night bookings can be very difficult for us and so we ask that you agree to a £40 surcharge for a one night visit. This charge will be requested through this site soon after the booking is confirmed and is ADDITIONAL to the fee shown. Please do pay it promptly. Thank you so much.
We have a small dog who has proved very popular with almost every guest. I trust her as much as I would trust any dog, but please do not let your children touch her unless I am with you - she is extremely tolerant but does not deserve to be frightened which could make any dog react. All common sense things! - thank you for your consideration.
Our garden is open to the public and groups on certain dates - please be sure you are happy with these.
We acknowledge the seasons: At CHRISTMAS (from mid-Dec) - it will feel festive and special with a decorated tree - the perfect place to wake up to a stocking!
Spring blossom, bluebells with cow parsley running through small woodland areas, and stunning barks with vast and ancient Acacia, leaning Oak and London Planes. A charming enclosed swimming pool garden and long-established bay and yew. A Royal Bed, and a Cottage Garden.
Large Victorian glasshouse in walled garden, many scented plants and established climbers throughout the garden, including 30 or so varieties of roses, plus clematis, wisteria and hydrangea, a young Magnolia walk, many varieties of Acer and Eucalyptus.
Guest access
HOUSE 'RULES' AND GUIDANCE:
I am sorry that we have to have so many house 'rules' - we are absolutely delighted to host you but each 'rule' is in response to a bad experience! We absolutely are not trying to make you feel ill at ease, just to encourage civil guests. If you think any single one of our requests might make you feel uncomfortable, please think very carefully about booking as there is sure to be somewhere else where such antics won't matter! Thank you so much for your kind understanding on this - we love hosting the vast majority of our guests but the rare exception really has ruined it for all of us.
Guest Names - would you please send all the full name of each guest who will be visiting. Thank you.
**4 people maximum, regardless of their ages
To this end, if you turn up with a dog and/or an extra "infant" you forgot about when you booked for 4 adults, I reserve the right to cancel the booking with no refund.
** No surprises please!
If you mean to bring your nanny, a stranger or dogs, please don't forget to run this by us. If you don't mention any of these and we don't feel able to accommodate them, please accept that you run the risk of having the booking cancelled without a refund on arrival. The last family who did this persuaded me it would be fine and I lived to regret it - lesson learned!
** Could I please reiterate, as some guests have become very relaxed over this.... We are a private family home, not a hotel. There is no Room Service nor Concierge facility. You will receive all the information you need for the wifi, the gate code, the directions, everything, in an automated message 48 hours before your visit - please read these before hounding me. We will do our reasonable best to help you but if you lose your phone on the beach or have a bumble bee in the cottage, you are as capable as I am at sorting this out. I try to be available by phone FOR EMERGENCIES but I might not be able to jump straight to it. I am sorry to have become much less patient than I used to be on this but I receive far too many completely unnecessary calls and messages these days, sometimes 4 or 5 a day just checking again that I'm sure that the dog I said no to last week isn't welcome now after all ....or, where will the key be for our stay in 2 weeks time - I hate saying no, but I have a family life and I don't appreciate being bombarded completely unecessarily. Thank you for your consideration!
** NUDITY: We are delighted to share our family garden but keep some clothes on regardless of your age please - we are amazed by how many people seem to love wandering around without a stitch on, and I'm sorry, but NO!
**LOG BURNER: If I am here, I will be delighted to light the log burner as I always do if I'm around, but I hope you understand that I can't promise this - it used to be a lovely surprise for guests but has become a stress and headache now if I'm not here. Please accept that I will do my very best and if I'm here, it will be lit for you. If it is really important to you, and you decide to ask anyway, please accept a £10 charge.
** DOGS: Sadly, after a bad experience, we no longer accept dogs. Many apologies to the vast majority of our guests whose dogs were immaculate - we are happy to consider any returning guests with a returning dog, which will be at £3 per night as usual, but we are sorry that we can't take any new dogs.
PLEASE IGNORE OUR ANIMALS only stroking them if we are there with you. They are extremely polite and gentle, but if provoked or hurt, like ANY live creature, humans included, they could react to protect themselves. We will not take any responsibility for this - they are totally trustworthy if ignored.
**. SMOKING is not allowed in the cottage or anywhere on the premises please.
**.GUESTS: Please ask before inviting ... We will be happy for you to have them but no more than 2 cars please, and if you have guests to swim, there will now be a charge as we have welcomed so many of our guests' friends and families this summer!
** HONESTY BOX: We are sorry that we no longer provide this or alchohol as it has been rather taken advantage of.
** HEATING Please also respect this. Guests sometimes leave the thermostat and radiators all on full, with every window wide open because it is unbearably hot. Open the windows by all means, but not when you are roaring through heating oil! Thank you.
**POOL - Please ask at the time of booking if you would like to use this. It is usually opened in June until September. Please ensure that you roll the cover back very gently, and put it back again afterwards. There are sunbeds and your notes will tell you where to find cushions and so on. PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN SWIMMING TOWELS! Please see the note above about guests...
**. Chisholm's will be set up for you as if you are trusted houseguests and friends so please treat it as such, and leave it as you would leave a friend's house who had clearly gone to trouble for you! Please use mats and coasters where provided and don't allow young children to play unattended. Please don't move furniture or lamps around, or take blankets, chairs etc etc from the house into the garden - we are only too happy to provide these if asked, but will provide the appropriate thing, and not Chisholm's which is for indoor use only.
**. If you've asked to use the tennis court in advance and we've agreed, please ask your children to be considerate of us and our neighbours who may well be relaxing in this rural idyll. Thank you.
**We are very lucky to live in a rural idyll. This means that there is no cinema in the surrounding villages, nor drive throughs, nor even a shop or pub or taxi rank in our own village. If birdsong, lowing cows, and the sounds of a local farm aren't the vibe you are looking for, please don't come to us and then mark us down on location!
Please take care of it, and respect that we will have gone to trouble to make it as fresh, clean and welcoming as possible for you. Thank you, we look forward to meeting you!
Other things to note
Chisholm's is ideal for a family break, for gardeners or walkers wanting to see local specialities, a birthday weekend, for 2 couples or for friends. It is romantic, peaceful and private. If the dates you would like are showing on the calendar as booked, please do contact me anyway - I may be able to conjure something else up!
