CURLDITCH COTTAGES, The Pig at Combe, Devon The outside, ‘The Pig is grand on the inside’ low-key and chic on
Up until a few years ago, I was definitely my brother
Andrew’s favourite female. Then he met his wife, Sukh, I had two daughters, and a few days before Christmas, his own baby girl, Anoushka, was born. So
I’m a fairly long way down the pecking order now – but there’s still no one I’d rather hang out with. We now schedule weekends together – and bring our ever-expanding broods along, too.
This is our reason for visiting Curlditch Cottages at The Pig in Combe, Devon.
My little family of four has stayed at the hotel here before, a grand-on-theoutside, low-key-and-chic-on-the-inside Elizabethan house, in lush, rolling hills near the little town of Honiton. This time we are six-and-a-half (Anoushka is still firmly nestled in my sister-in-law’s belly) and opt for the recently converted cottages on the estate. We arrive en masse in a Land Rover Discovery, which we test-drive for the weekend. It’s the perfect vehicle for our clan, mainly due to its sheer space – it seats seven with ease. It’s also properly state-of-the-art, with Bluetooth headphones and different entertainment options built into the headrests (the kids are in heaven). The traffic out of London is a nightmare but no one seems to mind as we are all so comfortable.
There’s a row of three terraced cottages at The Pig (perfect for extended families), but we comfortably cram into Stream Cottage, which sleeps four (and in our case, two little ones on camp beds, too) and captures all the gorgeousness of The Pig, just in a self-catering set-up. Cleverly designed to maximise space, it has a little galley kitchenette off the stone-floored sitting room, with a Nespresso coffee machine, neat two-ring hob and well-stocked fridge. Upstairs, both the roomy bedrooms are en suite and the vibe is very boutiquey – giant beds, rolltop baths, fluffy robes and a muted palette of greys and greens.
The Pig is master of making you feel at home, and the six of us instantly crash out, the way only family can. We drink gallons of tea, play Monopoly, and mooch around in our PJS for too long. The staff up at the hotel enhance the
feeling of familiarity, too: on arrival, our basket of goodies contains little packets of seeds for our daughters with ‘Welcome back Coco and Sylvie’ written on them. The girls are also taken off to collect eggs from the chickens for breakfast each morning. One night, we order pizzas from the hotel’s bar The Folly, which are whizzed over to our cottage (still warm!), another we wander up to the main restaurant for a lovely evening meal – and then again for a more substantial Sunday breakfast (although pastries and jam are provided in the cottage) and to play on the giant swing. At one point we all bundle back into the Discovery for some ‘offroading’ (exhilarating), and we also head to nearby Lyme Regis for a stroll by the sea. Otherwise, it’s all about hunkering down, reconnecting and revelling in each other’s company. Andrew and I fall into our unspoken shorthand, retelling decades-old jokes, teasing each other and sharing spontaneous hugs. The weekend, just like my brother, is rather wonderful. SARAH TOMCZAK