We came away on a holiday with the family: 8 adults, 1 four-year-old, 1 three-year-old, 1 18 month-old and 1 newborn.
We had a really fun time staying here, but one or two small issues that could have been easily sorted.
Positives
As a location the village was stunning and the surrounding walks were lovely.
It was so nice to be outside so much of the time as we were very lucky with the weather for the time of year.
The rooms were really nice and spacious, and the bathroom was a good size too (especially considering there were two ensuites).
Having the use of a travel cot there was great as we only had to bring one ourselves.
The downstairs was nicely spaced with a small playroom and a comfy 'adults lounge'. Also having the living space in the kitchen-diner was great as we could all be in there, or spaced out for peace and quiet.
The kitchen had all that we needed in terms of cooking utensils, washing machine, dryer etc. which was especially good for how many children we had with us!
The slight drawbacks:
Having a caretaker nearby was great as, in theory we could resolve any problems very quickly. However getting in touch with him was problematic as there was no landline and no mobile signal. The phone box in the village wasn't working, so it did make things more tricky.
This proved more of a problem when the village had a power cut. As we didn't have a landline (and no wifi with the power out), we couldn't find out how long the power would be off for. This was an issue with having a newborn baby there, and the stove is electric so we couldn't boil any water, and the heating required electric to work.
Considering we are all from very rural backgrounds, it would have been easy to not be bothered by something as small as a power cut at home. But here the torches provided didn't work, the house got steadily colder and there were no backup measures for heating the house. We didn't have a way of cooking any food with it being an electric stove, or a way of heating bottles. A simple camping stove or something would have solved this problem (perhaps left in a locked box which the caretaker could come and unlock in the case of a power cut?). Being unable to contact anyone to find out when to expect the electricity to be back on was an issue too. Perhaps a landline could be installed?
Thankfully the pub landlord was great - he gave us a load of wood so we could make a fire outside to boil a kettle.
The DVD player in the play room worked well, but not the one in the front lounge unfortunately. As one of the children was sleeping in the playroom we struggled to connect to watch a DVD in the evening. Also the TV in the front room wasn't properly fitted onto the bracket - perhaps something to look at from a health and safety point of view?
The dishwasher stopped working properly while we were there but it was very quick for the caretaker to come round and organise for an engineer to come out.
Overall we had a really fun time, but there are one or two things that could have been improved (especially regarding provision for power cuts).