Special Places to Stay - More than a bed for the night

Wendy’s Aga-cooked breakfasts in the conservatory are a treat, so are comfortable bedrooms. Flowers everywhere, heaps of cushions, log fires, French windows that lead onto the terrace: such a cosseting place to stay. John and Wendy have always treated their guests like friends; their walled garden receives a similar level of tender loving care. This gently sloping garden is protected from the salty north-east wind by a thick 30-foot-high conifer hedge, which allows a wide variety of flowering shrubs to flourish – hydrangeas do beautifully here – interspersed with Wendy’s favourite annuals such as Nicotiana silvestris and Verbena bonariensis. Roses scramble through trees, over walls, and up the extensive 200-year-old brick and flint barns. Gentle ‘New Dawn’ frames the front door. In the large Victorian-style conservatory, plumbago and geraniums weave their way through the wall trellis, while the many geraniums and orchids add colour to the sills. Wendy is a talented flower arranger and loves to grow herbs, lavender, agapanthus and lilies in artistically arranged pots around the terrace.