Carlsberg don’t do Holiday Cottages, but if they did, they’d make them just like Blackdown Cottage in rural West Sussex.

Holiday cottages are generally ‘adequately’ equipped, but nothing more. Notwithstanding their price, most are generally furnished with second-hand furniture either bought from second-hand shops or sourced from their owner’s homes when replaced by newer items.

Not so with Blackdown Cottage in rural West Sussex. What Blackdown Cottage doesn’t have you simply do not need. And the quality of its furnishings would not disgrace the average stately home. Oozing with charm, it has all the comforts of modern life, including crisp bed linen of the finest Egyptian cotton and over-sized, goose-down duvets in both the bedrooms. The kitchen is fully fitted and equipped with everything you’re likely to need while the generously proportioned bathroom has a full-size bath and a separate shower cubicle. In the sitting room you’ll find a wide, flat-screen TV, as well as a DVD player with a good selection of films for your enjoyment plus books, puzzles and board games.

Blackdown Cottage is a detached and secluded, two-bedroom, 19th Century, timber cottage, set in its own grounds of around 5 acres, out of sight of any other buildings. It is part of a private, 30-acre estate of lawns, woods, streams and lakes in the High Weald of Sussex close to Royal Tunbridge Wells.

Blackdown Cottage was built in about 1890, originally as the Estate Manager’s house for what was then a substantial estate of many hundreds of acres. At the bottom of the 5-acre garden there are the ruins of a large greenhouse that still has some fine, ornate ironware. It really must have been a work of art in its heyday!

Major renovation work on the cottage was undertaken during 2008 bringing it up to 21st Centuary standards while still retaining many of its original features such as the wood-clad walls in the hall, the cast-iron fireplaces and the solid iron door furniture.

The estate is beautiful in all its seasons. The spring-fed lakes, the wooded trails, the rushing streams and the views over the High Weald change month by month and hour by hour in a captivating range of colours and smells that make you feel good to be alive.

And there is plenty of room for your car in the gravel car park right beside the house, surrounded by formal flowerbeds full of mature shrubs.

Hundreds of yards from the nearest road – or, for that matter, any houses – this is the perfect spot to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the Sussex countryside

During the day the air is filled with the sound of birdsong and the rustle of the undergrowth as wild deer forage for food. In the silent blackness of the night you will often hear the hooting of an owl or the grunt of the badger as you stare up at the velvet vault of a star-studded sky.

Here, you can explore the ancient bluebell woodland or stroll along the banks of the three lakes, or just sit and admire the spectacular views over the surrounding countryside. Blackdown Cottage is also within a few minutes drive of some of the most beautiful gardens in England and more than half-dozen ancient castles, all open to visitors.

Blackdown Cottage is one of the few holiday cottages in the whole of the UK to have been awarded the Gold Standard for guest care and accommodation by the English Tourist Board!

Prices range from a more than reasonable £475 to £750 per week and include everything you are likely to need during your stay, including all linen, towels, toiletries, fuel oil, electricity and logs/coal for the open fires. 

You’ll be welcomed with a complimentary bottle of wine while those staying the full week will also receive a basket of essential groceries such as bread, milk and eggs.

To find our more, visit Blackdown Cottage today.