My Landmark of the Week

Hawker's Cottage, Coombe

Coombe is a small hamlet at the forgotten junction of two wooded valleys in North Cornwall. Mill, millhouse and anciently picturesque cottages cluster in orchards around the ford of a shallow stream, just half a mile from the sea at Duckpool, where half tide exposes a sandy beach. The hamlet once belonged in part to the Grenville family of the long-demolished Stowe Barton, and it souls were later under the care of the Reverend Stephen Hawker, celebrated Vicar of Morwenstow. Landmark’s presence at Coombe (and only our visitors populate it today) preserves the hamlet and its exceptional setting in a joint scheme with the National Trust, who own most of the surrounding land and coastline. Hawkers Cottages are a pair of stone, cob and thatched cottages, named after the famous Vicar of Morwenstow, who lived here briefly. The bedroom in No. 1, with a window in the form of a cross, is said to have been his study. The small garden in front of the cottage is sheltered and pretty.

Sleeps: 5 Beds: S T D Features Solid fuel stove Small gardens Adjacent parking Dogs allowed

After the build-up to the false millennium (01/01/2000) we spent a short break here with the boys and two sets of friends shared another property in Coombe. We each took turns in cooking a dinner prior to Dec 31 and on New Year's Eve we each prepared a course for the banquet. With some trepidation I unearthed a bottle of port from 1900 which I had been given some 20 years earlier and decanted it. It proved to be perfect and not just because it was 100 years old. (the subsequent bottles of 1963 vintage were probably just as good but lacked the cache) At midnight we visited the other properties in Coombe with bottles of Champagne and toasted the other Landmarkers. And at dawn we were sitting on the clifftop to see the sun rise. But you don't have to wait for the next millennium to enjoy this peaceful setting.