New Year in a rented house is a different proposition to Christmas. Christmas has a shape to it and everybody knows their part. New Year is looser, later, and works best somewhere you are not watching the clock or worrying about the neighbours.
Lower Wood Farmhouse sits up a long private track on a working cattle estate eight minutes north-east of Ludlow. The nearest house is the gatehouse, a good distance back down the drive. Nobody is going to knock at half past midnight.
Why a farmhouse works for New Year
Twelve people in a hotel is twelve rooms, three tables and a bill each. Twelve people in one house is one kitchen, one long table, and everybody in the same place at midnight. That is the whole argument.
The house sleeps twelve across five bedrooms. A super-king with ensuite, a double with ensuite, two further doubles, and a bunk room, plus two sofa beds downstairs. Three bathrooms, which matters more on the morning of the first than it does on any other day of the year.
The kitchen is the room
There is an electric AGA and it earns its keep at this time of year. It runs warm all day, which means the kitchen becomes the room everybody drifts into, and it will hold a ham or a joint at temperature for hours without anybody standing over it.
It does take twelve to fourteen hours to come up to heat from cold, so it wants turning on the day before. We will do that for you if you say the word before you arrive.
The long table seats everybody at once. That sounds obvious until you have tried to do New Year's Eve dinner for twelve across two rooms.
What there is to do on the first
The first of January is the day nobody has planned for. It helps to have things on the doorstep.
- The hot tub. Sits at 38 degrees, outside, looking over the fields. In January, in the dark, with the sky as clear as it gets out here, it is the best room in the house.
- The pedal kart track. Laid out around the paddock. Adults are worse than the children about lap times.
- The entertainment room. Pool table, racing simulator, and a woodburner in the snug next door.
- The walk. The Clee Hills are on the doorstep and Mortimer Forest is a short drive. Cold, bright, and exactly what everybody needs by mid-afternoon.
Ludlow in the first week of January
Ludlow is quiet and rather lovely in early January. The castle is open, the independent shops on Broad Street reopen within a day or two, and the walk along the Teme under Whitcliffe is the sort of thing that resets a group after a late night.
It is eight minutes in the car. Not walkable from here, and we would rather be straight with you about that than have you discover it in the dark.
Practical things
We run a four-night minimum over the New Year period, so a typical booking is the 29th of December to the 2nd of January, or the 30th to the 3rd. That covers New Year's Eve itself with a day either side to arrive and recover.
One well-behaved dog is welcome. There are two travel cots and a high chair if you need them. Bedding, towels and charcoal for the BBQ and pizza oven are all provided.
The cattle are still out in the field behind the house. Tractors still start early. That is what a working farm is, and most people find it is the point rather than the drawback.
Booking
New Year books earlier than any other week in our calendar, usually from late summer onward. If you are reading this and the dates are still showing as free, they will not be for long.
You can check live availability and book direct on the booking form, or send an enquiry and we will come back the same day.