| World-wide hotels > European Hotels > UK Hotels > Oxfordshire Hotels > Chipping Norton Hotels > Bruern Holiday Cottages |
Bruern Holiday Cottages
Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, OX7 6PYNational Winners of the English Tourism Councils Excellence in England
Gold and Silver Awards for Self Catering Holiday of the year 1998 and 2003
English Tourism Council 5 Star Graded
Bruern Holiday Cottages offer the comfort and attention to detail of a good hotel, the privacy, independence and space of self-catering and the civilised ease and style of country house living. That's why they are the five star quality benchmark for the most importantand prestigious national and official inspection organisations. When the English Tourism Council, The National Trust or the Royal Automobile Club want to show their professionals the ne plus ultra in holiday cottages, they send them to us; we set the standard for the people who set the standards. These 12 holiday cottages are for people who mind about their surroundings, who have beautiful homes themselves, and don't see why they should lower their standards on holiday. When she designed them, the owner's criterion was that they should be places in which she would like tolive permanently, and our guests agree, since they tell us that they never want to go home. They say that there's nothing better than arriving at the cottage, tired after a long journey to find the lights on, fire ready, a beautifully laid tea tray with a cake waiting on the table, a bottle of champagne in the fridge, and the candles just waiting for a match. |
| Aintree (sleeps 6 plus cot - 1 double bedroom, 2 twins) Aintree, once a stable, is now more country house than cottage. The large, well-proportioned drawing room, with its early nineteenth century secretaire and huge Howard sofa facing the antique pine fireplace, is decorated by paint effect guru Jocasta Innes with agreen-on-green design of ferns to echo the motif on the gilded Victorian mirror. Doors lead to a large terrace, which opens onto the walled garden. The big but cosy kitchen/dining room next door, terracotta tiled, has an antique pine dresser and a butcher's block. It has its own little west-facing terrace, whose trellis is hung with vines, clematis and roses. Stairs lined with Spy prints lead upstairs from the drawing room to the landing, off which are the two twin bedrooms and their shared bathroom with overhead shower, and the cream and off white master bedroom, whose magnificent four-poster bed is hung with blue and white Ralph Lauren fabric. Its ensuite bathroom with overhead shower has a dramatic marble topped unit, made from a 19th century wash stand. |
| Bookers (sleeps 6 plus cot - 1 double, 2 twin) Bookers, set in its own garden and orchard, has a feeling of space which belies its Mrs Tiggywinkle exterior. The big, airy drawing room is a symphony in blue and white - China Export porcelain, Nina Campbell striped curtains at the four windows, a cream chesterfield sofa, a Bennisonarmchair and a low sprung ottoman in front of the stone fireplace. Next door, there's a big terracotta-tiled kitchen/dining room with a couple of china-crammed antique dressers, a Belfast sink, a butcher's block trolley, and Shaker units with granite worktops. Westwards, there's a terrace and pergola, and the orchard to the south. Behind the kitchen is a big utility room with a lavatory off it. Off the first floor landing, lined with Spy prints, are two twin bedded rooms; one with blue walls, and white linen bed draperies; the other wall papered in a yellow and white stripe. They share a bathroom, which has a surround of Delft tiles.In the master bedroom, a rose and white toile de jouy has been used for the curtains, the ottoman and the hangings of the mahogany four poster bed. The paint work is a pale grey-green, echoed in the green and cream fleur de lys tiles of the ensuite bathroom. |
