A Dreamy Vacation Rental Cottage in Wales

After their second little one was born, Hayley Caradoc-Hodgkins and Leo Bruno Todd needed out of London. She’s a photograph editor and he’s a painter/artwork technician, and for years that they had “dreamed of working collectively and hoped to discover a place the place we might host and take care of individuals,” Hayley tells us. They set their sights on rural southeast Wales, simply over the border from England, their very own favourite getaway vacation spot.

Through the summer time of London’s first lockdown in 2020 the pickings had been slim and the household was brief on time: they wanted to discover a place to hire the place Odette, their oldest, might begin college within the fall, after they heard a few Seventeenth-century compound within the outdated market city of Abergavenny. “We received a tip-off, packed our luggage, and turned up three weeks later, “ says Hayley. Sight unseen, that they had landed at Little Mill Abergavenny, and it occurred to be precisely what they had been searching for: a Victorian home for them and a riverside mill home with nice potential as a rental cottage.

They hadn’t been in residence for lengthy when, Hayley relates: “by likelihood, the house owners determined to promote. We put every part we had collectively and, fortunately they accepted.” Hayley and Leo then started working. Their Carl Larsson-style bunkbeds, emerald-painted wooden flooring, and different DIY upgrades are at present thrilling allure seekers on Instagram @little_mill–abergavenny. And, sure, the now-open cottage nonetheless has out there spring and summer time dates. Be part of us for a tour.

Images courtesy of Little Mill Abergavenny.

Hayley’s nutshell historical past of the place: “Little Mill was the extra diminutive of two mills in Abergavenny and the one one which survives—it even has its 4 water wheels nonetheless in situ. It served the local people for hundreds of years earlier than being acquired by the native Victorian asylum to provide flour for its residents. When milling days had been over, the enclave turned out of date and fell into disrepair. It was purchased within the Nineteen Nineties by a pair of Welsh folks musicians who started to revive and salvage the constructing. Quick ahead to 2021 and that’s the place we are available.”