Abbey days at Stone Lodge in Shropshire
Alison Jones heads off for a weekend break at Combermere Abbey on the Welsh border.
"It’s proper dark,” said Caroline, as we peered out into the Stygian night. The fast dwindling light of our single torch forcing us to abandon plans to walk the short distance down the uncharted (to us, at least) lane to the pub.
Even the light of the twinkling stars above, normally obscured by the light pollution in the city, wasn’t sufficient for us to be able to pick our way along the pathway and we opted to take the car in search of food.
We were, in fact, not far from civilisation, at Whitchurch in Shropshire, close to the Welsh border. One of our party actually overshot the destination en route and ended up in another country entirely, before being guided back with the help of a local hospital (she stopped to ask for directions, not admittance).
Signs to our holiday home, Stone Lodge, did err on the discreet side and were easy to miss.
Unlike the large signs pointing the way to the (not so) Secret Bunker, which turned out to be Hack Green, a, thankfully unused, hidey hole for the regional government in the event of nuclear war.
Stone Lodge guards the gateway to Combermere Abbey. Now a delightful little holiday cottage, the lodge is popular with honeymooners who choose to get married in the Abbey’s pretty glasshouse – set in “the world’s only fruit tree maze”.
There are another six cottages on the estate, in the Grade II listed former stable block which was restored and converted in 1993. All are five star standard, sleeping between four and six people.
The lodge offers a little more privacy for loved-up couples, or in our case four slightly raucous friends with a wheelie suitcase full of wine.
It was charmingly laid out with snug lounge complete with wood burning stove (the fuel thoughtfully pre-chopped and stacked outside), a newly fitted kitchen, a reception hall that made a rather grand dining room, a plush double bedroom with en suite wet room, and an attic room upstairs with open plan bathroom and bedroom with two single beds.
This being early March, it was dark by the time we all arrived and we were content to eat curry and chocolate cake, crack open a few bottles and admire our fire-making expertise.
The rest of the cottages had been booked for the weekend by a car club. After a leisurely breakfast, spent depleting the hamper of local produce that had been thoughtfully left for us and admiring the luxury sports cars driving past our windows, we spent the day in nearby Nantwich.
This town has a long and sometimes troubled history. It’s been burnt down twice, had the Welsh marauding through it and was besieged for six weeks by Royalist forces.
Today it boasts more than 100 listed buildings, many of them in the black and white timber-framed style, however, there are some jarring pockets of modern, precinct-like architecture.
There are a large number of boutiques and Cath Kidston seems to have something of a stranglehold in the local shops. We stopped for coffee and cake in Ginger & Pickles, a tearoom and ceramic studio, and Kidston cornucopia, which sold whimsically named cupcakes.
Plans to eat at the Combermere Arms that night were postponed when we discovered most of the locals had the same idea. Instead we drove to the Bhurtpore Inn at Aston – lucky we had gone back for the car – a traditional pub of the kind that looked like its food might be served in a basket.
But we were pleasantly surprised to find a blackboard full of creative cuisine made from locally sourced ingredients. All of our meals were exceptionally good.
The source of the pub’s unusual name became clear the following morning as we were taken on a tour of Combermere Abbey by former housekeeper Linnie Mason.
Bhurtpore in India was the site of a great siege at which Sir Stapleton Cotton, Baron, (later Viscount), Combermere, eventually prevailed in 1825/6. The pub was named in honour of his triumph.
The Savignac Abbey was built on land gifted to the monks by Hugh de Malbank, Lord of Nantwich, in 1133.
Following the dissolution of the monasteries, it was given to Sir George Cotton for his service to Henry VIII and he pulled down everything but the Abbot’s lodging. A picture of the house as it was in the 1500s can be found inside the Abbey.
Sir Stapleton Cotton was responsible for extensive alterations to the property, which has transformed from Tudor to Gothic in style. He had the two lakes, the Great Mere and Little Mere, dug out to create what is now the largest privately owned lake in Britain.
The estate was bought by Sir Kenneth Crossley, chairman of Crossley Cars in Manchester, in 1919. Today it is run by his great-granddaughter Sarah Callander Beckett, who is gradually restoring the property and its buildings.
As a fitting end to our mini-break, we finally made it to the Combermere Arms and weren’t disappointed by its classy gastro-pubbish charms, backed up by nearly five centuries of history, and top notch quality of its food.
* Fact File
The cost of a weekend stay of three nights for four people at Stone Lodge in April would be £491. Mid-week and weekly stays are also available.
For more details visit www.combermereabbey.co.uk or ring 01948 662876.
