Why venture inside when the gardens and grounds are such a mine of magic? Splash away an afternoon around the outdoor pool, heated to 26 degrees from May until October.
Sear your supper on the barbecue and stay out in the sunshine for badminton, Jenga, Swingball, boules, and croquet. Shoot the breeze at night on the outdoor seating under the festoon lights.
This is a grand house, full of manners and décorum, but it’s packed with fun, too. High ceilings, shutters, and sash windows set a stunning stage for a family reunion or a spot of corporate bonding. Soft sofas and burning logs set the tone for evenings spent over Netflix (bring your password). Bring your dog to complete the harmonious picture.
Catch up on comms in the home office, then it’s on to the antique snooker table, table football, and board games in the games room. Whether it’s a group getaway, a relaxing retreat or a celebratory escape, Honeystone Manor provides the enchantment, charm, and elegance. You just bring the good company.
If the sight of the oil-fired Aga in the rather lovely kitchen doesn’t get your blood pumping, call up our in-house chefs, Kit and Kee or Mellowview, for a one-off celebration or fully catered break. Eat beneath the pendant lights on the oak table or out in the sunshine with the swimming pool as backdrop.
Fill the fridge-freezer with goodies from Norton-sub-Hamdon Village Shop and Post Office, The Barley Sugar Bakehouse, Barrett’s Butchers, and Waitrose in Crewkerne, with wine from Majestic. Get your takeaways from Café Licious for British, Lopen Raj for burgers, and Blue Orchid for Thai.
Pop down to the pubs for hearty fare at top-50 gastropub The Barrington Boar, home of loin of Sika venison and roast Cornish hake. Try The Lord Poulett Arms for charred January King cabbage or Brixham seabass. Or head out to The Cat Head Inn for the pie of the day or Hasselback chicken.
Tuck into the tasting menu at The Holm Restaurant, which appears in the Michelin Guide, or book tasteful Osip, with an evolving daily menu that’s an expression of the Somerset landscape, using produce grown on its own farm. Or waste some glorious time at At The Chapel, an all-day restaurant with in-house bakery and wine store.
Pick from five bedrooms straight out of Laura Ashley and sleep deeply in rural Somerset wrapped in Dusk 400-thread linen. Honeystone Manor sleeps ten with a couple of extra single beds if required.
The master bedroom comes with a superking bed and open-plan en-suite overlooking the garden. There’s a freestanding bath with an additional walk-in shower. Maddy’s Room offers a kingsize bed and separate basin, while the Garden Room is also a kingsize.
Bea’s Room provides a double bed and separate single and Luke’s Room has a kingsize and a single with a separate basin.
Who needs airports? West-Country holidays are always an adventure in themselves when you’re young. Follow the winding roads past high hedgerows and haystacks until you reach impossibly quaint villages full of tearooms and antiques parlours. Then it’s on to the property itself, with its yawning lawn and labyrinthine rooms.
Honeystone Manor sleeps ten so there’s plenty scope to bring half of home with you, including four-legged best mates. Get out in the three-quarter-acre garden to smash a shuttlecock around, smack the Swingball, and join in with Jenga. That’s after you’ve splashed away the afternoon in the ten-metre heated outdoor pool.
Stay out there for bangers and burgers on the barbecue and fun and games at night beneath the festoon lights. Head indoors to all eat together around the chunky oak table, followed by snooker on the antique table in the games room plus table football and board games.
Come together at night on the soft sofas, in front of roaring flames, to binge a series or find a film. Head upstairs way past bedtime to five beautiful bedrooms and nuzzle down amid Dusk 400-thread cotton and mattress toppers. Wake early, breathe the country air, get your cossie on, and do it all again.
