Combine beautiful surroundings with culture at The Garden Cottage the Daphne du Maurier Festival in May

If you’re looking for a holiday that combines beautiful surroundings with culture, we may have the perfect getaway for you.

Garden Cottage is centrally located in the charming, unspoilt town of Fowey in Cornwall. With stunning views over the River Fowey, it makes a wonderful base for exploring the ancient charm of the town and the gorgeous landscape around it.

The added pleasure of the Daphne du Maurier Festival being held in Fowey makes May the ideal time to visit. Just imagine; a stroll in the spring sunshine with a luxurious Cornish ice-cream, an inspiring visit to the Daphne du Maurier Festival Village, and a dip into a book by Garden Cottage’s wood burning stove in the evening.

The festival is held every year to celebrate the life and literature of Daphne du Maurier, who made her home in the area and often used Cornwall as the backdrop for her novels and short stories. Most people will have heard of Daphne’s famous novel ‘Rebecca’, a touching story which made her one of the most popular authors of her time. Her other well known novels include 'Jamaica Inn', and 'Frenchman's Creek'. Daphne would often highlight the landscape, stunning coastal geography and rural culture in her books, and would use them to enhance the story to dramatic effect.

The old cottages, the winding streets with cobbled walkways, the glimpses of the river shimmering with busy yachts, the perfume of flowers in window boxes floating through the air, and the picture perfect quays bustling with life all provide an enchanting setting for celebrating the stories she wrote, and visitors can see and feel the very things that inspired her writing.

The Daphne du Maurier Festival of Arts and Literature runs from Thursday 13th May until Saturday 22nd May 2010 (more information can be found here), and Garden Cottage is currently available for the weeks covering the festival, 8-15 May or 15-22 May.

For more beautiful properties in Cornwall visit our website.

Message in a Bottle: a heart warming story about a fisherman who lived at 1 South Cottages in Thorpeness

Here’s a story that made the hairs on the back of my neck tingle when I first found it in an old archive document about Thorpeness:

A young local fisherman called Percy Westrup, lived at 1 South Cottages in Thorpeness on the Suffolk coast in the early 1900s along with his wife. Percy used to trawl the waters along the coast in his boat from Thorpeness to Aldeburgh, catching cod and herrings to send off market.

During the First World War Percy was called to the Navy and had to leave Thorpeness to go to Portsmouth to join his ship, not knowing what the future would hold for him and his wife back in the village.

On board his ship, the Captain received orders to sail up to the Orkney Islands, travelling up the East coast of England on the way. Early one morning a couple of days later, just as it was getting light Percy approached the Captain with an unusual request. He asked for permission to send a message in a bottle to his wife to let her know he was alive and well.

The confused captain asked how on earth his wife would ever get the letter. Percy replied “We have just come past the Shipwash Light vessel and Orford Ness Lighthouse.” He pointed to Aldeburgh and continued “The little village north is Thorpe(ness) and I have been fishing there for a few years”.

So the Captain gave him permission to put a note in a bottle, watching him write it to ensure he didn’t say anything in it that would compromise their mission. Percy carefully wrote his note, reassuring his wife that he was quite well and that he hoped all was well for her at home too. He threw the bottle overboard not knowing if his wife would ever receive it.

The next day a coastguard on duty at Thorpeness spotted what looked like a bottle on the beach. He realised it was addressed to Percy’s wife, who lived just 300 yards away at 1 South Cottages. Imagine his wife’s surprise when the coastguard delivered Percy’s message in the bottle. Percy was delighted when several weeks later in the Orkneys he received a letter from his wife expressing her delight at receiving the message.

Percy survived the war and went on to live and work in Thorpeness for many more years, eventually celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary with his wife there several decades later.

Percy’s story was found in an essay that he wrote in later life about the history of the seaside village of Thorpeness. The essay is kept at 1 South Cottages for holiday cottage guests to read during their stay.