| Cheltenham (sleeps 4 plus cot -1 double bedroom, 1 twin) To get to Cheltenham, you go in through the private entrance, up a spiral staircase hung with blue and white china, and into a vast welcoming open-plan room. Six windows, looking out over the walled garden to open country on one side and the courtyard and Bruern Abbey on the other, flood it with light. Decoratively, it looks like an eighteenth century print room: there are quantities of black and white engravings, and a black and white border at cornice level, set against sunny Chinese yellow walls and off-white curtains. The round dining table is flanked by a pale grey dresserpacked with pink and white china, and opposite the pine chimney piece there's a cream sofa, and low Louis XV style chairs. The kitchen - white units, blond wood floor and Delft tiles - is screened from the drawing room by the stairs leading up to the master bedroom, the twin bedroom, the shared bathroom and the separate lavatory. The master bedroom, palest pink, has a faux bamboofour poster bed in blue and white, hung with a Bennison fabric. In the twin room, one bed, lined and curtained with rose toile de jouy, is set into an alcove between two cupboards; the other bed lies against the wall. Cheltenham has its own summerhouse and paved terrace, under the lime trees at the end of the walled garden. |
| Cope - (sleeps 2 plus cot - 1 double bedroom) Cope, converted from the old Mill house in Cotswold stone, next to Bookers, is on one level. The dining room/drawing room/library, thirty feet by fifteen feet with a high pitched ceiling, is warm but grand, with book lined terracotta walls, sofa, club chairs and a club fender.A round table can seat eight or ten people. The bedroom, painted café au lait, has a gleaming, dark wooden floor, a high pitched ceiling and a six foot bed, framed by blue and gold bed hangings and flanked by eighteenth century engravings. The ensuite bathroom has a marble topped vanity unit.  The kitchen is flagged in cream Cotswold fossil-stone and has cream units with wooden work surfaces. There's a Belfast sink, a U.S. style side by side fridge-freezer in stainless steel, two dishwashers, a stainless steel Britannia range-cooker, and a microwave in the central island unit. Here, two people will feel cosy by the fire, but the drawing room can if necessary seat twenty-five. Alternatively, the furniture can be moved out and the room transformed into a dining room for twenty or thirty, with one or two additional circular tables, and a battalion of folding chairs.It is a spectacular room for a party, or as a communal meeting place when several cottages have been rented together. An extra charge applies when it is used for a large scale party as opposed to a family rendezvous - £100.00 for one additional table and £150.00 for two. |
| Epsom (sleeps 5 plus cot - 1 double bedroom, 1 twin, 1 single) Epsom has a nineteen-foot-square drawing room/dining room, flooded with light from windows on three sides. It is decorated in blue and buff - buff walls, blue curtains, a Morroccan kelim by the fireplace, sofa, and Bennison roses on the Victorian chairs. Through the quarry-tiled entrance hall is the kitchen - white painted units, marble worktops, a Belfast sink, and buff walls hung with blue and white plates. Doors lead out onto a broad terrace, and a pergola overgrown with vines and clematis, both enclosed by the lawn and The rose filled borders of Epsom's private garden. Upstairs in the twin room the wallpaper is a blue and white stripe, the curtains are cream and the bed heads and the victorian buttoned chair a rosy red to match the hanging shelves. It shares a big blue and white bathroom with the four postered single room, which has its own antique pine washstand with inset basin. The master bedroom has a beautiful eighteenth century four-poster made from carved mahogany, with rough linen Colefax and Fowler bed hangings and rose and white Provencal fabric curtains; antique flower prints cover the pale grey walls. The ensuite shower room is a dazzle of white marble on floor, walls and the wall-to-wall vanity unit. |
| Goodwood (sleeps 5 plus cot - 1 double bedroom, 1 twin and 1 single) Like Epsom, it has a nineteen-foot square dining/drawing room, pale, cool and full of light, whose wide bay window looks out towards Bruern Abbey over its own private garden. The colours (in a chesterfield sofa covered in Colefax and Fowler fabric, a needlepoint rug in front of the fire,and the cushions) are off whites and creams, with accents of yellow, grey, lime and mauve. There's an antique pine dresser, a little green and white bookcase, and nineteenth century dining chairs round the circular mahogany table. The back door leads into a vestibule, off which open the utility room, downstairs lavatory and the kitchen; it has off white units, a sturdy pine table and pale green walls. To the left of the upstairs landing is the twin room, wall papered in yellow and white stripes by Farrow & Ball, against which stand out handsome cream curtains; on the right is the single room, with a green and white faux bamboo dressing table and a four poster hung in green and white toile de jouy. At the end of the corridor is the master bedroom, forest green with a mahogany four-poster. The ensuite shower is tiled throughout - to the wall to wall vanity unit (over which is a mirror, ablaze with a battery of light bulbs, that looks as though it's been taken from a film stars dressing room). |
