This is the view from Bramblewood's front terrace  
Peaceful self catering cottages..... 		Trevalgas Farm Cottages
What the Papers Say  		The 40ft heated pool is a constant 1.1m deep - ideal for children
....with their own indoor heated pool!
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"Summerleaze beach is a beautiful sweep of fine sand, with fishing boats pulled up on the tideline, children playing with buckets and spades, and wet-suited surfers riding the rolling waves."                   Sunday Telegraph Travel 10.8.09 


"One of the wildest and most beautiful stretches of the north Cornish coast is between Bude and Boscastle."                      Sunday Telegraph Travel 30.7.06     

"Top Surf Spots in Britain
7. BUDE.  Often overlooked, Bude has great surf spots, bars and restaurants, and has been a mecca for British surfers since the sixties."       The Independent 27.7.04 


Here's what the press has said about Trevalgas Cottages:

"Trevalgas Cottages: Peace without Isolation"
 

"While cheap flights from Luton or Stansted can get us to exotic destinations, the travelling can also be quite wearisome. There's the hassle of getting to the airport, high parking costs, a lot of queuing and hanging around, the risk of delays, indifferent food, etc. And while the flights may be cheap, there's no escaping the airport taxes and fuel surcharge, plus high costs of accommodation, particularly where a family is involved. The net result is that the benefit of a holiday or break has evaporated by the time you get back home.

One alternative to the overseas package holiday is a self-catering cottage - and it doesn't have to be just swapping one kitchen sink for another. There is a small complex near Bude called Trevalgas Cottages, which has much to commend it, and being in North Cornwall, it's much easier to get to than places further southwest - and it's also handy for exploring the quieter parts of North Devon too. Here there is peace without isolation as the complex is about a mile and half from Bude town centre, glorious sandy beaches, rugged cliffs, the SW coastal path and superb countryside - yet many of the locals do not even know that the cottages are there - tucked in a quiet hollow in the rolling hills.

It's an ideal place where one can switch off from the hectic pace of life - and recharge ones' batteries. With plenty of space to relax, and enjoy the colourful well-tended gardens, there's also a wonderful heated indoor pool so no need to worry if the sun doesn't shine - and the cottages themselves provide home-from-home comforts, including a dishwasher in the larger units. And while they all have fully fitted and well-equipped kitchens, and barbecues, it doesn't have to be cooking all the time as there are dozens of good value places to eat out.

Although you may be tempted to never leave this peaceful setting, the unspoilt countryside offers plenty of walks, including the coastal path, and Bude Marshes where there’s a chance to watch the wildlife in the nature reserve, or just unwind and enjoy the peaceful surroundings.

Bude has its own links golf course, and stables offering horse riding along miles of sandy beaches at low tide. If you are more adventurous, then drop into the town’s adventure centre and sign up for an afternoon’s climbing or abseiling course on the folded fault lined cliffs, or hire a full sized surf board, wet suit plus a couple of hours tuition.  

Alternatively hire some bikes locally, with trailer bikes for children, and enjoy one of the cycle paths in the area - along the Tamar valley, for example, or on the old Bodmin to Padstow railway track.

Bude is close to many gardens open to the public, and is not far away from the Eden Project. Jonathan Ball (its Cornish architect) is already planning the ‘Great Atlantic Way’ a new visionary project to help the regeneration and preservation of north Cornwall and enhance the experience of visitors to thirty miles of coastline from Bude to Newquay.

You can bring your dog along if you need, and with all-inclusive pricing, beds made up for your arrival, and some bargains for under-occupancy to make even the larger cottages affordable for smaller groups, a short break will feel longer and more relaxing at Trevalgas.

If you’d like to find out more, then contact Katherine Copley on 01628 675620 or, to see the current offers, visit www.trevalgascottages.co.uk



Bedfordshire Journal 20.04.05


"Special Touches make Holiday cottages home"

 

"Looking to get away for an off-season break? Then the delightful Cornish town of Bude and Trevalgas Farm Cottages could be the perfect combination for you.

