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The world has turned topsy turvy since the early spring of 2020 and we are all now trying to adjust to a new, constantly changing way of living.

The holiday cottages are not immune and so we are required to consider ways to minimise the effects of the Coronavirus.

• We have read and are following all the government and industry guidelines in relation to Coronavirus.
• We have prepared a risk assessment, a copy of which is available on request if you’d like to read it.
• We have developed processes to maintain cleanliness and aid social distancing.

As a result, we are delighted to confirm that we are now free to use the Visit England Industry Standard mark, “We’re Good to Go”

What to expect if you choose to stay with us

Firstly, we’re aiming to keep any differences in our cottages to an absolute minimum. There will not be any floor markings or ugly signage. We still want you to have that home from home experience.

Taking the latest advice on the length of time that the virus remains viable on different surfaces, we believe that we have a common sense approach to minimising the risks to our guests, staff and ourselves.

To be covid compliant we will be completely sanitising the property after the departure of each group of guests. We’ll be paying particular attention to those high touch areas such as light switches and remote controls.

We have streamlined what we have in the cottage and changed the way that we present some items.

What we have removed;

• Books, DVDs and CDs. As sanitising all of these between stays would just take too long we ask that you please bring your own.

What will be rotated

To minimise the risk of the virus being present we will rotate some items;

• consumable supplies and kitchen textiles (tea, cling film, tea towels etc.)
• a few Peak District specific guide books and Ordnance Survey maps

Our cleaning regime is based on a 4 step process

• Prepare the property by removing all waste, dirty laundry etc
• Effective cleaning with our normal environmentally friendly products
• Sanitisation of all surfaces using products that comply with British standards EN14476 and EN1276. These are also environmentally friendly where we can find them.
• Preparation for new guests including remaking beds and reintroducing fresh supplies

What do we ask of our guests

• We are asking that our guests arrive a little later to allow us the extra time to sanitise the property, 4pm rather than 3pm.
• We are also asking that if any guest has Covid19 symptoms before their stay, that they don’t travel.

What to do in the area

We have a page that we are constantly updating, Visiting the Peak District during COVID

Visit Peak District also have some good information on their site – “Know before you go”

We are as new to this as you are and we may have got things wrong. Please let us know what you think of our plans. It’s only with feedback that we’ll improve.

Weeks 3 – 6

If you missed it, you can read part 1 here

So how is everyone doing? We are amongst the very lucky ones, we are all healthy still and we have plenty of space. Like lots of people, we’re staying in contact with family and friends using Zoom (that app we hadn’t even heard of a few weeks ago!) and it’s getting harder to remember how life used to be.

The seasons have shifted on one and spring has most definitely now arrived.

The fields have turned a deeper shade of green as the grass has had a kickstart in its growth following the warm weather over Easter. With not too much rain either, the ground is much firmer than normal for this time of year. With less risk of turning the ground into a quagmire, the dairy herds are back in the fields, during the days at least.

The lambing season has finished and the young ones have now all been turned out into the fields for the summer. Lambs born at the turn of the year are now almost as large as their parents.

Marian has been busy revamping the Peak District holiday cottage website. There are still some tweaks and issues to iron out but it’s gone live. It’s much faster to load than the old site so we’re hoping that it will help give us a boost up the search engine rankings. The plan is now to replicate the format with the Cliffe Cottage site.

Russell is ‘back’ at college. His motorsports diploma is a very practical course so its been hard for the tutors to adapt. We’re not sure when he’ll get back to college for real but hopefully, he’ll be able to catch up with the practical sessions when he’s back. He’s not been able to drive his car too far so he’s been enjoying photographing it instead. He’s posted the best results on Instagram (@becky_mk4 – yes, the car does have its own Instagram account!)

Martin is carrying on his ’other’ job from home which has freed up some travel time. Some of those little jobs that we never seem to get around to are finally being done! I’m sure that we’re not the only ones there!

Thoughts are turning to how we now all get out of this, without reaching a point where the virus is back on the rampage.

The consensus seems to be that the hospitality industry will be the last to get back to business but we don’t yet know when that will be. We’re trying to be as prepared as possible for whenever we get the opportunity to welcome guests again.

#staysafe

Weeks 1-3

What strange times we are living in – the subject of a future history lesson for sure.

We are three weeks into a national lockdown with many other countries in a similar position, able to leave our homes from one of four key reasons; to buy essential supplies; for any medical reason; to work if we are not able to work from home; and (thank heavens) a short amount of time to exercise each day.

We are incredibly fortunate to have plenty of space here for our period of lockdown, however long that may turn out to be. We’ve joked that should one of the three us get sick, we can isolate that person in one of the cottages, delivering meals to their door. We hope never to need that plan.

Week One

Most of the first week we spent getting over the shock of our movements being restricted. I’m sure many people felt the same sense of surrealism and wholesale change to their way of life.

Residing guests left quickly and by the end of the first day of lockdown we were on our own. Guests leaving the cottage in Castleton left the cottage tidy so that we didn’t need to visit so we’re very grateful for that.

We were quickly into dealing with all the guests with upcoming bookings. One of the advantages of dealing directly with our guests (rather than through an agency) is that we’ve been able to do what’s worked best for them and has fitted in with us. We’re really thankful that nearly all of our guests have chosen to support us and have delayed their break.

Week Two

By week two, we were getting into a routine, making sure that we got some exercise each day, spending at least a little bit of time outside and keeping in contact with friends and family.

Marian has taken to doing her online exercise classes in Hayloft Cottage. With the heating turned right down, it’s much cooler and more comfortable than trying to do it in the house. On nice days, it’s been great to take the rug outside and do the classes there.

