Clashope Cottage

We bought Clashope Cottage in June 2015.  We weren't even looking for one.  It was just 'one of those things'.  

We had been looking to move house for a year or two and had looked around quite a few, but none had really 'gripped' us.  Of course, we'd had the occasional chat about maybe investing money in a holiday let instead of sinking it all into another property, but our thoughts had lain more along the lines of the Cotswolds perhaps, although we did like the idea of Bamburgh too.

However, we were predominantly set on moving house to somewhere a bit further out in the sticks, with some land, preferably no neighbours, that sort of thing.

Then one day in April of 2015 we were sitting in our lounge, chatting with my brother-in-law, who was up for a visit for a few days.  Hubby was flicking, fairly nonchalantly, through the weekly Homemaker, the section that comes with the Journal every Saturday.  He spotted an advert for a cottage in the hamlet of Shoreston, which lies between Seahouses and Bamburgh on the Northumberland coast.

I'm from Seahouses, originally.  Born, bred and buttered.  So, I know Shoreston.  When I was younger, my friends and I used to go on Saturday bicycle rides around the back roads.  We used to cycle about 20 miles and usually went through Shoreston, stopping just by the hall for orange juice and biscuits (which I always carried because I was the only one with a basket on her bike.  Yes, I was old even back then).

So, I had admired Shoreston for many a year.  I mean, what's not to love about tiny, quiet country lanes and rolling green farmland?  Throw in some pretty stone cottages and it's pretty damn near perfect.

Anyway, back to Hubby and that advert in the Homemaker.  We had looked at a cottage in Shoreston a couple of years back, as a permanent residence, but had ruled it out because Hubby didn't want to commute that far every day.  So when he saw the advert for Clashope Cottage he pointed at it and said, "Where's that?"

I looked and didn't immediately recognise it, because it was down a lane that we hadn't cycled along when we were young.  It's not quite in Shoreston, you see, it's about a quarter of a mile down a single track country road, by itself.  The photographs looked nice though and when we looked on Google Maps, we were even more intrigued.

It was a Saturday.  I said,  "Shall we go and have a look at it?"

Hubby said, "Yeah, why not.  No harm in having a look around, is there?"

So, I rang the estate agent.  She said that the cottage had only just gone on the market that day.  She booked us a viewing for the very next morning, Sunday.  We were the very first people to look around it.

I'm not entirely sure at what point it was that I decided we must have it.  It could have been before we even set foot inside it, because the location was so peaceful and tranquil.  It was lovely.  Then we went into the kitchen.  The large wood burning stove was in full flame.  The room was so warm and inviting.  The point is, I knew, right then and there, that the cottage had to be ours.  It got even better as we went around it.  

As we drove away from it, Hubby said, "Well, what did you think?"

I said, "I want it."

He more or less agreed with me and we put in an offer the next day.  By the Thursday of that week it was all settled. 

Of course, in an ideal world, we would move into it straight away.  However, until Hubby retires, we just have to be satisfied with staying there occasionally.  At least other people get to enjoy it too.

So, that's it, really.  That's when and why we bought it.  

I can't imagine ever parting with it, to be honest......