Hobby Cottage, Felbrigg, near Cromer, Norfolk

Hobby Cottage is a new house, completed in 2006, and it is available for self-catering holiday lets.
We have owned a cottage on this site for over 20 years but in 2005-6 the old cottage was demolished and a new house was built. We decided to keep the old name. The exterior is quite traditional 'North Norfolk' in style, with walls of red brick and flints and red pantiles on the roof, so as to fit in with the old farm buildings close-by. However the inside of the house is modern and it has oil-fired central heating and also a wood-burning stove. On the south-east and north-east sides there are big windows giving wonderful views over the fields. Upstairs there are two double bedrooms, one twin bedroom and a bathroom. Downstairs there is a big open-plan sitting-dining area with the wood-burning stove. This is partially open to a modern all-electric kitchen. On the ground floor there is also a cloakroom with a walk-in shower, toilet and wash-basin.
Link to table of Availability and cost 2008 Availability and cost 2009

Photos:

View of the north-west side from the lane
The flints, red brick and pantiles echo traditional Norfolk houses. View of the south-east side from the big field.
The house nestles in the trees and fits in with the old farm buildings beyond but the all-glass east gable says 'contemporary'.

The cottage is just outside the little village of Felbrigg, about 2 miles inland from Cromer. It overlooks open fields and we use it ourselves as a holiday cottage. The land was once part of the estate of Felbrigg Hall, which is now a National Trust property with a fine 17th century mansion, large peaceful grounds, gardens, a lake and acres and acres of woods where you can walk at any time from dawn to dusk the whole year round. Felbrigg Hall is about a mile from Hobby Cottage and you can walk across the fields to the Hall on public footpaths or drive/cycle by road. There is a nice restaurant at the Hall (summer season), ideal for coffee, tea or lunch after a good walk through the beech woods. Felbrigg Hall

The cottage is down a lane called 'The Driftway' which is a dead end for cars so there is no through traffic. There are a few cars going down the lane to neighbouring houses and sometimes hikers and horse-riders pass by, but it is quiet and peaceful. It is possible to walk along the lane and across the fields to Cromer but you definitely need a car or bicycles for convenience. The cottage overlooks open fields which grow arable crops. Farm machinery works in the fields at times such as ploughing, harrowing or harvesting but there are no farm animals (nor their smells) close to the cottage. There is a patio and a small garden around the cottage where you can sit and enjoy the peace of the Norfolk countryside, and of course, the occasional country noises. There are no street-lights and the stars are brilliant on a clear night.

Cromer is a small seaside town on the north Norfolk coast. It offers a variety of beaches which are a mixture of sand and pebbles, depending where you are, an old-fashioned pier with a theatre at the end, a cinema, plenty of activities for children and all the facilities of a seaside town. Seafood, especially crab, is a speciality of Cromer and small fishing boats still go out crab fishing daily. There are some good restaurants in the area and there are a number of historic houses, National Trust properties and estates within easy reach: Felbrigg Hall Blickling Hall Sherringham Park Houghton Hall Royal Sandringham Estate Holkham Hall .

Hobby Cottage is close to wonderful coastal areas for seeing birds and wild life: Birds and birdwatching
Blakeney Point is especially interesting and it is a National Trust nature reserve and on the migration paths of many birds. You can walk out over the mud flats (low tide only!) and see the wild seals or you can take a boat from Blakeney to see them close to. Norwich and the Norfolk Broads are within easy reach. Norfolk is very rich in picturesque villages and small towns and is wonderfully unspoiled.

The Interior of Hobby Cottage
The rest of this page shows photos of the interior of the new house. It is fully furnished and equipped. There are three good-sized bedrooms, two with double beds and one with two single beds. There is a cot if required. As it is so new we are still adding pictures and other small items and you will understand that the garden was destroyed by the building process and we have had to start creating a new garden from scratch - it will take a year or two!

On opening the front door you enter a small lobby which has double glass doors into the rest of the house.

The ground floor is open-plan with a large sitting-dining area which links to the kitchen. The end-wall of the sitting-dining area is all-glass and it also has large double doors that open out to the patio and the side-wall has french windows too. So the garden feels very close.

The garden end of the sitting area. The central panels of the end and the side windows open out to the patio. Dining area with wood-burning stove. The double doors to the entrance lobby are on the left of this photo.