| Newmarket (sleeps 8 plus cot - 2 double bedrooms, 2 twins, suitable for wheelchair with help) Newmarket is one of the grandest of the cottages: all four bedrooms have ensuite showers or bathrooms, and the kitchen/dining room is an in-your-dreams combination of style and glamour, with a mellow Cotswold Stone floor, off-white shaker units, beech work surfaces, a stainless steel Britannia range-cooker, a big side-by-side U.S. style fridge-freezer and a Belfast sink.Past the dining area - stone floor with an old pine topped refectory table and white painted Gustavian chairs - there's the drawing room; also elegantly Gustavian, with pale grey walls and an avbusson carpet, warmed up by the rose and white Colefax and Fowler fabric on one of the sofas. There's a chinoiserie double bedroom downstairs with a huge ensuite shower room, suitable for a wheelchair user with help. Upstairs is a twin room with green and white toile de jouy fabric-covered walls, and bathroom ensuite. Another twin room, papered in blue and white, has white faux bamboo four-posters, and an ensuite shower. The ochre-washed master bedroom has a mahoganyfour-poster with Colefax and Fowler hangings and mahogany card tables at each side, and a big ensuite bathroom with a marble topped wash stand. Through the drawing room is a big terrace leading to the walled garden. |
| Sandown (sleeps 4 plus cot - 1 double bedroom, 1 single) Sandown, set back behind the three central arches of the courtyard, used to be the carriage house, and its large open plan kitchen/dining/drawing room has the noble proportions and imposing symmetry to suit its eleven-foot ceiling. The yellow and cream striped linen curtains light up the palegrey-green of the drawing room walls; left of the antique pine chimney-piece is a nineteenth century pine secretaire, and in front of the fire and club fender, on the needlepoint rug, is a Lelievre velvet covered chesterfield sofa and an ottoman. Two Mulberry covered chairs complete the seating. The kitchen has a Belfast sink, off white shaker units with granite worktops and a saucepan rack hanging over the island unit, which is topped in pine and granite. The master bedroom's mahogany four poster is hung with blue and ochre silk to match the curtains. The ensuite bathroom, boasts a magnificent nineteenth century pitch pine wash stand, marble topped, brought over from Normandy. Upstairs there are two single blue and white four-posters, with blue and white Provencal hangings and a white tiled shower room. A door from the drawing room leads out onto the wide terrace and walled garden. |
| Saratoga (sleeps 2 - 1 double bedroom) Saratoga is everyone's favourite honeymoon cottage, and honeymooners will find a bottle of champagne waiting for them in the fridge. The front door opens into a big open-plan drawing room/dining room/kitchen, light and airy with buff walls, cream curtains and soft pinks,blues and beige's. The down-cushioned sofa, in a Thomas Dare blue and beige check, stands to the right of the antique carved mantelpiece, which faces a tall wing armchair covered in a pink and white Colefax and Fowler fabric; in between stands a large kelim covered ottoman on a pink kelim rug. The pale terracotta-tiled kitchen has off-white painted units and blue and white Delft tiles. Eating at the central table, you can look out through the French doors to the terrace and pergola in Saratoga's private garden. Up the steep white-painted stairs is the galleried bedroom, with a blue and white painted faux bamboo four poster bed. There are more faux bamboo paint effects, on the blue and white bedside tables. The ensuite bathroom has a marble-topped washstand with an inset basin. Saratoga's charm, comfort and warmth make it a favourite with everyone - in fact, some of our honeymooners come back year after year. |
