Hooks Cottage B&B review by Jill Pendleton 13th April 2011.

Please forgive me for copying this entry almost word for word from my own blog, but I think it says it all :-

Mary Lloyd-Williams got in touch and asked if she could come onto the Dartmoor Accommodation website.
She told me that she had been doing bed and breakfast from her home on the south of the moor since 1983, just one

year before we started up in B&B ourselves. She sounded gracious and charming on the phone and her e-mails were

nice and chatty. Last week I managed to go and say hello to her and take pictures of her lovely home down a

bumpy old farm track at the back of beyond. As I say on my website, it's not cutting edge modern.

Far from it, but IF I was a child aged from 2 to 12 with even the slightest interest in the natural world, this is

just the sort of place I should like my parents to book us into for most of the Summer holidays.
Not least because I can bring my dog with me too, because this is a really dog friendly place.

There are ponies in the field, an inquisitive cat called Holly, 2 friendly black labradors Archie and Cobble and there must be hundreds of birds nests within a stones throw of the house. Not that Mary would encourage anyone to throw stones.

Two minutes in her company and I see that she is one of the most charming of Dartmoor's many landladies.

We nip out into the garden and she calls to the ponies in the field who come cantering down to say hello.

She and her husband Dick have a very pretty garden surrounded by trees with a stream running through.

Birdsong fills the air, you can see the stars at night and there is a real sense of country retreat about the place.

She told me in her first conversation that the house is rather ugly, and I have to take issue with that. The house and garden are very 'her' and the visitors book is rammed with grateful thanks and mentions of how sweet and caring she is.

No it's not straight off the pages of Ideal Home, but I'm sure you will enjoy the home made marmalade at breakfast

here and if your beloved four year old needs to collect frogspawn to examine it, she is the kind of person who will produce a spare jamjar, be happy to join in with the collecting, and then later on take time to caringly explain

why the frogspawn needs to go back into the water again once examination has taken place. I just know it.

I alerted Mary to take a look and she came back to me with an e-mail saying
'Dear Jill - Just got back from work to find this FABULOUS website - you really are amazing and we LOVE it.

I'll get my family to have a look today too. The directions are such a wonderful added bonus too.
All my thanks for the fantastic site. Mary - in haste to get some very nice guests their Full English !'

I just knew that she would be generous in her response. This job of mine is so enjoyable. Jill

Hooks Cottage B&B, Ashburton, TQ12 6JS Telephone: 01626 821312, Email.

To see more of my reviews click below

All photos by me Jill Pendleton of www.dartmooraccommodation.co.uk