Foraging for food is big news and with 800 acres at your disposal we are sure there is plenty of scope for the serious foragers amongst you at Brinsop Court. However, if like us you know the obvious but no more than that, you might be interested to know that we can arrange for you to be guided on a foraging trek, or should that be expedition, when you come to stay at Brinsop.

In the lower canopy of woodland, under scrub & hedgerows you might find hawthorn berries and flowers which can both be used for conserves as can blackberries. If you are into making alcoholic beverages then you will need the blackthorn fruit, known as sloes for gin and elderflower berries for wine along with rowan aka mountain ash berries also for wine. The rowan berries are rich in vitamin C along with the rosehips from dog roses. There are crab apples and St john’s wort there too. Oh, I nearly forgot to add you can gather nuts from the hazel trees.

Heading to the woodland beds, hedgerow verges & wildlife headlands look out for wild garlic, wood sage, edible fungi, nettles, dock, fireweed and dandelion. The nettles, dock and fireweed all make great greens, but you will need to boil the dock twice I am reliably told.

But, and this is a big but, please NEVER eat any plant, flower or berry unless you are confident of the identification of the species and that it is known to be edible.  If in doubt leave it alone.

Reading up on wild garlic, I found this description from http://www.theecologist.org

Wild garlic is a good all-rounder. Widespread and abundant across much of the UK, it’s easily harvested throughout the year and is versatile and delicious. It tastes much like regular garlic but has a milder flavour than cultivated cloves. Use the leaves to spice up a winter salad or stir-fry, or use it to add flavour to soups and stews. The flowers appear in spring and can be used in much the same way, adding a flash of colour at the same time. Bulbs can be harvested year-round, but this is best done when the plant is dormant between July and December. Wild garlic is easily identifiable, forming lush green carpets in woodlands close to bluebells, and emitting a distinctive garlicky smell. Like its cultivated cousin, wild garlic has numerous health benefits, including helping to reduce high blood pressure and cholesterol levels. It’s also good for gardens thanks to its ability to ward off pests and diseases, and the juice can even be used a household disinfectant.

Seems then that it doesn’t matter what time of year you come, you can track some down!

And from the same website here’s the low down on elder.  There are more uses for elder flowers than for any other type of blossom.

The aromatic blooms can be eaten raw, cooked, dried or powdered, and added to cordials, wine, salads, fritters, ice-cream, cakes, biscuits, jellies, jams, sweets, tea and meat dishes, as well as to beauty products such as skin lotion and eye cream. Grazing on the crisp, juicy flowers straight from the tree is a wonderful way to spend a sunny afternoon, and what you can’t finish in situ can be taken home to make elderflower ‘champagne’.  Elder bushes are usually covered in sweet-smelling flowers by the end of June, followed by berries between August and October. Elderberries can be put to many of the same uses as the flowers but the leaves and stems are poisonous. Elder is widespread and abundant in hedgerows, woods and roadsides.

So, if you are interested in foraging for food, please let us know you’d like some help when you book to stay with us.

After the horse meat scandal it has become even more important for us to understand where our food comes from and to try and buy British and stay local. With that in mind, a quick posting about a shop very local to Brinsop Court seems appropriate.

Tillington Village Stores aka Heather’s is just down the road. Heather is the daughter of a farmer and stocks her shop with as many local food products and produce as she can. Her beef, lamb and pork comes from Herefordshire Meats and her free range chickens from Madgett’s Farm near Chepstow.

Simple Suppers based just over the county border in Gloucestershire, supply her with ready meals that have been made on their farm in Moreton in Marsh.  She also takes their sausages because she absolutely knows they don’t put any rubbish in them.

In season, much of her fruit and veg comes from Court Farm, which is within walking distance of the shop.  Heather also stocks local apple juice made by Jus from Ledbury and there is Westons Cider on the shelves along with other alcoholic beverages from the Wye Valley Brewery near Bromyard.

