Thistleyhaugh Farm

An ‘excellent, traditional farmhouse B&B’, with huge bedrooms, generous hospitality and breakfasts to fuel the day, Thistleyhaugh is in the capable hands of the Nelless family’s second-generation of hosts. Their organic farm, reached by country lanes, feels remote yet is only two miles from the main road. In autumn, the ‘picture-book perfect’ Georgian farmhouse’s Virginia creeper-covered walls ‘glow like a scarlet beacon in the quiet Northumbrian countryside’. Downstairs rooms are understatedly elegant with polished antiques and well-upholstered sofas while ‘very comfortable’ bedrooms have huge mahogany wardrobes, ‘proper towel rails and dressing tables’, and broderie anglaise bedcovers. ‘Well-stocked’ trolleys include fresh milk and home-made biscuits; there are roll-top baths in the bathrooms. ‘Breakfast was excellent with fresh orange juice’ and a range of cooked items. ‘Extremely good’ light suppers of sandwiches, ‘a delicious dessert and excellent cheeseboard’ are served in the fire-warmed sitting room. Zoe and Janice continue the famed Nelless hospitality; ‘the welcome is unchanged and is as warm as ever’. (MH, and others)