Bude is a superb base from which to explore both Cornwall and Devon as it is close to the border and Trevalgas Cottages are a fresh option of accommodation.

These individual, self-contained cottages are a real 'home from home' and the hosts really seem to have thought of everything - carefully chosen games, books and video selections  - they even provide blank tapes so you won't miss your favourite programmes! 

The Trevalgas site of 14 cottages has been built up since the mid-Eighties and is situated in Poughill, a village which nettles beautifully in rolling hills, just two miles from Bude.

Eight cottages are available to let and since November (2002) they have been owned by a cooperative of locals who are eager to make their enterprise work. 

 This small group actively encourage feedback from holidaymakers in their quest to provide the perfect cottage holiday.

I stayed in Briar Patch, a cosy three-bedroomed cottage which sleeps six in a twin and two double rooms.

It has a well-fitted kitchen, including fridge/freezer, split level cooker, microwave and dishwasher.

Its electric storage heaters make it  ideal for holidays or short breaks at any time of the year.

As well as the cottages, guests have use of a superb heated swimming pool, games pool and laundry facilities.

Each cottage has a garden or patio area, barbeque, car parking space and there's even a children's play area to amuse the kids.

If you can tear yourself away from the site, the little town of Bude - tucked away at the top of the county like a well-kept secret - is just waiting for you to explore.

It has miles of fantastic blue flag beaches, wide open spaces for wonderful walks and cycling, plus a superb 18-hole course right in the centre of town.  

If you wish to venture further afield, you can taste the Cornish tourist attractions of the famous Lottery-funded Eden Project or nearby Tintagel Castle - the legendary birthplace of King Arthur -or maybe visit the timeless costal village of Clovelly just a few miles down the coast in Devon.

The Cornish weather is idyllic for holidays from May to October, including those peak months of July and August, but the cottages are available all year round. 

For more information on availability and prices. contact Sarah Banning on 01494 711 540 or surf onto the Trevalgas website at www.trevalgascottages.co.uk 

You can contact them on info@Trevalgascottages.co.uk or for Briar Patch cottage specifically, briar@trevalgascottages.co.uk  "                   
                                                         Grimsby Telegraph 20.04.02

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Here's what the press has said about Bude in more detail:
Bude: Tales from Cornwall's wild side Bude's modest exterior hides a bizarre history involving a dotty vicar and a famous inventor

 

"I had heard of Gurney stoves, and always assumed that harvest festivals were an ancient tradition, but until this week, I had no idea that both were invented by eccentric Cornishmen living on a remote stretch of the county's wildest and most dramatic shore.

Here, narrow lanes with high stone walls are dotted with primroses in spring and foxgloves in summer and lead into steep wooded valleys and over rolling maritime grassland. The coast is rugged and treacherous, with spectacular rock formations – barrel-shaped folds of rock, diagonal strata, zigzag chevron patterns, stripy layers of pale sandstone and dark siltstone.

The Cornish side of my family has farmed on this coast for 200 years, and the non-Cornish side has been coming here on holiday since 1900, but I had no idea that harvest festivals were invented in the 19th century at Morwenstow church. Stephen Hawker arrived in 1834, Morwenstow's first vicar for more than a century. He devoted his life to converting local smugglers, wreckers and looters into a congregation of lifesavers, who warned ships away from the rocks, gave drowned sailors Christian burials – and celebrated harvests.

Hawker was delightfully dotty, dressing in red coat, pink fez and yellow horse-blanket poncho, posing on rocks in mermaid costume, inviting his nine cats to church services (excommunicating them if they moused on a Sunday) and taking his pet pig for walks. He had two happy marriages, at 19 to his 40-year-old godmother, and then at 60 to a girl of 20.

From Morwenstow churchyard and Hawker's turreted rectory, I strolled to the coast footpath. Far below me, Atlantic waves churned and crashed against the rocks. Farther out, swirls of glittering blue-green faded to a fuzzy horizon that my Cornish grandmother would say heralds fine weather.

