Watermeadow House, Beaminster

You are assured of a warm welcome at Watermeadow house. We want you to relax and share our home with us. We live on the edge of a small village called Hooke. You will awake to bird song and can watch the ducks and moorhens on the river from the bedroom windows. If you are patient you may see a kingfisher or a heron fishing on the river.

We offer a high standard of accommodation in a friendly atmosphere. Two well furnished bedrooms, complete with hair driers, tea and coffee making facilities, small refrigerator and colour television. Breakfast is served downstairs in a fully glazed sunroom which attracts the morning sun. Surrounding the house is a large lawned garden where guests are free to sit and enjoy the peace and tranquility of the surrounding countryside.

The village of Hooke is tucked away in an area of outstanding natural beauty and at its heart stands the tiny 15th. century church of St Giles, it has been extended and added to many times in the past five hundred years and the single bronze bell in its tower is reputed to be the second oldest bell in Dorset. In the past, Hooke was much larger than it is now, boasting two mills, and several small industrial works engaged in spinning twine and yarns.

As with most small villages, with the collapse of the wool trade in the 1880s, the population quickly declined, and never regained its former size. There are numerous pleasant walks of varying length and difficulties in the immediate vicinity, in either woods, country lanes or along the ridges of the surrounding hills. To the south of Hooke lies the iron aged hill fort of Eggardon impressive even after two thousand years.