Travel: Colourful Southrepps holiday let close to the sea

The mid-week break, therefore, is the answer. And what better than a mid-week break involving a journey that takes less than 45 minutes from door-to-door?

Enter Glory Days cottage in Southrepps, where we enjoyed two days on the other side of the hospitality curtain as guests rather than hosts (I am using the royal ‘we’ here, obviously my input towards looking after guests at my husband’s hotel is negligible).

If Glory Days was a facial expression, it would be a massive beaming smile, if it was a weather forecast, it would be sunshine, if it was a song it’d be the Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations: I defy anyone not to open the front door and be instantly cheered.

Owners Ruth and Mark Northway used to run a fabulous shop with the same name (first in Norwich and Holt and then in Cromer) and have brought the same bright, colourful, playful style to their charming cottage, a stone’s throw from the North Norfolk coast.

Interior designer Ruth’s transformation of the cottage is a complete breath of fresh air in comparison to the greige identikit interiors that so many holiday lets seem to plump for, you know the ones, all ‘I’d rather be at the beach!’ signs and dull understated minimalism.

Glory Days Cottage is anything but dull: the owners describe it as Retropolitan, which sums it up perfectly.

Walk down the path to the front door, step through the porch and it’s like entering a fairytale: paintbox bright colours, quirky prints, curious objects, secret gardens and lantern-lit hidey-holes to escape to with a book.

In the garden to the back of the house is the sweetest little shed – almost like a beach hut – with a cast iron day bed, comfortable quilts and fairy lights which, in the rain, felt like the most magical place to be. I had to be prised out in order to unpack.

Through the cosy front room with a pre-lit woodburner and pops of bright yellow there’s a small-but-perfectly-formed kitchen where treats awaited us, Ruth’s homemade brownies, milk, eggs, bread, a bottle of something delicious…an early indication of just how much thought has gone into this holiday cottage at every level.

Upstairs, the bedrooms are equally lovely, the single room in particular would have been my absolute dream when I was a girl, handprinted pink wallpaper, a beautiful embroidered Indian door hanging above the headboard, and the most gorgeous textures and colours for blinds, bedspreads and rugs. It’s like an art installation.

The main bedroom is a symphony of pink and green (which should always be seen) and looks out over the front garden and, at night, up to a ceiling of stars: the bed is seriously comfortable, too, and for city dwellers like ourselves, it was SO quiet. Lovely.

A special mention must also be made for the bathroom, which in addition to having all the toiletries you could wish for, had a wonderful old enamel bath which retained the heat so beautifully that I could probably still be in there now and it’d be toasty warm.

Southrepps itself is just lovely: brick and flint cottages (such as Glory Days), a towering 15th century church with some memento mori and a slightly annoyed looking angel to spot – with my Weird Norfolk hat on – and less than a minute away, the lovely, welcoming Vernon Arms pub.

There’s a great pub menu full of classics such as steak, fish and chips, burgers, chilli and beef and Guinness pie and desserts to die for like chocolate and hazelnut bread and butter pudding, treacle tart and strawberry and meringue fool with shortbread, lots of cask ales and comfortable sofas in front of a roaring fire to snooze on afterwards.

We’d already planned a sofa picnic feast of cheese, bread and fruit for our first dinner at Glory Days or we’d have been tempted, but snacking in front of the woodburner as the rain fell outside, we couldn’t have felt any cosier.

After a great night’s sleep and a breakfast of the treats left behind by Ruth and Mark, we headed out to the seaside on one of those autumnal days when the light is perfect but there’s a chill to the wind.

Nearby there are stunning sandy beaches (Mundesley is two miles away, Cromer is three), shingle beaches, saltmarshes, wide expanses of dunes and gorgeous quays – frankly, all of North Norfolk is laid out on the doorstep, the possibilities are endless for day trips.

We chose Cromer first, a bracing walk along the front and then a less-than-elegant stagger away from the brilliant Bookworms second-hand book shop on New Street with armfuls of books and back to the car.

It was then time for a packet of vinegary chips eaten as we watched the waves pounding the shore and a meander through the many rooms of Harbords Artisan Vintage Emporium before we hopped over to next-door Sheringham along the coast road.

With caramel cornflake brownies from Winibees Bakery to fuel the walk, we strolled along the high street, to the boating lake and along the seafront, dodging showers by darting into book shops and beach shelters.

Back in Southrepps, we walked at dusk to nearby The Suffield Arms, a 19th century house originally built for workers on the Gunton Estate and sister pub to the nearby Gunton Arms.

As the sun dipped, we walked along hedgerow-lined lanes which we had entirely to ourselves, past fields and woodland, houses and a beck and towards the lights that marked where the pub from afar.

Part of the walk was along the Avenue of Remembrance, where trees have been planted as a sign of respect to those lost in World War One and Two: one is for William Loane, who was killed in the Le Paradis massacre in France, a story I have written about many times. I’d like to think he would love it here, in some corner of a familiar land.

It also reminded me that I am yet to visit the If Not Now When wood, the legacy of Norfolk man David Hood, whose dying wish was to create a community woodland with a difference in Suffield. It’s got a Celtic Ogham Tree Trail, a labyrinth, meadows, fruit trees and some of Mr Hood’s architectural finds.

Back to the task at hand, we reached The Suffield Arms 25 minutes after setting off.

The handsome red-brick building is opposite Gunton Station, which was built in 1876 to serve the Gunton Park estate owned by Lord Suffield.

The station once served as a reception area for royal guests arriving and leaving from the estate and was, it was rumoured, a place for liaisons between the Prince of Wales, later to become Edward VII, who was a regular visitor, and his mistress, actress Little Langtry.

Today, it’s where you can catch the train to Norwich or Cromer. 

As much for the menu – which is full of tempting tapas dishes – we went for the décor at the pub which boasts a diverse mix of modern and traditional artworks.

The Upstairs Saloon Bar, dark floor boards, blood red furnishings, dark wallpaper, ornate fireplaces and brass bar fittings, is pretty much my idea of heaven on earth, and the fact you pass a stuffed goat’s head on the stairs is the icing on the cake. 

We ate lots of Spanish-inspired little plates of food (all delicious), had a couple of cocktails, a nosey around the whole venue and then walked back under a tapestry of stars, the night so black we could barely see a few feet ahead of us.

It was an absolutely magical end to the night - normal people might like to take a torch, though…

Our last morning, after another wonderful night’s sleep, we reluctantly headed away from the cheerfulness of Glory Days and back into the gloom of a grey day. But what a tonic for the soul, what a ray of absolute sunshine, I very much hope we’ll be back.

Book your stay: 

Enquiries to Ruth at glorydays.ruth@yahoo.co.uk , 07900 735044, all bookings are through Booking.com, follow the link at www.glorydays.co/find-us/ for the listing. Prices from £150 per night.