| Shipton (sleeps 6 plus cot - 1 double bedroom, 2 twins) Shipton, converted from a long, low Cotswold stone barn, is on one level. It is pale, cool and full of light, with natural floors in stone and wood, high pitched ceilings with ancient beams, and a calm simplicity of décor.  The focal point of the big open-plan kitchen/dining room/drawing room is a magnificent white ceramic Scandinavian wood-burning stove, round which are grouped a large cream sofa, a deep armchair and a blue nineteenth century French Provincial sofa. There is an oriental rug on the creamy stone floor;the walls are a subtle off-white, and the Shaker-style units and island are one shade lighter. A white-carpeted corridor leads to the two twin rooms, each with an ensuite shower room. One is wallpapered in a blue and white stripe, with blue and pink Borderline paisley bedheads and blinds; the other is painted blue and has twin four posters in black iron and off white curtains. The master bedroom, opening off the drawing room, has walls of palest grey. There's a pale, polished wooden floor and a large cream painted French armoire opposite the antique French black metal four poster. The off-white curtains are lined in rose toile to jouy. The ensuite bathroom has a screened off lavatory and bidet, and a marble-topped vanity unit. Both the bedrooms and the drawing room lead out onto the terrace and the apple orchard. |
| Wychwood Cottage - Opened Easter 2003 'You really have excelled yourselves,' - that was the verdict of Wychwood's first guest, an old habitué and connoisseur of our cottages. We were delighted and we hope you will be too. Wychwood, just finished, lies opposite Saratonga in the Courtyard, between Goodwood and Newmarket; it is bathed with light from east and west, and has a terrace off the drawing room, which looks down along the strip of green lawn that lies between the wisteria and apple tunnel on the one side, and the Long Border on the other. Owing to the fall of the land across the garden, you can sit alongside the top of the wisteria and apple arches, and pick an apple with an outstretched hand. It's a lovely perspective. When you walk in from the courtyard, you find yourself in a large, comfortable kitchen with a Cotswold fossil stone floor and grey-green Shaker units. There's a Belfast sink, a pine dish-rack, and floor to ceiling cupboards, hiding super-efficient but visually unaesthetic machines. It's a room where you can imagine dinner stretching out very happily until midnight, and equally well providing the setting for a noisy, lively family lunch. Double doors open into a long, light, airy drawing room lit by windows on both sides and the French doors onto the terrace. At the far end is a golden Cotswold stone fireplace, flanked by bookshelves: under one is a cupboard with games and under the other a stack of logs for long fire-lit evenings. A moss green Lelievre velvet ottoman stands between the fireplace and the down cushioned orange sofa; on the left is a buttoned mahogany Victorian chair in a grey-green Colefax & Fowler checked tweed, and on the right a beautiful Victorian spoon-back chair upholstered in slate grey chenille. The walls are papered in a warm tobacco Farrow and Ball and the curtains are olive and striped fabric from Ian Mankin. A red lacquered antique mirror over the console table to the right of the sofa reflects the view of the terrace and adds to the inside/outside feel of the room. Stairs lead up to the landing; the twin room to the left is painted a deep Farrow & Ball greenish-grey ~ (this room is so flooded with light we had to calm it down). Blinds, valances and headboards are in a beige and off-white striped Colefax & Fowler cotton, dotted with big luscious bunches of pink and red roses. There's a beautiful mellow antique walnut secretaire and pink chair on a needlework rug in muted greys and pinks. The en-suite bathroom has floors and walls tiled in faux Carrara marble and the basin is set into a slab of the real thing, with a wall-to-wall mirror over it. There's a power shower over the bath and a radiator cum heated towel rail. Striking off to the right of the landing you find yourself in the double bedroom, which is papered in a delicate Colefax & Fowler chinoiserie trellis pattern, green on ivory. The double bed is a mahogany four-poster, with no hangings to clutter its beautiful spare lines. A buttoned Victorian chair upholstered to clutter its beautiful Osborne & Little plush and a marble-topped dressing table complete the room. Its en-suite shower room is tiled in a beige faux marble, which matches the real marble of the washstand. Wychwood has made a tremendous impression on all the guests who've done the tour of the cottages when they leave on Friday or Monday mornings. |
