“Let me start by saying that we really enjoyed our stay at Church How.”
The cottage is in a lovely quiet location and handy for lots of local walks. It is also good for getting to Wasdale Head before the crowds arrive! It is also very well equipped with quality appliances. There is a farm shop at the camp site round the corner and the Sawmill café is in easy walking distance (Strands Inn even easier!). I say this up front as we did have one or two issues.
Firstly on arrival the freezer was switched off at the wall so that when I went to put our frozen stuff in it ...
The cottage is in a lovely quiet location and handy for lots of local walks. It is also good for getting to Wasdale Head before the crowds arrive! It is also very well equipped with quality appliances. There is a farm shop at the camp site round the corner and the Sawmill café is in easy walking distance (Strands Inn even easier!). I say this up front as we did have one or two issues.
Firstly on arrival the freezer was switched off at the wall so that when I went to put our frozen stuff in it I found the drawers to be full of water (and some defrosted peas). When we switched it back on at the wall it started beeping. There is no manual for the freezer so we rang one of the contact numbers and left a msg as there was no reply. We never got a response. We eventually pressed a small button at the bottom which stopped the beeping and the freezer was OK from then on.
Secondly the keys for the internal doors (bedroom, bathroom etc) were hung on the wrong doors so didn’t work in the lock of those doors.
Thirdly there was an article of clothing – presumably from the previous occupants – left in the chest of drawers in the bedroom. All of the above suggests a non too thorough clear up between bookings.
Finally when we returned from our Saturday walk the door of the cottage was ajar. We definitely closed it when we left and I’m fairly sure we locked it so thought we might have been burgled but all was well inside. A strange incident.
The cottage looks very nice inside but lacks practicality in some areas. There isn’t a great deal of shelf storage. The wide window sills make up for this a bit but there is a pointless set of narrow shelves completely full of a decorative but otherwise useless set of crockery.
There are 6 wine glasses and just 4 other glasses which are sort of fake crystal half pints so if you want Prosecco or a GnT whilst away (or even a pint of water) then bring your own glasses.
There is a huge, nice looking TV which we found to be completely useless. It has no DVB connection so is only good for streaming except that the internet connection was so flaky that it buffered every 10 seconds and was hence unwatchable. Not a big deal for us as we barely watch TV on holiday but might be different for a family with kids.
The shower, whilst good and powerful, is not watertight and the base leaks onto the bathroom floor.
The cottage could do with a bowl for washing up as the sink is huge and thus takes lots of water to get a decent depth. Maybe they expect everyone to use the dishwasher these days? The tap takes a bit of getting used to but is fine once mastered!
The hob, oven and toaster are excellent and the knives particularly sharp (but sensibly have a ‘child lock’ on them).
There is nothing in the folder provided that says where recycling should be put nor on what days it, or ordinary waste, are collected.
The outside picnic table is placed in the one area that never sees the sun – in May at least.
There is nothing in the cottage to deal with flies that get in – and they do get in.
The gate at the entrance from the road was often open, sometimes closed and once just half open (resulting in a splinter when handled so maybe worth smoothing). There was nothing to say which of these states was normal or preferred.
There is a raised area outside the door which would be ideal for planting a few herbs which would be both decorative and useful (we trawled the village for rosemary for a recipe and did eventually find some).
Please don’t let any of the above put you off staying here; you can spend quiet evenings being visited by deer or watching the bats stream out from next doors roof. It truly is idyllic and could be made perfect by just a few tweaks.
Glad you enjoyed your stay and thanks for the detailed feedback, much appreciated!
Property Owner
