North Meadow Cottage, Mendham Mill - a luxurious, accessible holiday cottage

North Meadow Cottage exterior

North Meadow Cottage is located on the site of the historic watermill in Mendham, situated right on the Norfolk / Suffolk border. Having spotted the cottage a couple of years ago on the Accessible Holiday Escapes website, Mr S had been keeping an eye on availability and was keen to book to visit. What stood out to us both when looking at Mendham Mill's website, was that it looked as though accessibility had really been thought through. We were reassured of this by being able to ‘walk through’ the cottage using the wonderful virtual tour feature. Alongside this, the website offered detailed information of door widths and other accessible features which reassured us further. Accessibility information is fundamental in our decision making when it comes to booking something for our family. We have to be confident that Miss S will be able to access everything and that we can all have a comfortable and enjoyable stay without the stresses of things not quite working as expected. There is also a difference between being wheelchair accessible and powerchair accessible as a powerchair cannot go over any more than a drop kerb height, so can be a little more restrictive. Often, accommodation options that are fully wheelchair accessible can look and feel quite clinical and sometimes quite basic. When we go on holiday we want to have AT LEAST the standard we have at home but preferably, we want something even better and more luxurious than home, it is meant to be a holiday and a break from the norm after all! North Meadow Cottage certainly delivered this, being both accessible AND luxurious! 

 

Having booked a year in advance (accessible options always need to be booked early!) it was time for us to make our way to East Anglia. Booking a holiday to stay during a British summer comes with the risk of dodgy weather! We felt booking two weeks would give us the best chance of at least SOME good weather. Well, we appear to be been pretty jammy, as we had LOTS of glorious weather! So much so we pretty much ate all our meals outside every day, almost unheard of for the UK. It was only towards the end of our stay the weather reverted back to a more typical British summer, with some cloudy days. All the glorious weather allowed us to really enjoy the stunning surroundings, enjoying the garden and the River Waveney just at the end of the cottage's garden! 

 

The cottage…

Kitchen/living/dining area

Making your way through the front door of the cottage, you find yourself in a spacious

porch area, perfect for storing outdoor wear and any extra equipment often needed when travelling with a family member with extra needs. There is a very handy utility room off to the left with a washing machine, ironing board, storage for outdoor cushions etc. This certainly got a fair amount of use from us! Entering the cottage from here, you come in to the beautiful kitchen, dining and living area. There was plenty of space for us all and for Miss S to get around in her chair. The dining table was just the right height for Miss S to fit under in her powerchair also. The kitchen was well equipped with just about everything you could think of and would want!  

 

Sleeping…

The cottage sleeps up to six so there was plenty of room for the four of us. Master S and Miss S, loved having their own rooms and a double bed each! The kids had their own bathroom at their end of the cottage. All three bedrooms are wheelchair accessible (door widths are listed on Mendham Mill’s website) but the master bedroom is particularly set up for wheelchair users with double doors to access the bedroom, plenty of space around the bed, a dressing area and huge wet room, which again is so well done. It felt luxurious rather than clinical, like so many wet rooms can end up looking!

Outside...

The garden

At the front of the cottage is plenty of parking and a beautiful little seating area. We didn't
end up using the seating out the front as we just loved being in the garden area at the back with it's large table (again, accessible to Miss S in her powerchair), sunloungers and stunning view of the pond and the River Waveney just beyond. We spent the majority of our time outside in the garden!   

 

Other features…

The games room onsite was a huge feature of our holiday! I think we visited at least once every day. Initially, we wondered if we would get Miss S in, in her powerchair as there is a lip to get up, but thankfully we managed it! We loved playing pool, table tennis, darts and board games in there. There is a gym onsite also but we didn't try it out on our visit. 

The games room

Mr S took his own paddleboard with us and both himself and Master S enjoyed going out on it on the river. Mendham Mill has kayaks to borrow also and we saw plenty of other visitors taking a dip in the river for a (chilly!) wild swim. The area is good for fishing also.

