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Review 4234: Campden Cottages, Sansons Cottage

www.campdencottages.co.uk

Recommended. Review by Kaydee from TN

2bed/2bath house in Chipping Campden, Heart of England

When

July 2009, 2 weeks

Review

We just returned from two weeks in the Cotswolds, where we rented Sansons Cottage in Chipping Campden. This was an ideal rental for our family, and we loved staying in Chipping Campden.

The cottage is several hundred years old. (The website says 150 years, but the owner told us it was built in 1790.) It is located on "Leysbourne," which is the residential end of the High Street, near the church. Everything in Chipping Campden is in easy walking distance. We never had a problem finding parking (free) on the street near the cottage, but this sometimes required parallel parking skills.

The cottage is three levels, basically one room wide and one room deep. The kitchen/dining area seems to be an addition to the original house. The ceilings are high, with exposed beams, and the stairs are steep.

You enter from the sidewalk into a small entrance-way off the street, where you can hang jackets and leave dirty shoes. There's also a small table with loads of tourist literature and an honor-system phone.

The living room is cozy and light, attractively decorated in bright fabrics, and very comfortable. There's a window on the main street with a window seat, a couch, two very comfortable armchairs, and lots of cushions. One of the armchairs (that became mine) is in an alcove under the stairs. The lighting is excellent for reading. We used the gas fireplace many evenings, despite it being July. There are several shelves of good books, a nice size TV and DVD player (with an assortment of movies), a CD player and many music CDs, and a cabinet of games and puzzles. The only slightly awkward thing about this room is that only one armchair is well positioned to watch the TV. We ended up moving furniture around to watch a few movies together.

The kitchen/dining area is behind the living room, and a back door opens from this into a long narrow garden. The kitchen is very well equipped, but it's a small space. Since there were just three of us, we ended up pushing the table against the wall and moving the fourth dining chair to the living room. This gave us a little more room to maneuver and get out the back door to the trash containers (required recycling). We did a fair amount of cooking in the kitchen. The kitchen includes an under-the-counter fridge (small freezer compartment), four-burner stove with oven, washer/dryer, double sink, microwave, electric kettle, and toaster. The crockery is attractive, and we had everything we needed to prepare full dinners a couple of nights. One of the best aspects of the kitchen is a big shelf of very good cookbooks.

The first bedroom is one level up from the living room. Our daughter slept here and it's an attractive room. There's a double bed and a pretty window seat. This level also has a bathroom with tub/shower.

The second bedroom is up one more level at the top of the house. The bed can be set up as a king or two twins. The bathroom is very nice, with a good walk-in shower. The bathroom has a lot of privacy and looks out over the back garden. Late at night there's a view of the illuminated church tower from the front bedroom window.

Both rooms have plenty of drawer and closet space and reading lamps. There is an iron and ironing board and also a hair dryer. We had our linens changed and a cleaning midway through our two-week stay.

Although the cottage is on the main street, we did not sense a lot of street noise. It was really very quiet at night.

The back garden is a long narrow plot with a variety of flowering shrubs and an apple tree. At the very end is a table and chairs, though we didn't ever eat out there. We did use the barbecue grill.

Our interactions with the agency (Sheila) were positive and our e-mails were always answered promptly. We paid a 25% deposit via credit card (an extra charge for using a credit card) and the balance charged to our card several weeks before our arrival. We e-mailed with the owner about our arrival, and a friendly local woman met us, showed us around the house, and answered some questions about the village. There is a very detailed house book.

Chipping Campden is an ideal village for a base in the Cotswolds, a lovely village that's not too touristy. You can shop for provisions at large grocery stores in Stow-on-the-Wold, Moreton-in-Marsh, or Evesham. But you really don't need to leave Chipping Campden for shopping. Chipping Campden has a general store/grocery store, a butcher, a greengrocers, a wine shop, a bakery, and a variety of restaurants and pubs. (We really enjoyed the Indian restaurant and the pub at the Lygon Arms.) There are also many eating places in nearby villages, but it would be possible to focus your evenings in Chipping Campden. There are several hiking trails (foothpaths) leaving from the village. We also highly recommend one of the village walking tours with the Cotswolds wardens (offered on Wednesday afternoons in the summer). This gave us a much better appreciation for the village history and some of its treasures. The tourist office staff were very helpful too.

This cottage is well suited for a family of three or four or a couple. I think it would be a bit too cozy for two couples traveling together, mainly around the dining table. You also do need to be able to deal with the steepish stairs up to the bedrooms and bathrooms. Campden Cottages offers many other cottages in Chipping Campden and neighboring villages.

(Note: Sansons Cottage has dial-up Internet (pay), which we didn't use. We managed to pick up a usable wireless signal from a neighbor. There are a few places in Chipping Campden to use WiFi or computers, and some of the Campden Cottages do have broadband Internet included.)

This review is the opinion of a Slow Travel member and not of slowtrav.com.

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Review 4234: Campden Cottages, Sansons Cottage

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