hat do you think of when you hear the phrase ‘bed and breakfast’? Not normally, I suspect, something that involves smashed avocado on pumpernickel bread for breakfast. Or where you’ll find dinky little French vanilla yoghurts in glass jars, served with fresh raspberries. Or, indeed, a DIY super juice bar, complete with a pot of health-boosting chia seeds. In fact, I’ve not come across any of those in any B&B I’ve stayed at before. This isn’t your normal House Call, as these guys don’t just live in their home but make it work for its keep too. But, the fact is, that I’d been hearing rumours about Old Park Hall (very good rumours, too) for a while now, and so when new owner Daisy Kearey started posting images on Instagram of her making rose petal wine, I suddenly had the excuse I needed to pay Devon’s latest foodie recruit a visit. After all, the chef tutors at River Cottage – just down the road – have all been urging me to stay there, and who am I to go against those guys?
Fancy making your home work for a living? Daisy Kearey has done just that, with the fanciest B&B on the Devon/Dorset border
Old Park Hall opened earlier this year, and is already getting five-star rave reviews on Trip Advisor. And now, having seen it, I have to say that I’d give it a 55star review, if that were but an option. The food Daisy offers for breakfast – which includes a full English (meat or veggie) with everything sourced or smoked locally – would be worth a sleepover alone, but this place has more to offer than just that. Daisy, after all, has styling and design training from her decade or so in Australia – more on that later – and it shows, from the moment you step through the imposing oak front door into the entrance lobby. There’s a baby grand piano in the vestibule (partner James is no mean pianist, and if you’re lucky he might play during your stay) and something else, too – a sense of another time, one when most of those stepping in from the rain were
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not getting out of a car, but instead had been botanizing in the Devon hedgerows, or foraging for all they’re worth. Part of the reason for this becomes clear when Daisy tells us: “I come from a long line of doctors and anthropologists.” And, indeed, you can see influence everywhere. She’s captured the current vogue for driftwood and decorative test tube bottles (and even specimen jars), but done so with an artful authenticity that makes you think Darwin himself might just be about to walk through the door. (Truthfully it may look as if she’s raided the family pile, but much of her decorative booty has come from nearby Devon car boot sales, which is her second passion, after good food.) And then, just when you think you’ve got her botanical design number, you walk into the guest lounge to sink down into one of the inviting purple velvet sofas – Wicked Wolf artisan G&T in hand – and look up to see a witty pink Candy Floss neon sign adorning the wall that should be all at odds with the faded grandeur of the other artifacts in the room but, strangely, just looks fab. Daisy and James are both in their early 30s, and have decamped to East Devon from London with their dogs, Max and Louis; helping them out here at Old Park Hall is an international team from all parts of the globe, diverse enough that you run the risk of talking about making pesto at the breakfast table, only to have someone pipe up and say, “I’m from the part of Italy where we make pesto myself”, and make you wish you’d never started holding forth at all… Cooking and foraging (and then making and bottling and squeezing and drying and preserving) and then serving the end results to her guests is all part of the charm here. Daisy’s B&B is actually the middle third of a large Victorian mock gothic Grade II listed
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