| Weir house, set in its own pretty garden, is the biggest and most beautiful of all our cottages. In fact it's so big, with five en-suite bedrooms,, a dames room, a drawing room and a dining room, as well as a big kitchen/dining room, that the word cottage is a bit of a misnomer. The drive to Weir house is flanked by yew hedges, and leads to a formal graveled forecourt with box hedges and topiary, and a hugh magnolia growing up over the front door. On the left of the flagged entrance hall there's a tapestry hanging above a large antique Spanish table, and to the right a rocking horse. Stairs lead up to a galleried landing lit by a round oeil de boeuf window and a large hall lantern. There's a doll's house in a little cupboard in the hall, and under the stairs, the children's den, with dressing up clothes and a puppet theatre. Two windows look out onto the croquet lawn, and a door on the left opens into the dining room, which has a ten-foot antiwue pine-topped table and a massive sideboard.  Through the arch on the left is the kitchen, floored in the same honey coloured Cotswold-stone as the dining room, with shaker units in Farrow and Ball off-white; a big island unit; a vast American -style side-by-side fridge-freezer with icemaker; a range cooker and two dishwashers. Doors lead out onto the terrace, so lunches and dinners outside under the vine-covered pergola are and enticing summer possibility. Both rooms have underflooring heating. To the left of the kitchen is the utility room and downstairs cloakroom, with space for muddy boots and wet macs by the back door. Folding doors at the far end of the dining room lead to the oak-floored games room, which is dominated by a 42" plasma television with surround sound; and a wall of bookshelves. On a big evening, the folding doors can be pushed back and two five-foot tables added to the dining table, so that in effect the games room becomes an extensive of the dining room. (In addition, a round table to seat ten can go into the kitchen). We see Weir house as being the hub of big family gatherings in several cottages, like Cope, able to provide meals for up to 30 people. Chiliren have a cupboard full of toys, a special table to play on, and beanbags for floppng. Opposite the television in the dames room is a seating area, with down-cushioned seating units in rosy-red chenille grouped around a large, low, leather-topped table; it's a wonderful place to sit and chat over coffee or an ice-cold drink. A French door to the right of the TV gives access to the North Terrace. Big double doors and shallow steps lead down into the large drawing room; it has a Gothic arched fireplace in stone, big enough to burn a young tree in, a high pitched ceiling and massive beams. It occupies the width of the house: the two widnows on the left look out onto the North terrace, lawn and flower beds, and the window and French doors on the right have a view over the South terrace, a deep woodland border and trees. The drawing room is altogether softer, gentler and more elegant than the games room; it has pretty rugs, and is decorated in rosy-red, ochre and off white. A hugh ottoman sits between the fire and the long cushioned sofas; on each side of the fireplace are two small antique buttoned French chairs. In addition, there are large comfortable armchairs, and elegant little eighteenth century bureau, and on each side of the double doors, ornate antique marble-topped gilt tables with tapestries above them. This is the place to read, or watching a romantic comedy when there's cricket on next door in the games room. Adoor to the left of the fireplace leads into a corridor, off which open the three downstairs bedrooms. They all have en-suite bathrooms or shower rooms, and high-pitched ceilings. The double room, the first on the right of the corridor, has two windows and a French door leading out onto the south terrace. The magnificent King-size four-poster, which faces the south terrace, is hung with buff linen curtains from Chelsea Textiles, hand-embroidered with a trellis of flowers on the inside and a row of grey-green scallops along the valance and pelmet. The walls are painted a Farrow and Ball ochre. There are comfortable chairs and a desk; it's a good place to retreat to when there's a lot going on elsewhere. The en-suite shower, tiled in buff marble to match the