Sticking with the local theme, Country Flavours based in Preston on Wye supply Heather with jam and eggs, the honey comes from an Eardisley man, the milk from Bartonsham Dairy and the cakes are Alison’s from Dorstone  whose business is called For Heaven’s Cakes!

Heather’s shop is open seven days a week and if you need her too, she can even deliver. Do go and say hi and let her know you are staying at Brinsop Court Estate.

Tillington Village Stores ~ Tillington Business Park, Whitmore Cross, Tillington, Hereford, HR4 8LE.

T: 01432 769420

A feast of films awaits if you head to Herefordshire during the Borderlines Film Festival.  On hearing the words “Film Festival”, I immediately think of Cannes and know that it is beyond my practical reach… but excitingly we have our very own film festival right here on Brinsop’s doorstep.

The festival takes place from Friday 1^st March through to Sunday 17^th March and at the time of writing we do still have some midweek availability in our holiday houses.

This year’s festival is the 11^th and there are special events being held at 39 venues spread throughout Herefordshire and Shropshire!  The nearest venue to Brinsop Court Estate is Burghill’s village hall, namely The Simpson Hall.

There are two films being shown here during the period.  The first on Friday, 1^st March is Anna Karenina (12A). Jenny McCartney from the Sunday Telegraph commented that this film is “…. full of dash and glitter…. Wright’s film is a joy on many levels.”  It sounds absolutely fabulous and we will most likely head to the Simpson Hall to watch it. The cast includes Keira Knightley and Jude Law and the film starts at 7.30pm and sometimes at the Simpson Hall they have ice-creams in the interval!

The second film showing at The Simpson Hall is called Moonrise Kingdom (12A). After reading the reviews I want to see this one too. With a cast including Bruce Willis and Bill Murray and the film directed by Wes Anderson I know I am in for a treat. Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian wrote “eccentric but heartfelt – a soufflé of strangeness that rises superbly” and Time Out’s Dave Calhoun commented “…. a very easy film to love”. Can’t wait!

Of course lots of the other venues are in very easy reach of Brinsop and the film schedule is an exciting one including five major titles showing at Borderlines as special previews before they go on general release.

And, if you don’t want to head out on a cold March night, you can always snuggle up in front of the fire and watch the films available in the sitting rooms at Dansey, Tirrells, Bailey and Ivy Cottage. Oh and if it is Bailey House you are staying in there is a cinema screen in the games room – just bring your own popcorn!

To keep up with the news of the Borderlines Film Festival, head over to the film festival’s blog and to book films through the box office or to go onto the mailing list for the catalogue then check out the Borderlines website.

If you’ve never been to Herefordshire before you are missing a treat.  Exploring the market towns and villages may remind you of days long gone as so much has changed in our big metropolitans but so little has changed here!

If you are several families wanting to holiday together, it can be difficult to find the right sort of accommodation.

There is a lack of large hotels in the county and a hotel may not be ideal for several families wanting to holiday together.  If you are looking to self cater or stay in a bed and breakfast there are a wealth of small cottages and tiny bed and breakfast places.  Again, great if you are a couple but not so good if you are a large family group or a bunch of friends looking to share accommodation so the kids can all amuse each other!

Camping could be a solution, but in today’s world of climate change and unpredictable weather that isn’t really option and in my book never an option in February!

The best solution is to find a large country house with flexible accommodation.

On the check list could be a requirement for more than one kitchen, so each family can sort out their own breakfasts without having to face the others at the crack of dawn!  But you may want to have dinners together, so you need a place with a large dining room too.

If you are a group of several families, it can be fraught if everyone is forced to be together all the time, better to have several sitting rooms so that films can be watched in one and games played in the other – even better if there is a purposely furnished games room!  Whatever the weather, there needs to be a wealth of stuff to do on site and close by.

Add luxury to your tick list and Brinsop Court fits the bill!

