The King Room at Well Cottage, a king bed beneath a sloped ceiling of blackened oak beams, with a framed county map on the lime-washed wall and the shuttered window beyond

The King Room

A double bedroom under the eaves, where a king bed sits beneath three-hundred-year-old beams and pine shutters fold back from the morning light.

The King Room at Well Cottage, the king bed made up in white and ochre linen beneath a leaning oak beam, with a framed county map above and the plank door open to the landing
Bedroom One

Sleep beneath the old oak beams

Climb the winding stair and the King Room is waiting at the top, tucked under the slope of the thatch. The first thing you notice is the ceiling: a tangle of blackened oak beams, gloriously wonky, following the line of the roof exactly as the carpenter left them in the 1700s.

The walls are soft lime-wash, white and breathable, and the king bed is dressed in crisp white cotton with a waffle throw and a scatter of ochre and olive cushions.

A close detail of the ochre waffle blanket folded across the foot of the bed beside a dark linen cushion
Texture

An ochre waffle blanket folded across the foot of the bed, catching the low light against white cotton.

A charcoal-olive linen cushion propped against an ochre cushion on the waffle bedspread, the bedside lamp soft beyond
Layers

Olive linen against ochre, the colours of the field and the harvest brought indoors.

The ochre waffle throw draped over crisp white linen at the foot of the king bed, a turned-wood stool with a lamp just beyond
Bedside

A little turned-wood stool stands in for a bedside table, just big enough for a lamp and the book you meant to finish.

The king bed seen from the foot in warm lamplight, towels rolled at the end, olive and ochre cushions against the headboard and the numbered plank door to one side
By lamplight

When the light goes, the room turns golden

A lamp on the stool, the beams warming overhead, deep quiet outside save for an owl or the wind in the eaves, and luxury linen and a proper king mattress to sink into.

Towels are rolled and ready at the foot of the bed, and the whole room settles into the kind of hush you only find this far down a lane.

The enamel number twelve plate fixed to the room's panelled pine door
Number twelve

An old enamel number on the plank door, worn smooth by three centuries of hands.

A turned-wood lidded pot on the tiled windowsill beside an iron casement catch, daylight and garden beyond
The sill

A turned-wood pot on terracotta tiles, the iron catch holding the casement to the morning.

Pine shutters folded back from a deep three-light cottage window in the King Room, looking out over the thatched stone cottages of Ledwell
By day

Throw open the pine shutters

By day the room belongs to the window. Throw back the pine shutters and you look straight out over the honey-stone and thatch of Ledwell: chimney pots, a tiled roof or two, the green edge of the garden wall.

It is the kind of view that makes you slow right down. Less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse, but a world away once the shutters are closed.

The deep recessed window of the King Room with its pine shutters open under a great oak beam, looking out to thatch and brick across the lane
Thick walls

Walls deep enough to sit in, the great oak lintel low overhead and the thatch of the neighbours filling the panes.

The full sloped ceiling of the King Room, blackened oak beams following the line of the thatch above the bed and the framed county map
On the wall

An antique map of the county hangs by the bed, so you can trace where you'll wander before breakfast.

In this room

Under the beams

Stay a while

Wake up under the beams

The King Room is one of four bedrooms at Well Cottage, sleeping seven in all, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse. Check dates and book on Airbnb.

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