A chic seaside cottage in Aldeburgh, close to the beach

Sandpiper Cottage is a chic two bedroom period cottage has been featured in House Beautiful magazine and is now available for holidays in gorgeous Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast.

It's ideal for couples or a family with a central seaside location in Aldeburgh combined with an inspiring interior.

Sandpiper Cottage has been through an exacting period renovation – fire places have been uncovered, beautiful panelled walls rediscovered, the walls painted in natural lime-washed paints, sash windows restored, and all finished off with the best of contemporary furniture, art and design!

Adorning the walls are works of art made especially for the house from driftwood by local artist Paul Crisp, and the house comes with wifi-access in case you need to stay in touch.

On the ground floor is a living room with a wood-burning stove, a large kitchen with large patio doors leading outside to a small decked area with a table and chairs, a dining room and and outside utility room. Upstairs there are two bedrooms (1 king, 1 twin), each with it’s own bath or shower room.

It's very close to the unspoilt beach and shops, just off Aldeburgh’s High Street on the quieter Park Road. The town’s boutique shops and restaurants and the beach are just a short stroll away!

Click here for more details and availability

A new place to stay: Seaside heaven on the Suffolk coast

Isca, Aldeburgh, Suffolk (sleeps 6)

Isca is a delightful and spacious house on Aldeburgh High Street with a lovely private garden, a rarity for a property so close to the beach. With lovely high ceilings and well proportioned light and airy rooms, this stylish property is an ideal base for an Aldeburgh holiday.

Downstairs you’ll find a large living/dining room, a kitchen, utility room and shower room. Upstairs there are three bedrooms (a family room with a double and a single, a king and a bunk bed room) and a bathroom. Outside there’s a large patio garden.

This delightful cottage is situated on Aldeburgh’s popular high street, close to the beach, shops and restaurants. It is particularly close to Aldeburgh cinema and The Lighthouse restaurant and all of Aldeburgh’s services are within a short walk, including the best fish and chip shop on the Suffolk coast (we think it is anyway, unless you know better)!

Click here to see lots more gorgeous interior photos and full details.

A new place to stay: Gedgrave Broom

We've just added a magical new place to stay to the Best of Suffolk website.

Gedgrave Broom is a magical thatched cottage hidden down a mile long track near Orford, through a 200 acre forest and overlooking ancient water meadows that have little changed over hundreds of years.

John Seymour lived and wrote his classic book ‘The Fat of the Land’ here which went on to inspire the TV series ‘The Good Life’, it will be all to obvious to any visitor where his inspiration came from!

Orford is around a mile away and can be reached down private farm tracks and so is ideal for cycling. The village has a fantastic choice of places to eat and drink including The Trinity at the Crown and Castle (owned by restaurateur, journalist and author Ruth Watson, presenter of Channel Five's 'The Hotel Inspector'), the Kings Head pub and the Butley Oysterage. Nearer the quay are The Jolly Sailor and a café with lovely views over the river. Across the river is the National Trust's Orford Ness, the site of mysterious research projects in the 1950's and 60's but now a nature reserve.

click here for more details.

Teamwork

Welcome to Best of Suffolk’s first blog. Through our blogs we look forward to sharing with you both our passion for restoring historic buildings and our enthusiasm for providing stylish holiday cottages.

Yesterday we met delightful Natasha Newton, a talented local Suffolk artist whose work we have admired for some years. We had great pleasure in commissioning three original paintings for our cottages 6 Town Steps and Aldeburgh Cottage in Aldeburgh and can't wait to see them.

One of the great pleasures of running Best of Suffolk is working with dedicated local craftspeople who play an important role in creating that special look and feel that our holiday cottages have.

Finding the right people to work on the holiday cottages that we own ourselves hasn’t always been easy, it has taken time, and trial and error to build the great team we now have, whether it’s for conservation-grade lime plastering or detailed carpentry work right through to the final finishes at a cottage such as inspirational artwork and the decoration. Without these people who share our vision, our properties wouldn’t be the wonderful places that they are to stay in.

Now that’s what we call good team work.