How did we get here?

Cothelstone Manor has had many iterations: from principal residence, to ruin, to farmhouse, to family home and now, to holiday home. Each iteration embedded in its history and our decision to once again change its course is no exception.

I grew up in the Manor until I was twelve years old, along with my two siblings. A couple of fields away from the Manor was a derelict Coach House, which was at the point of either needing to be converted or would be lost. Spurred on by the prospect of a warm house, my parents converted the stables and moved in, letting the Manor to a local family. The Manor was lived in by two families over the next thirteen years, before coming back to us three years earlier than expected in 2019.

I was living and working in London at this point, and my father asked his friend and surveyor to have a look around with a view of re-letting it. His feedback was that we would need to spend quite a bit of money on it before anyone could move in: the electrics were patchy, the heating almost non existent and the house didn’t have a shower.

I moved home in March 2020 at the start of the first lockdown and put my background as a rural surveyor to use, scoping out the different routes. We considered three main options: re-let in its current condition at a low rent for the new occupants to renovate; spend money to bring it to a good lettable condition and re-let; or thirdly, spend even more money to turn it into a holiday home.

After too many months of buildings quotes, number crunching and family discussions, we decided to move ahead with turning it into a holiday home. Not only did this financially (sort of!) make the most sense, but we loved the idea that the house would get to be enjoyed by many more people and that this use to ensure its continual upkeep.

Our decision also came at a time when farm subsidies (an annual payment from the government to support farming) were being phased out, meaning every year until 2027 we are losing quite a large chunk of our farming income and so we were looking at ways to bring in new revenue.

Many more months were then spent obtaining planning permission and listed building consent and we officially started building works in October 2022. The build took 11 months to complete and we had our first guests stay in September 2023.