Of course the other requirement might be to stay on a farm as Herefordshire is a very rural county and most of it is covered in farmland. Brinsop scores a point there too because the estate is farmed and although it is mostly arable, we do have two adorable ponies to pet and walk as well as pigs and sheep.

Brinsop sleeps up to 28 people in very flexible accommodation, just give us a call to talk through what you are looking for…..  and if we can’t help, we might know a man who can!

There are a few references on the internet to the Danseys of Brinsop and so for the records, we’ve pulled some of them together here.  Incidentally, there are lots of different spellings of the surname!

The first has a “jumble” of information collected primarily I think by a Mr Albert G Dancy, also known as John together with two more Dancys; Bruce and Roy!

The article mentions several Dansey names and describes Brinsop Court as “Their Mansion in Herefordshire, Brinsop Court was moated round and approached by a drawbridge. Within the quadrangle was a Chapel with a crypt under it, an Armoury , a dungeon and a Blacksmith’s Smithy. The Chapel with the staircase leading to it. Occupied one side of the square. It had a groined roof and the walls painted in the style of Roman Catholic Churches. The rooms occupied by the family had a profusion of oak carvings, a drawing room upstairs was wainscoted with oak and in each panel which was very small, the arms were painted in blue and gold – All this disappeared when the Tithe being incomplete to the purchaser of the Estate, neither party claimed and the house was plundered of all that was valuable. The Towers that flanked the drawbridge, with one in the inner court, through in a perfect state of preservation, were by the bad taste of Mr. Ricardo, the purchaser, taken down to assist in building a wall around the stables.”

Secondly there is a copy of Richard Dansey’s will which is held at the Herefordshire record office. After all the bequeaths, it mentions that “He wishes to be buried in the parish church of Little Hereford, where Roger Dansey was buried, but if it cannot be done by some other clergyman than the Rev. Chas. Price the present curate of this parish, he wishes his body to be buried at Brinsop in a plain and decent manner.”  Love the request of plain and decent.

Not the same Dansey, but great to see how well preserved this is. It   can be found inside Brinsop Church.

Also at the Herefordshire record office are a set of letters in the Dansey’s time including one about the possible sale of Brinsop when it was valued at £45,000 in 1815. How prices have risen since then!

But it isn’t all old and archived information as we also found a message, posted just this month about a family bible but of course we don’t know this is the same branch of the Dansey family!

The message reads “I found a Dancy family bible from the 50s at a thrift store. The family genealogy section is filled out-but sparsely. It belongs to the Calvin Wayne and Priscilla Joan Dancy who at one time lived in VA. Please contact me for details. I will send it to its rightful owners.”

The Dansey’s owned Brinsop Court Estate for the best part of 500 years and the wing of Brinsop Court that we’ve named Dansey House is round to the left as you approach and after crossing the footbridge over the moat and entering the house you find a spacious, warm, flag-stoned hallway. Immediately the atmosphere hits the senses and you can touch the history, see the luxury and feel the warmth. Booking is easy and can be done online.  Oh and if your name is Dansey, do let us know!

On snowy days there is nothing nicer than to create a party atmosphere with food, drink and games! Families often have their favourites and can introduce them to groups of friends. So, with that in mind, here are some of ours:

1. Charades

Charades of course is a perennial favourite and easy to get set up. Either take it in turns to think up the title of a book, film, play or TV show or have everyone write down half a dozen or so on slips of paper to be placed into a box or bowl. Those with a technical bent and smart phones can generate their words using the Charades Generator!   A full set of rules can be found here.

2. Who’s in the Bag

A firm favourite in our family is Who’s in the Bag, also known as Verbal Charades. This time the slips of paper need to have names of famous people written on them and by famous I mean, not just today’s celebrities, but historical figures, literary notables as well as friends of friends and family.  One person picks a name out of the ‘bag’ and then describes to the rest of their team. If you buy the game, then you get a timer and a set of rules, but you can play it just as easily without.  You can vary it to by adding What’s in the Bag, Where’s in the Bag and When’s in the Bag.

