Printable property details
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Coates Mill, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire
GL54 5NH
Coates Mill
- Style
- Country-cottage feel, townhouse looks
- Setting
- Celeb-studded Cotswold village
Pretend this is your own pied-à-terre in the country and book a lazy long weekend at this end-of-terrace two-bedroom cottage a few miles north of Cheltenham. Coates Mill has every creature comfort you crave from a cosy self-catering stay – comfy beds, roaring fire, great garden and friendly neighbours. Recently refurbished, they’ve chucked out the chintz and urban sophisticates will feel right at home in its anything-but-twee townhouse-style interior. A two-minute drive from the charming town of the Winchcombe on the north-western edge of the Cotswolds, an area packed with great gastropubs and places to visit. Original terracotta tiles and wooden beams and floorboards hark back to the cottage’s 18th-century past, while fawn- and taupe-toned upholstery and a chic ‘greige’ palette for the paintwork teamed with contemporary ceramics betray Coates Mills’ current owners’ professions as boutique-hotel proprietors.
‘We needed a break from the rat race and we found it amidst the peace and tranquility’
‘It has truly been a home from home – our own mill cottage – it was lovely to wake in the morning and hear the sound of running water’
‘The perfect cosy house to come back to after a long muddy walk’
In the know
House style
18th-century mill cottage
Grounds
Lovely private split-level landscaped garden, which is begging to be made the most of in sunny weather thanks to a big barbecue and two sunloungers.
Sleeps
4
Ideal for
Two couples, or parents and their two over-eight children, after a low-key relaxing weekend away.
Rates
Friday to Monday: £465–£645 for the long weekend. Monday to Friday £435–£595 for four nights. A week, starting Monday or Friday, £680–£950.
Minimum hire
Three nights at weekends; four in the week. Christmas, a week: 21–28 December; New Year 28 December–4 January; Easter: seven days. Low season: 31 October–12 March; Mid: 13 March–22 May; 5 September–30 October. High: 23 May–4 September.
Also
Strictly non-smoking. As for footwear, walking shoes won’t go to waste; nor will wellies if you fancy a romp in winter. No dogs.
Eating & drinking
The kitchen is equipped with gas hobs, microwave, dishwasher and crockery and pots. There’s a big fridge begging to be stocked up. You can arrange for hearty homemade ready-to-heat meals to be waiting in the fridge. If you are planning to cook for yourself, we recommend for a Sunday Roast that you visit Pilcher & Newman butchers on the High Street (01242 602 998), and get some of their Hereford beef or Cotswold lamb. Folk flock from miles around to do the same. Food Fanatics at 11 North Street, Winchcombe (01242 604466) has an excellent range of organic goods and deli fare. They can arrange a special-occasion diner party or homecooked supper to be waiting for you – speak with one of the Jonathans to organise.
Children
Only over-eights; the steep, narrow wooden staircase is easily trippable for little feet, and the pond and the large drop in the garden shout ‘I’m off to write a letter to Watchdog’.
Music
There’s a handful of easy listening chillout CDs, so musos might want to bring some more interesting tunes.
Provided
Free WiFi, Sky freeview, DVD, CD player, barbecue. No in-room amenities. £100 facials and massages arranged in advance, three weeks ahead of your stay.
Packing tips
Slippers or extra-warm socks; tiled and wooden floors can be nippy with no underfloor heating. You won’t regret a dressing gown in winter; it can be a bit draughty by the original front door. In summer, a monokini – the garden’s a suntrap.
Eco policy
This area isn’t great for recycling, but there are the necessary bins and boxes for paper, glass and tin. Follow instructions provided.
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The house has a conventional, simple layout spread over two floors. The small kitchen (and utility room) opens into the dining area off of which is a snug lounge with open fire and all your audio-visuals. Follow the steep wooden staircase up to the two neighbouring bedrooms and a spacious bathroom. The bedrooms aren’t enormously roomy, but they’re in keeping with the cosy nature of a traditional terraced mill house.
Interior
Bedrooms
Bedroom 1: The beamed Red room has a superking bed, which can be made into two singles. 21st-century requirements aren’t needed in this antiques-furnished room where a original Victorian fireplace is a charming reminder of its centuries-old heritage.
Bedroom 2: The Green room has a slightly smaller double bed, and is also floorboarded; there isn’t a lot of storage, but ample for a short stay.
Bathroom: The showpiece of this all-white, old fashioned yet contemporary, bathroom is the mighty vigorous Jacuzzi.
Kitchen Fully equipped with Smeg range cooker and double oven, microwave, dishwasher, cafetiere. Find culinary accoutrements such as decent knives, peeler, grater, whisk, clingfilm and foil in the drawers. The kitchen is stocked with the basics; tea, coffee, milk, salt and pepper.
