Where do you start!
My wife & I booked this house for a week to celebrate our forthcoming golden wedding anniversary by getting together with our family of 3 children + partners and 7 grand-children aged between 10 & 20). Everyone rated it the best time we have ever shared together. Why was that?
The house is large and rambling, with a lot of history around the Hood family (who have a rich naval history). There are 8 double bedrooms, 2 with 4-poster beds and 2 with en-suite facilities, but there were 4 extra bathrooms (counting one downstairs). All were nicely equipped with linen, towels, toiletries, etc. There is a very large kitchen where we could all eat together and a formal dining room (which we used once). There are 2 lounges, a lovely hall/foyer area, with 2 pianos, including a grand piano plus a largish games room with pool and table tennis. The grounds are extensive, with large outdoor eating and grassed areas, a tennis court, a croquet lawn and lots of wooded areas to explore.
That gave everyone plenty of space to do their own thing, while it was easy to get together for games or chatting or just exploring. We have 3 very musical grandchildren and they had a great time playing music on the pianos and their guitars- it was great to see cousins getting on so well!
We spent quite a lot of time playing tennis (the first time for many years for some of us), croquet using some sort of vague rules that descended into hysterical chaos and table tennis & pool, where the teenagers took delight in beating some of their parents or adult relatives- or vice versa! The Samuel Hood monument is close by and just a few miles away is Glastonbury Tor, both of which gave us some hill-climbing exercise.
On the downside, the place is a bit run-down and the rooms were not as clean as we would have liked, especially in the cupboards and drawers. A few things didn't work properly, including a few lights. However, this didn't spoil our enjoyment and it made us feel that we didn't have to be over worried about treading carefully all the time. We could be ourselves and not be too concerned about spoiling the heritage of the place.
All the family want to go again so, who knows???