Soon I reached the National Trust's smallest property, Hawker's Hut, perched on a cliff and built entirely of driftwood. Here Hawker composed sermons, watched for shipwrecks and wrote romantic poems such as The Song of the Western Men, now adopted as the Cornish anthem. He also smoked opium and conversed with Saint Morwenna, the fifth-century princess who built a church with her own hands and gave her name to the parish.

Soon I reached the National Trust's smallest property, Hawker's Hut, perched on a cliff and built entirely of driftwood. Here Hawker composed sermons, watched for shipwrecks and wrote romantic poems such as The Song of the Western Men, now adopted as the Cornish anthem. He also smoked opium and conversed with Saint Morwenna, the fifth-century princess who built a church with her own hands and gave her name to the parish.

The next day, the wind got up and the incoming tide looked perfect for surfing. I headed for Bude's beautiful Summerleaze beach with my ancient plywood surfboard. Old fashioned as my board may look, it is streamlined compared with the coffin-like box on which my grandmother rode the waves before the First World War.

To warm up after my swim, I visited Bude Castle, built on Summerleaze sandhills by Sir Goldsworthy Gurney. Few have heard of this Cornish genius, a contemporary of Hawker (they both died in 1875). To prove that it was possible to build on shifting sand, he designed his castle on a specially invented concrete base, and it is still standing 178 years later.

Sir Goldsworthy was an extraordinary polymath – architect, agriculturalist, surgeon, scientist, pianist and inventor. His Bude limelight was so bright that one lamp, reflected through mirrors, illuminated his entire castle. Three Bude lights replaced 280 candles in the Houses of Parliament, lasting until electricity was installed 60 years later. Sir Goldsworthy's system of flashing lighthouses is still in use and his Gurney stoves survive in several cathedrals to this day. Sir Goldsworthy, knighted in old age by Queen Victoria, invented blastpipes, steam engines, mine ventilation, fire extinguishers, musical instruments, heating, lighthouse signals, electric telegraph and limelight, but he veered between success and bankruptcy.

Next, I explored the Bude canal, which has been dredged and restored to make a lovely inland walk. Away from the wild coast, Bude's hinterland is calm and peaceful. Sir Goldsworthy contributed to early designs for the canal, a revolutionary project to link the Bristol and English Channels via the River Tamar. The canal never reached the Tamar's navigable stretches, but was a superb feat of engineering. Today, the

canal's nature reserve contains Cornwall's largest reed beds, home to otters, dormice, and a host of rare birds and plants.

While Hawker and Sir Goldsworthy were living their extraordinary lives, and my Cornish relations were farming, Bude turned from a fishing harbour and small port into a fashionable Victorian seaside resort. In 1847, Tennyson visited and was inspired to write his Cornish "Idylls of the King".

Later, the Atlantic Coast Express railway brought my non-Cornish relations and other well-heeled visitors direct from London, and Bude's attractions included a sea pool, art-deco cinema, three golf courses and a series of huge hotels. However, decline followed, the final blow the closure of the railway in 1966.

Bude today may have lost its classy clientele, but it is a friendly, low-key little town filled with the mouthwatering aroma of hot pasties. Summerleaze beach is a beautiful sweep of fine sand, with fishing boats pulled up on the tideline, children playing with buckets and spades, and wet-suited surfers riding the rolling waves.

Chapel Rock, on the harbour breakwater, is all that remains from the days when Bude was just a chapel on a rock, where a bede, or holy man, lit lamps to guide ships in from Cornwall's most treacherous coast. But today the town is taking renewed pride in its unique cultural and natural heritage.

Sir Goldsworthy's eccentric castle-built-on-sand has been restored, with an excellent museum and a restaurant where I had lunch. Over coffee, I read one of Hawker's bloodthirsty ballads – Croon from Hennacliff – about shipwrecked bodies washing up at Bude. The next time I go to a harvest festival, or visit a warm cathedral, I shall remember these two inspired Cornishmen, and the beautiful landscape that was their home."

 Sunday Telegraph 10.8.09
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