Paddleboarding on the river

 

Out and about… 

Mendham itself, is a tiny village located just a few miles away from Harleston, Norfolk. Alongside lazy days in the garden and by the river, we ventured out and about in Suffolk / Norfolk during our stay. One place we planned to visit but didn’t in the end, was Sutton Hoo. We realised that actually it did not look particularly wheelchair friendly and would have been quite a drive and some expense for entry if it wasn’t particularly suitable for the kids. Other than that, we did visit everywhere else we planned and others we hadn’t! 

 

Harleston – the closest town to Mendham Mill.  Harleston is a sweet little town with a lovely feel. We went out to eat here a few times and there was always quite a lot of people around, nice little shops and cafes also. There is a Coop which was useful to top up with bits alongside the two Sainsbury’s shops we had delivered! 

 

Southwold – this was one of our first trips out. Southwold is around a 40 mins drive away. Although it was busy, we managed to find a disabled bay to park in for free, lunch in a lovely little café that was accessible (not all were) and we had a look around some shops, followed by a walk round to the beach.  

 

Broads boat trip

Norfolk Broads wheelchair accessible boat trip, Wroxham – this was a huge highlight of our holiday! We had booked this a couple of weeks in advance with Broad Tours and I would recommend doing so, as I don’t think there are lots of options for wheelchair accessible boats. Everything worked so well and it was so lovely being out on the Broads all together. We set off for a few hours in the morning, so we then went on to have lunch and a look round the shops in Norwich. 

 

Great Yarmouth – for your fill of tacky seaside fun with arcades galore and fish and chips and ice cream, all of which we enjoyed! We got a little stung for parking though, we ended up paying £12 at the Marina Centre for 3 hours!!  

 

100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum- this houses the original control tower and other remaining buildings of RAF Thorpe Abbots. This was free to visit and accessible (apart from the upstairs of the control tower). We ended up visiting for a few hours and there were lots of lovely, friendly volunteers on hand to tell us all about everything we could see. The kids completed a treasure hunt type quiz as well, which they enjoyed and helped keep them interested. 

 

Banham Zoo:

We enjoyed our visit which turned out to be for a few hours rather than a full day as expected. We found the zoo to be a little tired in places, there were some empty enclosures, including the penguin enclosure which was disappointing as Miss S was desperate to see them! It sounds like the penguins were receiving some treatment which was fair enough, but we overheard another family mention this, there were no signs up to let us know why otherwise. The road train at the zoo was not accessible to wheelchair users. Our local zoo has a wheelchair carriage on their road train so this seems like something that could be added to make it more inclusive to everyone. We did however find that there were nice, smooth paths almost all the way around the zoo. There were wheelchair accessible picnic benches and a Changing Places facility which was great! We also managed to get an amazing view of the tigers up very close, which was incredible! All in all, we were glad we had visited. 

 

Eating out and about…

J D Young Hotel / pub in Harleston-  we ate in here on one of our first nights and the food was delicious and the portions rather large!! We enjoyed it that much that we visited again on our second to last night. When we stayed they also offered a 30% discount on Mon-Wed bookings through August. This was a nice surprise when we received our bill on our first visit! 

J D Young

 

Momiji Japanese restaurant in Harleston- we had never eaten in an authentic Japanese restaurant. We all enjoyed our visit and it was nice to try something new. The restaurant was just about wheelchair accessible, it was a little tight but we did manage it.  

 

Harleston tea rooms, Harleston – we went out for lunch on our last day. The tea rooms were lovely, the ladies in the tea room were really friendly and we all enjoyed our food. 

 

Conclusion…

We absolutely loved our stay at North Meadow Cottage and would have happily moved in for good! It is in such a stunning location and the accommodation is beautiful, so we would absolutely recommend a visit. The kids won't want me to shout about it too much however, as they would like us to be able to book again some time!  

Pond at the bottom of the garden