HAPPY FAMILIES IN THE COTSWOLDS
I’ve lived with my brother twice as an adult. Once when my decade-long relationship fell apart and Andy moved in to help me pay the rent, and again, supposedly for a few months, when he was between flats. He ended up staying for three years.
So, despite now being married with two kids, I really miss having him around (as does my eldest daughter, Coco, who slept next door to him for the first two years of her life, and adores him like no other).
There’s no better place for us then than the Cotswold Cottages in Kingham, a picturesque little village four miles outside Chipping Norton. They’re a pair of perfectly formed small stone cottages, with an interconnecting door between them (as well as my expanded family, my brother is now married to Sukh – whom thankfully I adore – so we all require a little more space). If I tell you the cottages are part of the ever-growing Bamford empire, I might not need to go any further, but just in case, this means they’re impeccably decorated in Lady Bamford’s own brand of rustic luxe: grey linen, bleached wood, exposed stone walls, wooden beams, piles of perfect white crockery, Daylesford tea towels and Bamford’s signature geranium, lavender and peppermint products in the bathrooms.
The cottages are small but perfectly formed, our open-plan ground floor manages to accommodate a corner kitchen, built-in dining nook with leather-clad banquette, and a comfy seating area with a discreet flat-screen TV and open fire. Upstairs, the two bedrooms – both with en suites – feel really quite generous (thanks in part to colossally high ceilings and putty-hued paintwork).
Perhaps the cleverest thing about the cottages is that you can be as self sufficient or as mollycoddled as you desire. About a four-minute walk into the village is The Wild Rabbit, the Bamford pub-with-rooms, which will serve you breakfast, a pub lunch, or a fancy dinner (it’s equally divine and oozing in Cotswold chic).
Then, two miles down the road, is the original Daylesford outpost. An organic farm/farm shop/spa/dining experience, it houses the original
Bamford Haybarn Spa, alongside a few different restaurants, an impressive stocked food hall (oh, to do a weekly shop here!) and a boutique where you can buy all the beautiful things you coveted in the cottage.
FOR US, THIS TRIUMVIRATE OF OPTIONS IS JUST SUBLIME.
We cook supper in the cottages on our first evening, enjoy dinner at The Wild Rabbit on the Saturday night and treat ourselves to lunch (and artisan supplies… and a massage) from Daylesford on the Sunday. In between, we spend a lot of time lolling around, catching up and just enjoying being together. Chilly walks around Kingham and into Chipping Norton are bookended by pots of tea and homemade cakes in front of the fire. The kids run between the two cottages, delighted to have the undivided attention of four doting family members, then later, once they’re in bed, we drink red wine late into the night, enjoying the ease and affection you feel when with those closest to you in the world. It’s a very special weekend and we remark upon how lucky we all are, particularly to have found such a convenient and classy bolthole. As always, we vow to get together more often – and then we actually set a date to return.