Living room The exposed grey-stone wall and cow-skin rug sets a cosy scene ideal for making the most of the open ready-laid fire and a huge supply of chopped wood stacked beautifully in the dining room. Snuggle up on the big-enough-for-two-to-sprawl-on corner sofa in front of a 24-inch flatscreen TV with Sky Freeview and DVD player.
Dining room There are seats enough for six at the wooden dining table, but four settling in under the stylish rectangular chandelier will feel just right too. And if you’ve got a laptop with you, this is the perfect spot to plot up and consult the www.smithandfriends.com website to decide what to do while you’re away, while you chat to whoever’s in the kitchen fixing supper. A HiFi can be listened to here but is also piped into the bathroom, upstairs.
Other The utility room has a fridge/freezer, dishwasher, washer/dryer; all washing products provided.
Outdoor
Gardens A little lawn at the front, with a low hedge for you to chat to the neighbours over, and two private raised gardens at the back calling out for guests to take full advantage of the barbecue and pair of sunloungers in. There’s even a little outdoor loo lending the property as a how-we-used-to-live souvenir.
Parking There is room for two cars just outside on the drive to the next house. Park as close to the hedge on the left, next to the front garden as this is a walkway.
Other Turn right out of the gate at the end of the lane – you’re a ten-minute walk to Winchcombe, a lovely little town dating back to Saxon times when it was capital of the kingdom of Mercia.
check availability
To check availability and book a vacation rental property please call the Smith travel team on 1 866 610 3867. We guarantee best available rates on all vacation rental properties.
Activities
Best picnic spot
We suggest popping to the grounds of Sudeley Castle (see activities).
Best walks
There are several walks around Winchcombe including one that passes the front of the cottage – the Cotswold Way. This runs 102 miles from Chipping Campden to the city of Bath right through Winchcombe. Demanding ramblers will want to conquer Cleeve Common at 317m-high, for the view. Go to www.nationaltrail.co.uk/Cotswold/ for more information.
Activities
Sudeley Castle was the last resting place of Katherine Parr, the sixth and surviving wife of Henry VIII, and this magnificent house and foliage-filled gardens made modern-day headlines when Liz Hurley tied the knot there. Visit Chipping Campden, one of the Cotswolds’ most famous honey-coloured stone villages, with buildings dating from the 14th century. The Church of St James has fine monumental brasses. Visit Hidcote Manor Gardens, nearby now a National Trust property.
Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum on Clarence Street in Cheltenham
GL50 3JT (01242 237431) is open Monday to Tuesday 10am–5.20pm (from 11am on the first Thursday of the month); closed Bank Holidays. The Arts and Crafts design movement began in this area in the 19th century, and this is an acclaimed collection of furniture, textiles, ceramics, carvings, silver and more.
Snowshill Manor, near Broadway (01386 852410) is 15-mins drive away, is the fruits of Charles Paget Wade’s labours and obsessions; he collected so many examples of fine craftmanship from around the world he eventually ran out space and had to move out;
An Arts & Crafts triumph, thatched-roofed Hidcote Manor Garden and its pretty leafy grounds are a lovely afternoon out.
Cheltenham is no slouch when comes to festivals – it hosts ones of a jazz, science, music and literature bent: the Cheltenham Festival of Literature (www.cheltenhamfestivals.com) is held every October, is attended by eminent writers such as Stephen Fry, Maya Angelou and Bret Easton Ellis.
Cheltenham Races (National Hunt Festival, etc) http://www.cheltenham.co.uk.
Smith tip
Take some change to use the pay phone as there isn’t any signal here for some mobiles. Otherwise, make sure you text people the land line number en route. Definitely try and plan a picnic. Buy a barbecued-daily rotisserie chicken from Pilcher & Newman butchers on the High Street (01242 602 998), then pop to Food Fanatics at 11 North Street, Winchcombe (01242 604466) and stock up on all your comestibles. As well as all the essentials such as French bread, there is whisky- or heat-smoked salmon, salamis, pate and cheeses galore. We loved the Saint Eadburgha and St Oswald cheeses, but you may think it crazy not to opt for a Double Gloucester, when in the Cotswolds. French fruit tarts are a ‘oui, s’il vous plait’ for the sweet-toothed.
Eating, drinking and dancing
Restaurants
No 5
+44 (0)1242 604 566
For special-occasion Anglo-French dining, book a table at No 5 well in advance – it’s tiny.
5 North Street, Winchcombe
Pubs
Wine and Sausage at the White Hart Inn
+44 (0)1242 602 703
A cheery, modern gastropub within a hotel, which is as suitable for relaxed sausages and mash-type lunches with family, as it is romantic dinners of hearty roast lamb or rib-eye steak. Bar snacks are served from noon until 9.30pm and include tasty Ploughman's and pack-a-punch sandwiches.