Back in January, whilst the cottages were quieter, we did a fair amount of deep cleaning and touching up of the paintwork. There were some jobs that were missed, however, so this seems the perfect opportunity to be catching up with those. We should be truly spick and span by the time we are open for business again.

Week Three

One of the bigger projects that has been brewing in the back of our minds for the past few months has been updating our website with a more modern theme. With spare time on our hands, if not now, when!! This week has been about getting the basics right so that next week we can get the site content transferred over and checked. With any luck, we’ll have the job done ready for a bright new start in just a few weeks.

It’s now Easter weekend and the weather is beautiful. Not knowing whether we’ll have a gardener for a while, we’ve made a start on tidying up outside. It’s very strange being here on our own and it looks like that is going to be the case for a few weeks more.

We cannot wait for you all to return but in the meantime, stay home and stay safe everyone!

Diary of a lockdown, part 2

originally published July 2020

A lot of guests who come to stay in self catering holiday accommodation this summer are doing so to reduce the need to go out to eat. However, if you’d like to venture out, if only for a coffee, we thought it would be worth mentioning a few great restaurants locally that are taking part in the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme. Pretty much all are within 5-6 miles of the cottages.

Scheme Details

• Get 50% off your food and non-alcoholic drinks up to a total value of £10 per person if you eat or drink in
• every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday between 3 August and 31 August
• as many times as you like
• You don’t need a voucher to use the scheme and you can use it at the same time as other offers and discounts. There is no minimum spend.

Please note that alcoholic drinks and service charges are excluded from the offer.

We’d suggest pre-booking all restaurants and pubs. We’d be happy to do this for you if you’d like. Just let us know.

If you make a reservation, please do turn up or cancel it in good time. Our local businesses need your trade! (We know that you will)

* Our favourites

Restaurants that are taking part

*The Merchants Yard, Tideswell
Piedaniels, Bakewell
The Rutland Arms Hotel, Bakewell – from 7th August
Bakewell Fish & Chips, Bakewell
Merchants House Kitchen, Longnor
The Woodyard, Bakewell
La Capris, Buxton
St Moritz, Buxton
Bar Brasserie, Buxton
The Lonestar, Buxton
Old Hall Hotel, Buxton
Columbine Restaurant, Buxton
The Lathkil Hotel, Over Haddon

Pubs that are taking part

The Bulls Head Monyash
*The Church Inn, Chelmorton
*The Royal Oak, Hurdlow
Monsal Head Hotel & Stables Bar, Monsal Head
The Crispin, Great Longstone
*The White Lion, Great Longstone
The Red Lion, Bakewell

Cafes that are taking part

*The Old Smithy Tearooms, Monyash
Bull i Thorn, Hurdlow
The Refreshment Room, Millers Dale Station (on the Monsal Trail)
*Aisseford Tea Rooms, Ashford in the Water (Facebook link)
High Peak Book Store and Cafe, Brierlow Bar
Gallery Cafe, Bakewell
The Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop, Bakewell
The Bakewell Tart Shop and Coffee House, Bakewell
*The Lime Lounge Coffee Shop, Bakewell (Facebook link)
*Hassop Station Cafe, Hassop
The Chakra Lounge, Buxton
The Cafe at the Green Pavilion, Buxton
No 6 The Square Tearooms, Buxton
*Cool River Cafe, Matlock (prebooking recommended)

Enjoy!

As I write, news has come in that the Astra Zeneca vaccine against COVID19 has been approved by the authorities and will start to be rolled out next week. This really does feel like great news and the beginning of the end of the pandemic.

The time between Christmas and New Year is usually busy for us, with changeovers and hosting family for the holiday season. This year has been different, has it has for a huge majority, I know.

It’s been so quiet it’s been a great time for reflection. We have been had to close our doors for 23 weeks of 2020 and we’ve had to cancel I don’t know how many bookings. We’ve been so fortunate that the people on the other end of every single one of those cancellations have been so understanding. The vast majority have postponed their breaks until 2021 – thank you!

Being closed has been an opportunity to get on with some other projects. Here are some of the things we have been up to in 2020.

We had started the process of replacing the kitchen at Cliffe Cottage before the first lockdown. That process is now complete now with new tiling on the wall and floor. It’s looking really smart!

We completely refreshed both websites back in the spring. They are now much faster to load, more mobile friendly and, we hope, easier to use.

Back in the summer, we had 3D tours of each of the cottages made. We hope that this will help prospective guests to get a feel for each of the cottages before they commit to a booking. Take a look around Byre Cottage if you haven’t done so already (part way down the page).

In the autumn we have spent some time developing an online guidebook for each cottage. These will provide valuable information for guests from the moment they book through to departure. The guides contain detailed information about each cottage and more general information about the area too. I’m really excited to roll this out to our 2021 guests. Take a quick peek at the Hayloft Cottage guide if you’d like.

Being COVID safe over the summer and early autumn of 2020 meant a huge amount of extra work for our cleaning staff. I’m very grateful to them for taking it all in their stride. It’s a daunting prospect to know that every surface, every handle, every knife, fork, plate, cup and saucepan needs to be sanitised before new guests arrive. Thanks too to all those guests who delayed their arrival to allow us to get it all done.

We are about to move into Tier 4 and so not allowed to open. In my heart of hearts, I don’t think that this will change for a few weeks yet. One of the fantastic things about the Peak District is that so many of the population (20 million!) live within an hour’s drive of the National Park. In these more stressful times, however, that becomes a downside. We are in a beautifully rural part of the country and our Coronavirus cases are not as high as other areas but our local hospitals are under as much strain.

Once the situation begins to improve and we are allowed to open again we cannot wait to welcome you all back. In the meantime, have a very happy and a very safe New Year.

Marian