top of the vanity unit, has a shower big enough for two. Next door is a ravishing twin room with a distinctly French feel: the two nineteenth century French beds and Louis XVI chairs are upholstered in a red and white Colefax and Fowler toile de jouy to match the curtains. The walls are grey, and there's a sparkling Venetian glass mirror over the bureau. Its en-suite shower room is tiled in grey and white Carrara marble. The third, with two windows and a French door facing west onto the north terrace, has twin mahogany four-posters dressed in a Colefax and Fowler print of yellow roses on beige and off-white striped background and a beautiful nineteenth century secretaire. The walls are sludgy Farrow and Ball grey-green and the curtains off-white. Like the other two , it has comfortable chairs and a writing table. The en-suite bathroom is tiled in beige marble: the bath has a Niagara tap and an overhead shower. The other two bedrooms are on the first floor, up the stairs from the hall. They occupy the full width of the house, with windows facing in both directions. The twin room is wallpapered in a deep green stripe offset by white bed hangings, white curtains on the four windows, and a white chaise longue. It is furnished with handsome antiques- a campaign wardrobe with brass cockbeading along the pediment, two mahogany bedside tables and a nineteenth century campaign chest. We think of it as the Empire room. It has an en-suite bathroom, tiled in Carrara marble to match the top of a twin basined antique pitch-pine vanity unit found in France. (It's a very rare piece and was a nightmare to plumb in). There's a Carrara marble surround and splash-back round the bath, and a separate tiled shower enclosure. The fifth bedroom is large and magnificent, with a high pitched ceiling and an impressive six foot wide half tester bed, hung in a blue and white Colefax and Fowler toile de jouy. The walls are a Farrow and Ball tobacco brown, and the furniture upholstered and covered in blues and off whites. Up a flight of narrow stairs facing the bed is the large en-suite bath and shower room, with a teak-topped vanity unit and bath surround. Both bedrooms are a place of peace and tranquility; we believe that the more people a hose holds, the more imperative it is for the bedrooms to be beautiful, comfortable and well-lit as a refuge when decibels levels soar. The garden on both sides of the house have formal bones-beech and yew hedges and topiary- and exuberant planting. The terraces on each side are [perfectly positioned to get sun in the moring and afternoon, and there's enough space and sufficient hidden corners not to feel claustrophobic, even in a crowd. Children will love the swing and seesaw; grown-ups will enjoy croquet, reading in the hammock, a quite tote a tote in the Italian garden to sound of splashing water, or boisterous barbecue on the terrace off the kitchen.
|
| Facilities Alot of our guests come back because they just love being at Bruern. They don't want to stir from the place. Some love the gardens, which are our pride and joy - the flower beds round every terrace packed with roses, lilies, vines and clematis; the lawns and vast borders in the walledgarden; the courtyard with its Mediterranean scents of lavender and cistus: the cutting garden, a dazzle of colour in high summer; the woodland walk past the river; the excitement of spring bulbs from the showiest to the most recherché.  But there's a lot for the energetic; croquet, tennis and glamorous new heated indoor 40ft by 20ft swimming pool and hard tennis court, gym with power placed and spa., and in the games room pool, table tennis, table football and darts. Children are in heaven at Bruern Holiday Cottages. Old hands are off to the playhouse and climbing frame, at the end of the walled garden, before their parents are out of their cars, and we now have a new treat for them - a play cabin (heated in winter) with toys, dressing up clothes, crayons, Lego, a BrioRailway, a sheepdog rug and much more. Parents are wild about it too. Indoors, there's everything you have at home. Books you might want to read, CD's you'd like to listen to, board games, satellite television and video, with access to an excellent video library. For further information regarding the cottages, including prices and local information please link through to our web site atBruern Holiday Cottages. (www.bruen-holidays-cottages.co.uk). |
Copyright © 2005, Bruern Holiday Cottages