The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
SOUTH WEST
Mells Somerset
Chocolate-box-charming, tucked in tantalising Mendips countryside and home to an achingly cool pub, Mells scores highly in village Top Trumps. The most handsome pile of all is Mells Manor, parts of which date from the 16th century, when it was owned by Glastonbury Abbey; it has been occupied by the Horner family since 1543.
It is not all ancient history, though. A lovely outing is a walk by the Mells Stream, via the atmospherically overgrown and crumbly 18th- and 19th-century ruins of Fussell’s Ironworks, which once exported farm tools around the globe. The remains are now Grade II listed, and a vital roosting site for horseshoe bats.
Don’t miss the community-owned village shop and café, a friendly spot selling basics plus treats from the Great Cake Company in nearby Radstock and Little Jack Horner sausage rolls, whose bakery is in Mells itself.
WHERE TO STAY
Dating from 1480 but given a hip revamp in 2013, the Talbot is a dreamy country gastro-pub with rooms. B&B doubles from £95 (talbotinn.com).
WHERE TO EAT
The Talbot. Or pizza at the Walled Garden, a non-profit community nursWHERE ery and outdoor café amid rectory ruins (thewalledgardenatmells.co.uk).
THE BEST DAY OUT
If it is Independent Market day (the first Sunday of the month), head east to Frome. Historic Wells and hippy Glastonbury are just to the south-west.
Sarah Baxter
Cranborne Dorset
Comely Cranborne is a little village with a big appetite. It is owned by the Cranborne Estate: the manor, built as a royal hunting lodge in the 13th century, is private, but the surrounding gardens are open for tours (Weds, March-October) and the garden centre and café in the former walled kitchen garden are open daily. The estate helps nurture village businesses, which are mainly foodie.
The main hub is Cranborne Stores, which sells everything from Meggy Moo’s milk to Cranborne Chase Cider. It also stocks manchego-like Hardy’s and other award-winners from the Book and Bucket Cheese Company – or you can buy direct from the dairy on the village outskirts. Also just outside is Holwell Farm, whose barns house Orchard Bay Bakery (pop along for Friday pizza nights) and Sixpenny Brewery: order a citrusy Gold in the taproom or a four-pint cartoon to take away. TO STAY
The Fleur de Lys is a 17th-century coaching inn in the village. Doubles from £95, B&B (thefleurdelysinn.co.uk).
WHERE TO EAT
La Fosse is a tiny but award-winning restaurant-with-rooms – chef Mark Hartstone trained at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons (la-fosse.com).
THE BEST DAY OUT
Salisbury Cathedral and the historylayered hill of Old Sarum (www.english-heritage.org.uk) are just a short drive north.
Sarah Baxter
Lustleigh Devon
If it were anywhere else, this idyllic, ever-so-English thatched village would be mobbed by tour groups. But narrow, winding lanes, a shortage of parking and a ban on coaches mean all but the most determined visitors make it. Set in a wooded cleave in Dartmoor National Park, Lustleigh’s setting is sublime and the community is close-knit and supportive. Time a visit with cricket on the village green, enjoy a fresh scone at the tea rooms, visit the art gallery, or brave
h Sublime setting: the ever-so-English Lustleigh village in Dartmoor National Park
a steep uphill hike through pretty apple orchards. There is a friendly village shop, dairy, Post Office and Grade I-listed medieval parish church, complete with a preserved chancel screen.
WHERE TO STAY
The Cleave (thecleavelustleigh.co.uk) has good budget rooms; best for self-catering are Two Pound Cottage (twopoundcottage.com) or Coach House Lodge (heavenly-hideaways.com).
WHERE TO EAT
The Cleave Inn (thecleavelustleigh.co. uk) serves pub grub, while Primrose Tea Rooms serves afternoon tea.
THE BEST DAY OUT
Drive across Dartmoor, taking in prehistoric villages, a prison museum and one of our oldest dwarf-oak woodlands.
Shaldon Devon
Mysteriously bypassed by the tourist trail, Shaldon, on the Teign estuary, is a waterside village pretty enough to rival Salcombe, its overcrowded neighbour. Elegant Georgian homes, a neatly kept bowling green, botanical gardens, a wildlife sanctuary and two rust-red beaches – one accessed through a smugglers’ tunnel – make this one of Devon’s best-kept secrets. Shaldon describes itself as “a quaint English drinking village with a fishing problem”, and residents love a knees-up.
Events run by volunteers include a water carnival, a music festival and a beach bonfire night. Shaldon has its share of holiday homes, but there are lots of shops geared to locals, including an award-winning butcher’s that has been in business for over 100 years.
WHERE TO STAY
The Ness Hotel (theness.co.uk) is a handsome Georgian villa overlooking the sea. Shaldon Beach Huts (shaldonbeachhuts.co.uk) are ergonomic marvels sleeping up to four people.
WHERE TO EAT
Pioneering Café Ode (odetruefood. com), by Ness Cove, has a strong eco ethos. The London Inn serves great pub food (londoninnshaldon.co.uk).
THE BEST DAY OUT
Don your walking boots for a hike along a cliff path or to Dartmoor.
Suzy Bennett
Lizard Cornwall
Cornwall has plenty of winning picture-book seaside villages – Mousehole, Polperro and Port Isaac to name but a few – but to escape the tourist horde and get a sense of Cornish tradition and community, visit Britain’s most southerly village, Lizard.
It may not be conventionally pretty but it is full of small pleasures and treasures, as Victorian holidaymakers discovered. These include winding lanes, lined with thatched cottages and cute 1930s bungalows that lead to arresting clifftop panoramas.
People come from afar to buy locally reared meat from Retallacks, grab one of Ann’s famous pasties, and stock up on homemade jams sold outside local homes, with payment by honesty box. Just off the village green lies Cross Common Nursery, which specialises in citrus trees and exotic plants. And you still occasionally hear the buzz of a sander as an artisan turns the area’s rare blood-red serpentine stone into dishes and doorstops.
WHERE TO STAY
The Housel Bay Hotel has far-reaching views from its clifftop eyrie. A small Edwardian property, it has rooms decorated in Scandi style and there is a choice of informal and fine dining in summer. Double rooms from £130, B&B (houselbay.com).
WHERE TO EAT
The licensed Wavecrest Café at Lizard Point serves ices, cream teas and classic seaside favourites (try the fishburger) on a terrace just feet from the cliff edge (wavecrestcornwall.co.uk).
THE BEST DAY OUT
Stride out along a relatively easy stretch of Cornwall’s coastal footpath from the famed Kynance Cove to the crab-fishing village of Cadgwith for a well-deserved pint in its 18th-century smugglers’ inn.