If, like me, you love the West Country, and the Quantock hills and Exmoor in particular, you will often be looking for good places where one can stay comfortably and eat well and which one can use as a base for exploring this beautiful part of England. Ashelford is such a place and, indeed, is something rather special.

It is not an hotel. It is not a B&B, it is not a Wolsey Lodge. In fact, I am not sure how to describe it. The owners' phrase "Country House Accommodation" sums it up, but without doing it the justice it clearly deserves.

Erica and Tom McClenaghan came here from Oxfordshire in 1996. Erica had worked with her father, an architect, and Tom, a sailor and an engineer, had been in the Royal Navy and had had three years as an officer on the sail training ship "Malcolm Miller". He had had to cope with situations such as the time when, in the Alderney Race, with an inexperienced and all girl crew, a gale came out of a clear sky and laid the ship on her beam ends, leaving one engine flooded and the other useless, as the propeller was out of the water. The particular skills of this unusual and talented couple have all been invaluable since the day six years ago when they bought Ashelford, a seventeenth century farm house which had not been been lived in for some 36 years. It has a splendid barn, good out-buildings and 70 acres of pasture and woodland.

They have transformed it - indeed one is amazed and full of admiration for what they have achieved with so much skill, taste and imagination. Not to mention what must have been limitless hard work.

They have created a most attractive country house, with the barn most beautifully converted, a delightful garden, with a stream running through, and an amazing view down the valley, with the National Trust House "Arlington Court" in the distance and Exmoor beyond.

First you must find it. Ashelford is 3 miles North of Barnstaple, in deep country-side, but the directions and map on the attractive brochure are so good that there is no excuse for being late for tea. Then comes the welcome. We arrived in April in the pouring rain (singing the song: "Devon, oh Devon, in wind and rain!") and immediately Erica and Tom (as you will soon be calling them) appeared with a large umbrella and a big smile. We could see through the window a roaring log fire in the drawing room.

There are splendid oak beams everywhere - many of great antiquity - and where restoration has been necessary it has been beautifully and sensitively done. The walls and ceilings look as though they have been drag painted throughout, but the technique they actually used was to drag a stiff paint brush over the wet plaster and, later, to paint it pale cream. The result is attractive and effective and helps to lighten the rooms and soften the corners.

The bedrooms have been similarly treated and everywhere is fresh and spotless. There are three double rooms, each with its own bath and/or shower room and a single room with its bathroom across the landing. Towelling robes are provided. One of the rooms has a four poster bed and in another the bed-head and foot are made from old oak farm gates, rescued from the fields and polished up. There are, or will be, two more bed-rooms in the barn, to be described later.

All the rooms have useful things like television, hair dryers, hot water bottles, facilities for making tea or coffee, a shoe cleaning kit, a refrigerator with fresh milk and orange juice and so on, but everything is neatly concealed behind oak doors and built-in cupboards. This is cleverly done and makes the rooms look much more like home and less like an hotel. Niches which emerged from the ancient walls are filled with bowls and flowers or grasses. We had a four poster bed - one feature we particularly liked was the lighting - which is often difficult in these types of bed. There were twin lights directly over the pillows connected to a dimmer switch - an excellent arrangement.

An intimate dinner party

While bed and breakfast are the norm, Erica always offers dinner to guests on the night they arrive and, by arrangement, on other nights. Otherwise there are good pubs not far away. There is often someone arriving, so dinner is frequently expanded to provide for those who want it. We happened to be the only ones staying on the night of our arrival and were asked whether we would like to eat alone or with the McGlenaghans - truly à la table d'hôte. Of course we opted to dine with them and what a dinner it was! - served in the comfortable dining room, with another fine log fire blazing.

We began the meal with a sort of Catherine Wheel of salmon and prawns in puff pastry with an interesting sharp sauce consisting (as we learned on enquiring) of creme fraiche, nutmeg and wine, with plenty of lemons to squeeze on the side. This was a meal in itself. Then came escallops of lamb with a fairly thick red-currant jelly (home-made) and onion jus (too good and full of flavour to be called gravy) with every sort of vegetable beautifully arranged on a huge plate - carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, French beans, parsnip, roast potatoes.

This was a real farm-house treat, fit for those who had been making hay for the past twelve hours - but more beautifully presented than at the normal Harvest Home supper! Finally there was an amazing strawberry meringue roulade - looking like a huge grin with strawberry teeth - and a lemon custard brulêe. We were offered cheese as well. Both desserts were delicious. No wonder guests apparently opt for dinner whenever they can and generally forego lunch in preparation for it!

Incidentally, Mr and Mrs McGlenaghan have recently been able to achieve a full residential licence, so can offer wine as well as drinks before dinner. The latter come from a cupboard in the drawing room rather than from a bar, which all helps to maintain the atmosphere of a home rather than a hotel.

Breakfast is served in the delightful kitchen, with an Aga cooker at one end and a long refectory table, made out of a single piece of oak, at the other. From our bed-room window we had already seen Tom coming in with a bucket of fresh hens' eggs for breakfast and ducks' eggs for the puddings and cakes. There was first a most attractive plate of fresh fruit of all kinds (we might have been in Thailand or the tropics), then yoghurt and cereals, if wanted, before those delicious eggs with bacon, good local sausage, tomatoes and whatever. A proper breakfast, in exceptionally delightful surroundings!

The barn is almost completed and is most attractive. It will provide two additional bed-rooms and a huge room on the first floor with wonderful oak beams in the roof. There will be facilities for self catering and the upstairs room will make a splendid place for parties or weddings. Again, everything is being beautifully curtained and decorated. There is another attractive terrace outside the barn, looking on to that lovely garden with the stream running (sometimes cascading!) through it.

The brochure says that Ashelford is perhaps not suitable for children, but you can bring your dogs [they've obviously got their priorities right! -Ed]. The McGlenaghans have three lovely dogs of their own. One of the bedrooms, The Churchill, has steps leading directly to the garden, so if you had one of those extending leads you could probably let Rover out while not having to get out of bed yourself!

There is a great deal to see in the neighbourhood: the National Trust's Arlington Court, Dartington Crystal, the gardens at RHS Rosemoor and Marwood - and of course Exmoor itself. There are wonderful walks and it is great riding country too. There is a BHS approved equestrian centre nearby and North Devon has a number of fine golf courses. Even the sound of Westward Ho! is evocative!

Ashelford has just won the Johansen "Most Excellent Country House" award for the year 2000 and had already been awarded 5 diamonds in the AA Guest Accommodation Category. I have little doubt that other awards will follow. (see below)

If you like the sort of place I have tried to describe, and think that you might prefer it to a conventional hotel, then Ashelford is the place for you - as it was for us.

When we reluctantly drove away, after a fond farewell of our new friends, we stopped at the top of the hill to take a photograph, looking back at the now distant house from across the fields. We thought it typical that the dogs came out again, having spotted us in the distance, followed by Tom, to give us a final wave.

Michael Pelham, 18 April 2000
Michael Pelham is proprietor of Pelham Tours who specialise in gastronomic and other tours in Europe and the UK.

Prices at Ashelford are from £105.75 B&B for two people sharing, reducing to £94 for stays of two nights or more. A four course dinner is £29 per person. All bedrooms are non-smoking.

Dine Online Country House Hotel of the month:

Tel: 01271 850469
Fax: 01271 850862
e-mail: ashelford@ashelford.co.uk
Web site: www.ashelford.co.uk