Thatched Cottage Hotel
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One
of the advantages of being a Silver Traveller is that you may enjoy the ‘mid-week
weekend break’, when fares and room rates are likely to be lower, and fellow
travellers thinner on the ground.
After
decades of work, during which leisure had to be crammed into the 48 hours that
remained after fulfilling one’s Monday to Friday commitments, it is a great joy,
upon retiring, to know that the ‘weekend’ can actually run from, say, Tuesday
afternoon until Thursday morning.
As a
general rule, hotels outside our major towns and cities are quiet during the
week and prepared to offer discounted rates in order to fill their otherwise
empty bedrooms.
Indeed,
a chap I knew well many years ago decided to encourage this trend by doing
deals with a couple of hundred UK hotels which he listed in a directory which
people could buy for about £20. You
could telephone any of these hotels (mentioning the directory of course) to
book a room for a couple of nights, and pay absolutely nothing for that room.
All
that was required of you was a promise to eat at least one evening meal in the
hotel restaurant.
It
worked because the hotels were happy to make a profit on that evening meal and
assumed you would also patronise the bar (probably spending more than usual in
view of the fact that your accommodation wasn’t costing a penny). For them, the
alternative was an empty room, generating no profit.
The
scheme was not the success it should have been, because people thought it was
too good to be true. Still, variations of it are around, and the internet has
several sites offering cut-price accommodation for those who are able to avoid
the busy times.
Which brings me back to this ‘mid-week weekend’ idea, and a hotel called The Thatched Cottage Hotel.
It’s
called that because it is a large thatched cottage in the town of Brockenhurst,
Hampshire. A Grade 2 listed cottage dating from 1627. I stayed there for a
couple of (week) nights recently and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It is
absolutely perfect for a mid-week break and has the added advantage of being a
short walk from the railway station – ideal for folk who aren’t keen on
driving.
I
have to admit that business rather than pleasure took me there – though the
Annual General Meeting of the British Guild of Travel Writers did manage to
weave in a considerable amount of pleasure – primarily that of good company and
equally good conversation.
Our
business sessions were held in the lecture theatre at the National Motor
Museum, Beaulieu, but the itinerary enabled us to meet on the first evening for
drinks and refreshment at the impressive Rhinefield House Hotel, and, on the
second, enjoy a Gala Dinner at The Domus, Beaulieu, preceded by drinks in
Palace House.
Rhinefield
is an impressive pile, with redwood trees, rhododendrons and azaleas in its large
and manicured grounds. The building itself, mixing Gothic and Tudor in a riot
of turrets and crenellations, looks like something from ‘Game of Thrones’, but is actually a fine example of High Victorian,
intended to give its original owner the sort of status that would impress the
neighbours.
In contrast, the Palace House at Beaulieu is the real deal. Originally the 13th century gatehouse of Beaulieu Abbey, it was bought by Thomas Wriothesley in 1538 and has been in the family ever since – the family being that of Lord Montagu, who was on hand to welcome us, and preside over that evening’s Gala dinner.
And,
while I’m name-dropping, one of the chaps at our table was Lord Manners, who is
the Official Verderer of the New Forest.
No, I didn’t know what a Verderer was, either, but I took the trouble to find out and, in doing so, stumbled upon a vocabulary of ancient terms describing the various rights enjoyed by the Commoners of the New Forest.
There’s
‘estovers’ (the right to gather wood for fuel), ‘turbary’ (the right to cut
peat, also for fuel), and ‘marl’ (the right to dig clay). In the autumn, the
New Forest Commoners have the right to turn out their pigs, to eat the acorns
which are thick on the ground and would be harmful to ponies and other stock. This
right is called ‘pannage’ or ‘mast’.
Verderers, I discovered, are the chaps who
manage the New Forest. Agisters are the chaps they employ to help them carry
out this task. For someone who loves unusual words, that vocabulary from the
past more than justified the trip, though in Brockenhurst and Lyndhurst and many
other spots I found plenty to interest me.
I
reckon you’d find plenty to interest you, as well. So think about that part of
the world when you are considering your next ‘mid-week weekend break’.
As I
said, the Thatched Cottage Hotel would make a great base for a couple of days, especially
in the late spring and early autumn when the landscape is particularly
attractive. My room was in a modern block at the rear of the main building, but
colleagues housed in the Cottage itself were equally enthusiastic. Pleasant
service and enjoyable food added to the experience.
On
the train back to London I thought about the New Forest and how it has retained
its old customs and culture down the centuries. And of the pressures that the
21st century has brought to bear upon it. Its National Park status gives it some
protection, but the communities located around the Park boundary must deal with
the same problems – the need to provide accommodation and employment for its
young people being the most pressing – as bedevil those in other parts of the
country.
But,
oddly enough, I also found myself thinking of Orlando, in Florida – because my
mind was still dwelling on unusual and old words.
You
see, I bought a property there, many years ago, and discovered that, in Orange
County, what most of America calls property tax is known as ‘millage’. According
to Brewster, the first use of that word was in 1891. But I think it must be far
older. It sounds as if it should be a
relic from medieval times, and I reckon that, if you looked closely enough,
you’d find ‘millage’ lurking somewhere in the vocabulary of the New Forest. It’s
a natural companion to ‘pannage’ and ‘turbary’.
Well, I think so, anyway.
Special Offer
Silver Travel Advisor members receive a discount of 10% if they book direct with the Thatched Cottage Hotel. For more information visit www.thatchedcottage.co.uk.
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