Oodles of charm on an East Sussex farm
LIKE many townies, my wife and I would love to have a second house in the country — but we haven’t a hope in hell of affording one. Happily, with Britain’s stay-at-home holiday market offering short-stay rentals, it’s easy to have a taste of country living. The Lodges at New House Farm in East Sussex, run by Nina and John Carter, are a bucolic option. John was a successful DJ in the 1990s who then got into the pub business. Now he and Nina have invested their talents into building six lodges on their 12-acre farm. We arrived on a Friday night, late. I took a train from London’s Charing Cross to Etchingham, which took 90 minutes, while my wife Taffeta drove down with our three exhausting children. Nina had kindly left us a tray of eggs, milk and hot cross buns, so we ate
well then slept in late. Gus, our five-year-old, came and woke us around 10.15 am saying: ‘I love the countryside!’ Why Gus, we asked. ‘Because you get a telly in your bedroom.’ On that note, we decided we should get going. Taffeta took the children outside where they bumped into Nina and her twin girls feeding
sheep and a miniature Argentinian Falabella horse called Manana. Clemmie, our three-year-old My Little Pony enthusiast, was deliriously happy. We had to drag her away for a hearty walk. Taffeta, who fancies herself as an animal lover, was surprisingly terrified when some cows approached us. Meanwhile, the boys had picked up the spinal column of some poor dead creature (a sheep, we think) and were
taking great joy in its creepiness. Now hungry, we drove to The Bell in Ticehurst for lunch, which was full of beautiful people in wellies. The food was delicious, the service perfect, but our experience was somewhat marred by our errant children. So we returned to the Lodge, plonked them in front of the TV — and tried the hot-tub. I have to confess I’m a hot-tub sceptic, but it was a pleasant and (dare I say) romantic experience: looking out over the High Weald with my wife. Nina had also arranged for us to have a massage — again, not really my thing. But the masseuse, Shelly from Shhh Holistic, was good fun. I even relaxed, briefly, which was unnerving. Yes, short breaks in the country are great.
FREDDY GRAY