Nellyfanjita
August 2015
The Well House is a most attractive and quite large Edwardian cottage, nestling in some of the prettiest countryside Somerset has to offer. Adjoining it is the house where our lovely proprietors Amanda and Sally live. You may think it could be intrusive to have your landladies living next door, far from it! They respected the fact that we were on holiday and unless we needed anything they very much let us get on with it. They could not have been more obliging and helpful and most of all, were very friendly. Even though our two eldest boys decided to have a noisy sparring match (which must have disturbed them) at around midnight on night two, when we apologised the following day they just smiled and commented, "boys will be boys." I was embarrassed but they were so gracious.
We stayed during the third week of August as we hoped to find some sunshine at that time of the year and we were wrong! British weather being what it is, it bucketed down almost the whole time although the evenings were beautiful with glorious sunsets over the Quantock Hills, a beautiful view of which is there to be enjoyed from the garden at the side of the cottage. Once the children had settled down my daughter and I spent the evenings outside, waxing lyrical over a bottle or two of wine and watching the blazing sunsets.
Downstairs is a HUGE double bedroom with a lovely, comfortable super kingsize bed and an ensuite bathroom. A beautiful curved stairway sweeps around to the upstairs accommodation. Here you will find another very roomy double bedroom, and a smaller double bedroom. A second bathroom is to your left and a separate loo to your right. Bed linen and towels are supplied. The showers aren`t state of the art but they do the job and I`m a bath person, so it really didn`t matter to me. The water was piping hot every morning and again in the evening.
Upstairs at the back of the house is a small kitchen come dining area which is a bit of a squeeze however, there are plentiful cooking utensils, paring knives, general kitchen equipment and crockery and we adjusted to the smaller space quite quickly. At the side of the kitchen is a little conservatory for sitting to watch TV or read if you want to. From there, the views across to the hills are truly gorgeous. They make your soul feel good.
Watchet village is about a fifteen minute walk from the cottage, or five minutes to drive and park. There you will find lots of interesting shops, pubs and eateries, a good Co-op, plenty of parking and access to West Beach, which is great for rock pools for the kids. A ten minute drive in the opposite direction takes you to Doniford and Helwell bays which are strewn with multi coloured rocks and quite a few fossils, our children loved it there, hunting for shells and other interesting things.
There are so many lovely places to visit within a few miles of Watchet, it would be impossible to list them all here, however our favourite places were Doniford pet farm and garden, the nearby Cider farm, pony trecking, Butlins (of course) and Dunster Village. Lots of places are dog friendly which was very nice for our little dog Alfie but you may like to check with Amanda and Sally when you book as I believe they will not be accepting dogs for lettings in 2016.
The Well House sits next door to Saint Decumens Church and there is a holy well there,which is also worth a visit. All in all and in spite of the rain, a very lovely place to holiday. I would certainly go again but most probably without my darling grand children!
N.B. My sat nav took me to the wrong side of the church. Well House drive is next to the large sculpture of a blue anchor, you can`t miss it!