Louise Wilson and her

A ROMANTIC BOLTHOLE

LOUISE WILSON FINDS A RURAL RETREAT - PERFECT FOR VALENTINE’S DAY - IN THE GLAVEN VALLEY IN NORTH NORFOLK

www.norfolkcottages.co.uk

HOLT

RELAXING BREAK doesn’t have to involve a long journey. Sometimes the best R&R is just around the corner.

So, despite living only a 40 minute drive away, we found ourselves a romantic retreat in Appletree

Cottage, set in the pretty village of Thornage, and just a stone’s throw from the Georgian market town of Holt.

Bought in 2018, the owners, with the support of a local builder and his team, have lovingly restored and renovated this little hideaway in the beautiful Glaven Valley and we couldn’t wait to visit. We first visited it soon after the work commenced and we could not have imagined the beauty of the place now.

We arrived at the cottage, built in the 1850s in the traditional Norfolk brick and flint style which defines this part of the county, and instantly felt enveloped in its warmth.

Whilst retaining many original features, it has been transformed and brought bang up to date for 21st century living - with two sumptuous double bedrooms, a shower room with rainfall shower and underfloor heating, a cosy living room with the new addition of a wood-burning stove, plus a kitchen-cum-dining-cum-all round chill-out room.

This had the added bonus of full width doors stepping straight out into a courtyard, which, in the spring and summer, should be a sun-trap.

It is as well equipped as any home - from the well designed kitchen, where you could easily rustle up a full dinner party for four (not that we did!), to the remote heating system to keep the place cosy, to the super-fast Wi-fi, and multiple televisions, books, DVDs and board games - everything we needed for a short-break, or longer, is thought of. A