High Street, Winchcombe, Gloucs
Corner Cupboard
+44 (0)1242 602303
For local beers and real ales, pop to the Corner Cupboard on Gloucester Street, Winchcombe; a five-minute stroll from Coates Mill, it’s a proper local.
Gloucester Street, Winchcombe, Gloucs
The Plaisterers Arms
+44 (0)1242 602358
This pub offers a wide range of homecooked meals, and has a large child-friendly beer garden.
Abbey Terrace, Winchcombe, Gloucs
The Kings Arms
+44 (0)1242 244403
If it's a pub lunch you fancy, this is the perfect spot if you're on your way to Cheltenham.
High Street, Prestbury, Cheltenham
Cafés
Jurie’s Tea Room
+44 (0)1242 602469
There is no shortage of tea rooms, but this Japanese-owned, award-winning cafe on the is a diamond among too-conventional tourist traps.
High Street, Winchcombe, Gloucs
check availability
To check availability and book a vacation rental property please call the Smith travel team on 1 866 610 3867. We guarantee best available rates on all vacation rental properties.
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Housekeeping
Ordinarily it is just between stays; if it’s over week they will arrange an extra clean.
check availability
To check availability and book a vacation rental property please call the Smith travel team on 1 866 610 3867. We guarantee best available rates on all vacation rental properties.
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Planes Airports closest to the region are Bristol, where easyJet (www.easyjet.com) flies from Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Newcastle; and Birmingham, which has connections from Aberdeen, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Jersey with BMI Baby (www.bmibaby.com).
Trains From London, go to Kingham as it’s a quicker line. You’ll have to pay about £32 in a cab for the 35-minute journey. The closest train station otherwise is Cheltenham.
Local taxi service In Winchcombe, Taylor Private Hire (07814 570876) and Amiga Cars (01242 603060). If Travelling to Cheltenham, the 727 Car Company (01242 523523) or A2b Private Hire (01242 580580). For car hire, click on our Travel Offers page. Smithcard holders get a 10 per cent discount with Hertz.
Directions by road As you enter Winchcombe from Cheltenham take first right after large Winchcombe, where the sign is for Andoversford; after turning to the right look for Coates Mill House in the right-hand corner between footpath and a bench (before Corndean Lane). Drive over small bridge and around sharp bend, and it's the end of first terrace.
As well as offering all the creature comforts you could crave from a petite self-catering property – a fully equipped kitchen, super-comfy beds, a lounge with an open fire, a private well-kept garden – it’s also the ideal base to sample Cotswolds many attractions.
Review
Friendly neighbours waving ‘hullo’, long afternoon rambles in best-of-British countryside, homecooked suppers using delicious local produce – how many of us have driven through the Cotswolds wishing we had our own weekend cottage where we could enjoy such shenanigans? And that’s where pretty grey-stoned Coates Mill is perfect.
It’s most city-dwellers' daydream to pack up the car Friday and head off to their cosy country house until Monday. And this end-of-terrace two-bedroomed cottage down a tiny lane a few miles north of Cheltenham fits the bill perfectly – especially as it’s also available for long-weekend slots – a rare treat among rentals. Following 2007's flooding, Coates Mills owners gave the downstairs a sophisticated refurb, and all the fawn- and taupe-toned paintwork and upholstery feels more Elle Deco photoshoot set than reasonably priced rental cottage.
Original terracotta tiles and wooden beams and floorboards hark back to the cottage’s 18th-century past, while touches such as contemporary ceramics betray Coates Mills’ current owners’ professions as boutique-hotel proprietors (they own Thirty Two hotel in Cheltenham). As well as offering all the creature comforts you could crave from a petite self-catering property – a fully equipped kitchen, super-comfy beds, a lounge with an open fire, a private well-kept garden – it’s also the ideal base to sample Cotswolds many attractions.
The outdoors couldn’t be greater than amid Gloucestershire’s green rolling countryside and you’re only a ten-minute trot from the charming town of Winchcombe on the north-western edge of the Cotswolds. Don your hiking boots and tackle the Cotswold Way walk, or opt for a lower-octane outing and dip your toes into National Trust gardens, then collapse in a gastropub where local residents are quick to welcome you with a smile. Or stay in your slippers, and don’t budge from the anything-but-twee townhouse-style interior of Coates Mill itself. Relax with the weekend papers by the roaring wood fire when it's cold outside, or stray out into Coates Mill's leafy garden and fire up the BBQ when the sun’s shining. Your weekend pied-à-terre dreams come true? Indeed, this charming cottage-for-four is sure to feel like your very own Cotswold retreat.
Reviewed by Juliet Kinsman
check availability
To check availability and book a vacation rental property please call the Smith travel team on 1 866 610 3867. We guarantee best available rates on all vacation rental properties.
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