More of a barn than a cottage (Coleridge Barns)

Member Name: NCG1

Product:	Coleridge Barns
Date:	03/04/02 (141 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very comfortable, Many bathrooms, Well appointed

Disadvantages: Main bedroom links to living area, Washer dryer doesn't dry very well

A nicely renovated barn, with twelve 'slices' through it - each of them like a town-house. Most of these are lived in all the year round, but one is rentable-out. Now, here I must declare a bias - its owned by my parents. But I'll do my absolute best to be objective about it. ;-) Let me know in the comments box if you think I haven't managed it, and I'll make changes.

Coleridge Barns is half a mile outside a small village called Chillington, which is about five miles from Kingsbridge. Kingsbridge itself is about an hour south of the A38 (Buckfastleigh exit) and is in the part of Devon called the South Hams - which basically means its very good for cliff walks, sailing (Salcombe is half an hour from Kingsbridge) and lovely beaches but not so good if you want to go walking on the moors. It is also near enough the Eden Project to do it in a day trip, though you may want to share the driving as its about two hours each way (depending on how many tractors you get stuck behind in the lanes).

The house itself has three bedrooms (double, double that converts to two singles, bunk beds) plus a sofa bed in the living room. The main bedroom is stunning - its on a sort of gallery above the living room/ dining room, and so shares a double-height picture window out over the fields. The disadvantage to this is that you can hear everything that is going on in the living room in the bedroom, and vice versa. So if more than one person (or a couple) use the flat, they either need to agree about bed and getting up times or else risk disturbing the people in the top bedroom. The second bedroom has a useful bed that can be clipped together to make a double or two slightly narrow singles - this process takes about five minutes, mostly because you have to re-make the bed. The bunk beds are just the normal sort - they have a ladder and a bar to stop the top bunker descending rapidly and unexpectedly, but you obviously wouldn't put a very sm
all child up there. A cot is provided for babies (though I can't vouch for that or the highchair, as I don't have kids and so I've never even had a look at them).

There are three bathrooms - one on the top level with the main bedroom (there's nothing else up there so its effectively en suite), a shower room on the first floor (next to the living room) and another full bathroom on the ground floor (the same level as the second bedroom and bunk bed room). So no problem when everyone comes home muddy and/ or desperate for the loo ;-). Apart from that, there's a large living room with two sofas, a TV, video, CD player - plus a dining area with a table and six chairs. The living room has a door out onto a sheltered balcony that catches the evening sun.

The kitchen is galley style - it has all the stuff you'd expect (fridge, freezer, saucepans, oven, grill, hobs, toaster) together with a few added extras (magimix, microwave, plastic champagne flutes...?!?). There is a utilty room downstairs, which is good for storing walking boots, coats etc. It has a combined washing machine/ dryer, which is fine for washing but not very good at drying (it'll do sheets, but it doesn't do much to jeans except make them hot). But there's a hanging clothes dryer for indoors, and one outside in the garden, so its not a major problem.

The garden is quite small, just a patio and a sloping piece of grass, and is fenced in so small children can't go wandering off. There's a table and four chairs out there, plus a barbecue. The grounds around the building are communal, so older children have tons of space to ride bikes, play football etc with no possibility of wandering too far.

The prices are by agreement directly with the owners through their website (http://www.bedfordpark.demon.co.uk/coleridge/) - basically they depend on the season.

Summary: