I loved Lobhill Farmhouse the minute I arrived there. Despite my being ten minutes overdue, Jane Colwill made nothing of it and welcomed me into her charming home. Over coffee in her country kitchen we found we had a lot in common.
Having been a landlady myself in the bed and breakfast trade for many years we swapped anecdotes on niceties and demands of guests that come and go, and found that she like me doesn't mind feeding visitors in her own kitchen. She has a seperate breakfast room / dining room where guests may eat if they wish, but as I always found, most ladies and quite a few men like to get their noses into the kitchen for a good look around. Nothing wrong with that I do it too.
This home has a proper country living feel to it and Jane has a flair for mixing traditional with contempory pieces. The bedrooms are large, airy and very well appointed. The double bedroom at the top of the page with it's large bathroom/shower room ensuite has a small walk out balcony that overlooks the pretty garden, and it a joy. Very romantic, I would heartily (no pun intended) recommend this room for a romantic stay or a surprise treat.
This is the second of Jane's comfortable double rooms, and it has a shower room en-suite.
All is beautifully clean. This shower room is two steps down from the bedroom. All very private.
With hospitality trays in each room for guests to come and go as they please.
I was most impressed by this room on the ground floor. It has an entrance from the house plus a private front door entrance from the yard. You can just see the edge of the 'front door' in the central photo below. Easy parking is just a couple of yards off and apart from the one step at the door, this is ideal for any wheelchairs or guests on crutches. As you can see, the room is spacious enough to manoeuvre with ease.
This ground floor room has a double bed, a single and a sizeable bed settee making it suitable as a double, a single, twin or a family room. Any combination is possible. It's a warm house with generous rooms and outside there is a pretty garden complete with summerhouse and small lake. Guests are invited to walk through private woodlands the better to enjoy the views over the nearby vineyard and Dartmoor rising up to the east. Just step out into the garden and relax.
The house is beautifully decorated, Jane even has a duck egg blue aga the same as mine. Clearly she's a good cook.
One idea that she has in place is that guests are given a tick list the evening before so that they can tick as many or few ingredients to their English breakfasts as they wish. Only recently I spotted the menu of another B&B and was disappointed to see that they had listed "choose 4 of the 6 options for your cooked breakfast". Personally I hate penny pinching like this. It is not the way to make visitors feel welcome. Happily Jane is of the same opinion as me.
From this side you can see the top layer with grey tiling which houses the bedroom at the top of this page. The bottom half is the ground floor layout where guests are welcome to step outside the doors to enjoy the garden. Parking, the front door proper and the front door to the downstairs room is to the left of the shot.
As I left, I stopped at the farm entrance gate to take this photo. Rolling hills in a beautiful part of Devon. Oh yes, I must just add that if you are thinking of a trip to Jethro's comedy club or to Ardoch Lodge, they are both within easy walking distance. Each bedroom has a booklet of information on things to do, visit and local pubs for evening meals.
Can I recommend it to you ? Yes I can !