The ground floor is tiled throughout with ceramic tiles of a warm terracotta colour. The underfloor heating gives a very warm feeling, even in winter. It is a house for people who like to walk around in bare feet.

Another view of the sitting area, late afternoon with the lights on. Lunch on the patio. We have done some work on re-creating the garden since this photo was taken!

The kitchen is all-electric. The fridge-freezer & microwave oven are out of view, on the left. The dishwasher is at the bottom right. Photo taken at night so the windows are dark. The spiral stair.
Note the kitchen beyond.

Also on the ground floor there is a shower room which has a walk-in shower ('wet room'), a toilet and a wash-basin. This room also serves as a utility room and the central heating boiler and the washing machine are there.

Upstairs there are three bedrooms and a bathroom. The rooms have sloping ceilings but the ceiling goes right up to the apex and the structural wooden ridge beam is visible so it feels very spacious.

Main bedroom Main bedroom. The field had barley stubble when the photo was taken in late summer 2006

The end wall is all glass and the bedroom has double doors that open inwards with a balcony rail outside. This photo was taken before the balcony rail was installed and before curtains were fitted. This room has a wonderful feeling of open-ness if the weather is good and even if it is not (this is Britain after all!). You have a view over the very large arable field and across to other fields beyond. This window faces south-east so it gets the morning sun. You will see birds and perhaps other creatures in the garden. There is no street-lighting so at night the stars are amazing if the sky is clear.

The front bedroom has twin beds and looks over the Lane. The north-east bedroom. It has a big triangular window and looks over the big field and down the bridleway to the woods beyond.

The upstairs bathroom has a large bath with a shower-end, a wash-basin and a toilet. It has a roof-light which can be opened. View from the garden at night. Su-Nak, our dog, is looking out (middle, bottom)

Outside there is garden all round the house. There is a good-sized patio with patio furniture, a brick barbecue, a small lawn, a newly-planted bed of perennials and we have a small garden shed which could hold one or two bicycles. There is parking for 2 cars.

The kitchen is all-electric: cooker, dishwasher, large fridge-freezer, microwave, all cooking tools, cutlery and crockery.
There is a washing machine in the utility room and a TV and DVD-player in the sitting area. There is wood for the wood-burning stove.

contacts: E Raggatt, The Ferns, Berkley St, Eynesbury, St Neots PE19 2NE
raggatt2@onetel.net 01480 213884
Availability and cost

Just in case you are interested in music as well as holidays in Norfolk, may we recommend the photos and music on sites created by young Raggatts.

Fiona Raggatt, our second daughter, has a website together with her music partner Miranda Swift Sabai on 'Myspace' and they
are also at Sabai's webpages These sites have clips of the music they perform, pictures and other information about their
duo 'Sabai' . They have been performing mostly in Chiang Mai and in Koh Samui in Thailand and in Edinburgh but they have
also performed all over Europe and in Canada.

Heather McVey is an 'honorary daughter' of ours and a promising singer/songwriter Heather McVey

Tim Raggatt has agreed to me listing his site. Click on the opening picture. Tim Raggatt's website

Josh and Luke Raggatt's band ~Nato
Josh and Luke are very excited about their band and welcome listeners and contacts. They are busy making a record and a video.


View of the north-west side from the lane The flints, red brick and pantiles echo traditional Norfolk houses.	View of the south-east side from the big field. The house nestles in the trees and fits in with the old farm buildings beyond but the all-glass east gable says 'contemporary'.


The garden end of the sitting area. The central panels of the end and the side windows open out to the patio.	Dining area with wood-burning stove. The double doors to the entrance lobby are on the left of this photo.


Another view of the sitting area, late afternoon with the lights on.	Lunch on the patio. We have done some work on re-creating the garden since this photo was taken!


The kitchen is all-electric. The fridge-freezer & microwave oven are out of view, on the left. The dishwasher is at the bottom right. Photo taken at night so the windows are dark.	The spiral stair. Note the kitchen beyond.


Main bedroom	Main bedroom. The field had barley stubble when the photo was taken in late summer 2006


The front bedroom has twin beds and looks over the Lane.	The north-east bedroom. It has a big triangular window and looks over the big field and down the bridleway to the woods beyond.


The upstairs bathroom has a large bath with a shower-end, a wash-basin and a toilet. It has a roof-light which can be opened.	View from the garden at night. Su-Nak, our dog, is looking out (middle, bottom)