Rushay is a big Arts and Crafts house, filled with natural light, enhanced by its beautiful decoration and surrounded by greenery, perfect for large parties looking to explore the Jurassic Coast and the historic sights of Dorset. It has huge gardens and a hard tennis court, just 20 minutes' walk from the beach. The main house was architect-designed for the estate in 1906, and there is a converted stable cottage across the yard. There's so much for guests to do, inside, outside, and in the local area, from mini-football in the games room to swimming, fossil-hunting or just lazing on the lawn.
This is a traditional English country house, but with a contemporary feel. Kate and Jason have lived in the country for thirty years, and her houses have appeared in World of Interiors, The Bible of British Taste and Ben Pentreath's book English Decoration. Jason writes mostly about Ottoman Istanbul, and has a column on Country Life magazine.
Under huge swooping tiled roofs the principal rooms face south and west, bay windows overlooking the garden to the unspoilt countryside beyond.
Arriving at the front door, you can drop your wellies, beach bags, snorkels and coats in the sizeable boot room, and enter a study/play room. Beyond is a big sober hall, and off it are the drawing room with a log fire, and the dining room. The dining room opens into the kitchen, which has with plenty of prep space on the island and the counter-tops (made of mahogany), all kept cosy by the traditional two-oven Aga stove. There's an induction hob and electric oven, too (ask us about hiring a private chef). A door opens into the laundry and another into the pantry, with an American fridge freezer.
At the top of the oak stairs, five bedrooms along the first floor corridor have white painted floors and clean white walls that redouble the sense of air and space. At the top of the back stairs, a broad and winding flight of stairs takes you to the attic dorm.
Across the yard, the charming self-contained cottage annexe has three double bedrooms, kitchen and sitting room. One of the double bedrooms is en suite and on the ground floor, for easy access. The other two doubles are upstairs, and share a bathroom. It's a snug retreat for perfect multi-generation holidays, and has been made over in 2023 to match the style and setting of the main house.
The surrounding garden is mainly lawn and trees - we have beech, oak and ash, cherry, walnut and hazel, as well as an apple orchard, paddocks and a stone terrace to the west, for those long Dorset evenings. There you can enjoy cooking on a professional-grade Argentinian 'asado' BBQ.
A full-sized hard tennis court behind the cottage is for your exclusive use.
There's a lovely walk down to the sea, straight from the garden in twenty minutes. Charmouth has two beaches, one perfect for families and the other the jewel in the Jurassic coast's fossil crown - not to mention two great pubs and a proper fish'n'chip shop.
Lyme Regis - with the Cobb, and dinosaur museums - is two miles away and Bridport, with its lively shops and market, ten minutes in the other direction. Axminster is a sleepy town ten minutes over the Devon border, with a mainline railway station.
Aside from chefs like Mark Hix in Lyme and Cass Titcombe in Beaminster, West Dorset's sophisticated food scene is sustained by wonderful places to buy local produce, meat and seafood. In the village, a tiny hut with an honesty box is kept supplied with seasonal organic vegetables (and a healing herbal salve to be recommended). Just up the road Felicity's Farm Shop sells wonderful local rare breed pork, raised by her brother, as well as really good meat, cheese, and everything else - vegetables, bread, tea, milk, beer, dried beans...
You can leave it all behind in a moment by walking up into the surrounding hills, crowned by Iron Age earthworks, part of a chain of hill forts across the Marshwood Vale, itself still dominated by small fields and ancient woodland. You get uplifting views to the sea, and into two counties. Fishing is available locally. There's much to explore, and whether it's walking or swimming, cooking or exploring, or just relaxing with family and friends, Rushay makes the perfect base.