Both these games need to be played in teams. Sort out teams by putting everyone into birthday order and dividing them up equally or by counting the items of clothing each is wearing and those with the most go in one team and the least in another!

3.  Silly Sue

I don’t know if Silly Sue is a ‘real’ game, but it is one that we played with a group of friends this winter, which caused much hilarity as one of the members just couldn’t get it right … might have been the amount of red wine she’d consumed earlier. In this game, everyone had to write down a fact about themselves and hand it to the adjudicator.  The adjudicator then read out all the facts and each person wrote down who they thought each fact was attributed to and scored a point for each one they got right.  We played endless rounds of Silly Sue changing the adjudicator each round and learnt the most incredible things about people that we thought we knew well. Great for friends, but could be embarrassing with families as you may not want your parents or children to know some of your secrets!

Of course there are hundreds if not thousands of games you can play on a snowy or raining day, and at Brinsop  we have a lovely selection of board games available for guests to enjoy which make a change from films or the TV.

We have Agas in our kitchens at Brinsop Court Estate. The heat that emanates from them warms the whole kitchen and gives it a cosy nostalgic feeling.  If you have never lived or holidayed in a place with an Aga you may find it hard to believe that an ‘old fashioned’ cooker is so much more than a piece of kitchen equipment to aid cooking!

Make the Aga your friend and you’ll miss it when you have to leave!

So, what can the Aga do apart from actually cook (and lets face it a microwave can do that!).

Keep the kitchen warm which is a given really and we all know they do that.

Quickly dry the coats and wellies after a drizzly or snowy day walking the estate.

Pop a bar of chocolate into a jug and sit it on the back of the Aga to melt and so make a no fuss sauce to pour over your ice cream or other yummy puddings. Can’t be called cooking surely.

Keep cooked food warm for ages. One fab trick is to cook a full English including the egg and put a portion on a cold plate and into the bottom oven where it can sit without spoiling ready for that last teenager to make  it down to breakfast!

If you only shop once for bread whilst on holiday, then when the loaf gets a bit stale you can revive it successfully by cutting the fly walk off first, then holding the loaf cut side down for a minute or two under a running cold tap and pop into the roasting oven for 3 or 4 minutes for warm crusty bread!

Did you know that if you put a “too tight to unscrew” topped jar upside down on the simmering plate for 30 seconds, the metal lid expands and can be easily unscrewed with a cloth…… could almost be a party trick.

Head out into the grounds of the estate, pick some chestnuts and roast them. Now how many times do you get to do that at home? Incidentally, you will need to cut an X on the curved side, put them onto a tin, sprinkle with a few teaspoons of water and roast on the grid shelf on the floor of the oven for up to 40 minutes. Peel them whilst they are still warm.

In the depths of winter warm hats and scarves on the top of the Aga before heading out sledging or snowman making!  Perfect for today’s snow!

Don’t be a slave to it, but just assemble a stew or casserole at breakfast time, pop it into the top oven for 20 minutes, move it to the bottom oven and leave it there until you come in after a hard day’s sightseeing and it will be ready whenever you are! That can’t really be called cooking can it?

And finally, do the ironing although hopefully you won’t have much if any when you are on holiday.  Fold your article of clothing carefully and place it on the top of the simmering plate cover and hey presto after an hour or so it will be beautifully ‘pressed’.

Friends warm your soul and keep you company on dark days – so does the Aga!  Friends are there for you when you are wet, cold and hungry – so is the Aga!   If you don’t believe me, book a holiday at Brinsop Court Estate and try these 10 things out!

Depending on whether you own or run a hotel or a self catering unit will depend on whether you argue for or against self catering!  So you can guess which I am going for!

The most popular reason people choose a self catering holiday is for the flexibility that can be achieved to eat, sleep and play to your own rules and on your own timetable.

