Ashcombe Country Cottages

06/06/2025

Vanessa has excelled herself with the summer planting and wildflowers at Ashcombe Country Cottages this time.

03/06/2025

Replacing the 16-year-old super-heavy Nut Tree Farm holiday cottage boiler was not easy when the hi-ab on the delivery lorry broke. Had to call in local reinforcements and a telehandler. Thank goodness for the extra help as it would have been impossible. The stripped down old one was holding over 50 litres of water in the coils which only came out after it was flat on the ground. So it was even heavier than it should have been.

This 100kw boiler has to provide hot water and heating for 13 bedrooms all with ensuite bathrooms. The house can sleep up to 28 people, so it has to work hard. It also heats the Nut Tree outdoor pool when the air source heating isn't operating. The plumbers now have three days to install it before the next guests arrive.

05/05/2025

A beautiful evening over the Ashcombe countryside

03/05/2025

Nut Tree Farm is ready for the bank holiday weekend. The perfect location for a big family self catered holiday with room for up to 28 people, 13 bedrooms all with ensuite bathrooms, 2 bbq areas and gardens, games barn.... and a 30°c private pool!

Still available for summer half term.

25/04/2025

You can still book for summer half-term at Nut Tree Farm! Hurry.

Summer half-term is available at Nut Tree Farm. Nut Tree Farm at Ashcombe Cottages can sleep up to 28 people for a perfect family holiday

10/04/2025

It’s Ashcombe Cottages Easter Holiday time! The Ashcombe Cottages are looking wonderful with Vanessa's beautiful cottage gardens the cherry on the cake!

Thousands of hours of work go into making every stay a happy holiday at Ashcombe. We spend a lot of time making sure that we improve and refine the experience at Ashcombe Cottages. Bigger properties for extended families, increased private space to unwind and our attention to detail in every aspect equals consistent industry awards and most importantly, our guests returning year after year.

Welcome to Ashcombe Cottages Easter Holiday time. We've dressed all the cottages and there's lots of Easter Eggs to be found!

05/04/2025

Happy Easter from Ashcombe Cottages. All our cottages looking beautiful thanks to great decorations with Easter Eggs for all three weeks of the Easter Holidays. Fully booked for this period, but there's always later in the year for a great family holiday.

All three swimming pools are warm and the weather is perfect!

01/03/2025

It's that time of year again. Ashcombe Cottages has won another Customer Choice Award from our agents Cottages.com.

This award is given for properties receiving a customer feed-back score of +4.75/5

This means Columbia Cottage (4.9), Madeleine Cottage (4.8), Nut Tree (5!) all qualify with the others bubbling under at 4.7. Always more work to do! 😀

https://ashcombecottages.co.uk/the-2025-customer-choice-award-for-ashcombe-cottages

14/02/2025

Nut Tree Farm has just completed a 20,000 mile service with a three week restoration. Three showers completely replaced, painting done and a pair of new shiny fridges in the kitchen ought to have covered most of what needed doing to keep this ever-popular holiday cottage at the top of its game!

https://ashcombecottages.co.uk/house/nut-tree-farm

29/11/2024

NOW RENTED

We have one property left for New Year's Eve... and it's one of the best!

New Year's Eve at The Cider Barn is an unforgettable experience, a large, exclusive property with incredible views and excellent facilities

13/09/2024

This still isn't going away. Sadly successive governments think it's a great idea to trash the rural economy

Removing the furnished holiday lettings tax regime will punish local economies.

The CLA warns that abolishing the furnished holiday lettings (FHL) tax regime will punish local economies, after the government published draft legislation to remove the scheme from April 2025.

In the spring budget, then- Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that the government planned to abolish the tax support; FHL tax regime reductions currently apply to properties that are available for holiday letting for at least 210 days a year, and are let for at least half that time. It is thought scrapping the holiday lettings relief is expected to save the Treasury about £245m a year by 2028-29.

CLA President Victoria Vyvyan says: "For many farmers and landowners, diversification into the holiday lettings market is a business necessity. The short-term rental and holiday let sector contributes billions to the wider economy, supporting local shops and restaurants and creating tens of thousands of jobs. Abolishing the FHL regime will only punish people who are helping to grow local economies.

"It is far from a tax loophole, providing a crucial support mechanism, strengthening the resilience and viability of many rural businesses that in turn enables them to invest in their work looking after the environment and feeding the nation.

"By converting unused or underutilised properties, that may not be suitable as homes in the private rented sector, into high- quality holiday accommodations, property owners contribute to the local community's economic vitality.

"Why are small rural businesses being punished for diversifying? This sweeping approach needs a far closer scrutiny of the perceived problem.

15/08/2024

Here we go again! The new Labour government want to do what we prevented the old Conservative government from doing: abolishing the FHL (Furnished Holiday Let) tax regime.

It is not a loophole if you are running a professional holiday let business which is more-or-less a hotel. We need to reclaim our considerable business expenses and interest payments to stay in operation in the face of hugely inflated costs, rising taxes and reducing revenues.

Ashcombe Cottages have provided over 100 beds for +4,000 all-year-round guests in top-quality accommodation for over 27 years. We also provide a lot of lovely extras: swimming pools, games rooms, playgrounds, firewood, in-house chefs.
A lot of work, not some part-time job.

We employ around 10 local people all-year round and our guests spend a considerable amount of money in the local area.

Our properties are nearly all barn-conversions and are restricted by planning to only be for holiday accommodation use. They have never been "second homes".

HMRC would initially raise about £750m more tax, but then lose about £2bn of GVA (Gross Value Added) to GDP. Ultimately the cost to the rural economy and UK balance of payments would be disastrous.

Please take a minute to sign this MP petition:

Support our rural and coastal visitor economies, please don't abolish FHL Tax Allowances Welcome to the 'Please don't abolish the FHL Allowances and support coastal and rural tourism' Petition. Please enter your Postcode, this will automatically call up the details of your MP. You will then need to....