Set in its own apple orchard, Bookers was built in the 19th century in traditional mellow Cotswold stone.
The front door opens into a large peaceful drawing-room – off white walls, pale blue-and-white striped Nina Campbell curtains, a huge cream buttoned three seater chesterfield, a smaller blue and white striped armchair, and vast pale blue buttoned ottoman in front of the open fire. A painted dresser lined in blue holds an assortment of blue and white china. A desk, a book case and a table for cards or jigsaws complete the room.
The kitchen/dining-room has yellow walls, white painted kitchen units, farmhouse-tiled terracotta floor and indigo-and-white printed curtains, blinds, and chair cushions. Double French doors lead to the terrace and garden. The dining area is bright and fresh with a circular pine table covered in a blue-and-white cotton floor-length cloth. There’s a pine dresser laden with Welsh Gaudy china, and a pine corner cabinet with an assortment of blue-and-white porcelain.
The kitchen area has granite worktops, a fridge freezer, hob and oven, dishwasher, Belfast sink with waste disposal, microwave, dish rack, and a butcher’s block. Blue-and-white Delft tiles add a decorative note. Opening off it is a utility room – washing machine, tumble dryer, sink and a big cupboard by the backdoor (to the office and bike shed) for outdoor clothes and boots. The downstairs lavatory is on the left.
Upstairs is the master bedroom, which faces south over the garden to the Abbey. It’s a smother of cream-and-rose toile de jouy – on the curtains, on the bed hangings of the four-poster, on the ottoman at the foot of the bed, on the French fauteuil and lining the panels of the wardrobe. It sounds over the top, but in fact quietened down by the grey-green paint the French call gris de chateau, it is deliciously pretty. The ensuite bathroom is tiled in grey faux marble to match the carrara marble of the washstand and is doubled in size visually by the vast mirror, wall to wall, behind the bath.
One twin-bedroom, at the head of the stairs, has a yellow, white and lime green colour scheme – yellow paint, curtains, and headboard. The other is painted in light blue. Everything else in it is white; lace edged curtains, bedspreads, chairs and the bed hangings, which fall from cream painted coronas over the beds. The only exception is the wood of the antique table between the two built in cupboards, and a little 19th century chest of drawers.
Their shared bathroom is painted in Ammonite and there are dark blue-and-white Delft tiles round the cast iron bath.
The garden is enclosed by yew hedges behind the south-west facing terrace, which has a vine- and rose-covered pergola. There is enough lawn for croquet and there are enough apple trees for you to string a hammock between two of them. There’s a child’s play corner with a swing and seesaw (shared with Shipton) – and look out for the garden bench, dedicated to a very dear friend of Bruern’s who came to stay time and time again with us until we thought he and his wife Horteuse should be awar
