Gone are the days when the only way to view a house was solely by way of poring over flat and sometimes confusing floor plans. With the emergence of 360-degree video we have an exciting new way of being introduced to the layout of a house.
With a few clicks you can be leisurely making your way through living rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, kitchens and bathrooms – the whole house in all its beauty waiting for you to step on in for an effortless and insightful virtual tour.
Anywhere with a playground complete with swings and slide will get the kiddie vote. But the outside spaces here should mean a landslide victory for everyone.
Bask in the six-seater hot tub, chill around the terrace table with supper sizzling on the gas barbecue, kick a ball around the lawns, or face off at cricket or croquet.
Pedington Manor’s all grown-up: period detail, designer touches, big skirting boards, lovely coffee tables, cushions, chandeliers, squishy sofas, roaring fires. It comes with an Aga and a dining room that seats 20. You get the works. But it’s not so mature that it’s forgotten how to have fun.
A playroom for the kids offers toys, books, and DVDs. The playroom for the grown-ups is the games room, with its pool table, table football, and table tennis. An iPod dock allows you to set your soundtrack and the 50-inch TV should make for great family film nights streamed over the fast broadband.
Facilities in the country kitchen here will make a Masterchef of you, with a three-over, two-hob Aga, range cooker with gas hobs, microwave, and toaster. Out on the sun terrace, a gas barbecue beckons. You even get two dishwashers in which to clean up the evidence.
If you’d prefer to simmer in the hot tub, call in the pros. For private dining in-house, consider Dineindulge’s restaurant-quality cuisine, bistro-type food from Côte at Home, seasonal classics from Wild Fork West, bespoke menus from The Holistic Chef, classical French from Be Your Food, or delicious drop-offs from Sue’s Suppers.
Stock up the fridge-freezer with goodies from the Co-op, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, and grab a fish-and-chip supper from Berkeley Fish Bar or kebabs and pizzas from Dursley and Cam. Eat ham from the on-site pigs and drink beer from the brewery out the back at The Salutation Inn. Or try mushroom stroganoff or posh burgers from The Salmon.
Eat out around the village green on steak burger or layered aubergine charlotte at The Bell. Dine on the river on fantastic seafood at The Old Passage. Try brunch or breakfast at The Kitchen Garden, The Royal Tandoori if you’re craving curry, or The Wine Shack at No.7 for a gorgeous array of wines, craft beers and gins, with a range of tapas.
Bedrooms here seem plucked from the pages of Country Living. Choose from nine bedrooms sleeping up to 20 adults and two children with the option of two extra zed-beds at no further charge.
Bedrooms one and two offer kingsize beds that convert to twins and each give you a plush en-suite. Bedrooms two, three, four, five and six are also kingsize rooms or twins, while bedroom seven is a family favourite, providing a kingsize/twin or four singles. Bedrooms eight and nine on the ground floor give you kings/twins.
The roads get smaller as expectations grow. The motorway gives way to A roads, and then high-hedged B roads with no room to pass the tractor coming the other way. When you’re little, there’s no greater excitement than a family holiday way out west. Especially one that involves a convoy of 22 family and friends.
Assuming you dodged the tractor, things only improve on arrival. Pedington Manor comes wrapped in cracking countryside, with a pristine lawn on which to career and cartwheel, play cricket and croquet, kick a ball into the nets, and get supper sizzling on the barbecue.
Leave the barbie duties to the grown-ups because you have work to do. For starters, there’s the playground, complete with trampoline, swings, and slide. There’s the six-seater hot tub with a front-row seat on the ever-expanding heavens. Oh, and
the Bakehouse Den set in the old bakery, with toys, play kitchen and DVD player.
Pedington Manor comes packed with toys, but it’s practical too. Your baby pack includes high chairs and cots, beakers, bowls, plates, and kiddie cutlery. We’ve thought of everything. Not least the games barn with table tennis, pool table, and table football and the toys, books, games, and DVDs. Who needs grown-ups?
