Mello View
Winsham, near Chard, Somerset
- Glamping
- More than one dog
- Wood-burner
1 (plus a children’s bunk room) bedrooms
2 adults + 2 children
In 2014 Ed, a chef, and Vicky, a Pilates teacher, swapped London for a crumbling 1950s cowshed above the Axe Valley, and Grand Designs filmed the rebuild. It’s now a five-acre smallholding, and the Gardener’s Shed is its off-grid hideaway: a wood burner, a day bed on the terrace and no WiFi at all. Up to two dogs are welcome, as long as they leave the hens alone.
Pet Perks
- Five acres of orchards, paddocks and gardens.
- Woodland and reservoir walks five miles away.
- A wood burner to dry off by after a muddy walk.
Facilities
For your dog
- More than one dog welcome
For you
- Wood-burner or open fire
About Mello View
Guests at the Gardener’s Shed are encouraged to help themselves. The hens leave eggs, the garden has vegetables, and if you’d rather not cook, Ed will do breakfast with his own sausages and cured bacon, or a private dinner from whatever’s in season.
The shed sleeps two in a double bed, with a small bunk room for a couple of children. There’s a wood burner for heat, a two-ring hob and a hot shower, and out front a terrace with a BBQ, a pond and a day bed looking straight down the valley. There’s no TV or WiFi, and the phone signal comes and goes.
Up to two well-behaved dogs can come, at £10 each per stay. Mello View is a working smallholding, with lambs, pigs and hens about the place, so dogs need to leave the livestock alone.
For walks, Wayford Woods and Chard Reservoir are both about five miles away, the Iron Age hill fort at Lambert’s Castle is a little further, and Lyme Regis is nine miles down the road. The pub in Winsham is a 15-minute walk across the fields.
Time it right and you can book onto one of Ed’s supper clubs in the barn, or a Pilates class with Vicky.