EAT

The biggest perceived downside to self catering is the catering side, but you don’t have to be a martyr to the AGA and instead can do things differently to how you do it at home when you aren’t on holiday.  Eating out every day might not be your idea of a good time, but there are enough restaurants and pubs locally to sample. Read about some of them in our blog entry last year, ‘Places to eat within 3 miles of Brinsop’.

With a little bit of planning you have an option to arrange for catering to be brought to you by phoning through an order to the local Chinese or Indian or more excitingly by contacting a local dinner party service provider or caterer who will cook to your requirements, deliver it either hot or cold and even serve it and wash it up if that’s your fancy!  For a list of recommendations, get in touch with Ann via our contact page.

If wild food is your thing, then the 800 acres of estate will yield up all sorts of goodies to forage, and if you need some help with it, then Jonathan can show you what’s what and where’s where!  Look out for a blog entry on foraging when it gets a bit warmer! Imagine, heading out in the early morning to pick some mushrooms and wild garlic and thyme for your breakfast. In the meantime, check out our favourite forager’s site.

Picnics are the stuff of romance and memories of happy childhoods. Head over to Heather’s shop in Tillington to pick up all sorts of goodies for one of those memorable picnics which you can have by the moat,  close to the tennis court or further afield perhaps up Merry Hill for the views and a spot of family cricket afterwards!

SLEEP

Staying in a home from home gives you seclusion and privacy so you can stay in bed til lunch time, or get back into bed in the afternoon or have an early night and there are no snooping maids to tut about your unmade bed, clothes all over the floor or towels left higgledy piggledy in the bathroom! Probably says more about my self catering habits than yours!

PLAY

The best bits of holidays are often the play times with friends and family when the sightseeing is done and you are back indoors for the evening.

If you are staying in Bailey, then you have the games room just for you and your guests – a fabulous space equipped with a cinema screen (and films), drum kit, roulette table, snooker table, Wii, books and board games!  If you’re not in Bailey, the other houses have large and comfortable sitting rooms with books, board games, DVD’s and of course a TV. Wifi is available in each of our properties too, so you will never have an opportunity to get bored.  Of course you have to arrange your own games as we don’t supply a ‘games maker’ or children’s entertainer!  Oh and there is a hot tub if you are in Ivy Cottage for grown up games!

Outside there is a whole variety of things to do on and around the estate and for some ideas have a look at our Activities page.

On the eve of 2013, let’s raise a glass to the New Year and sing Auld Lang Syne together!

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne! 

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.  

I found the words on the internet in various different versions, so am not certain that the above is the ‘right’ one!

Anyway, the sentiment is that we remember people from the past and wish them a very Happy New Year and please come and renew our acquaintance in 2013…. we’d love to see you!

For January offers, please have a read of our post from last week.

Availability in Tirrels is from 4^th January, you can stay in Bailey from 7^th January and if you fancy a few nights in Dancey there is also some availability from 7^th January.

Happy Christmas Everyone!

We would like to wish all our friends and past guests of Brinsop Court Estate a very very happy Christmas and all the very best for a prosperous and healthy New Year.

We look forward to sharing Brinsop Court Estate with new friends and guests in 2013.

Book to stay in January 2013 and we will give you either 12 bottles of Hobsons Beer or 10 bottles of Prosecco to enjoy. This excludes any bookings for Ivy Cottage.

Head over to our bookings page   to find out which dates are available in January for a post Christmas party!

If you do come and stay in January you will also catch our exhibition of Bromyard based sculptress, Ann Campbell, whose work we have displayed in the Banqueting Hall.  Ann’s work has a sensual and tactile quality, with simplified shapes and strong forms. It shows in every inch its birthplace in some of Britain’s most rural landscape; hearty Herefordshire.  For more about Ann, have a look at the Horse Box Gallery pages. 

We look forward to seeing you at Brinsop in 2013.