Pump Cottage Shaftesbury

Are you looking for a review of Pump Cottage Shaftesbury? Then take a look at our visit to Pump Cottage to see what we thought of this beautiful old holiday cottage in Dorset.

A couple of months back we decided that we would have a proper summer week away together as a family. We haven’t had a week away on our own for years. It has always been with others, which is lovely and we have great fun, or just short breaks away.

We were going to be spontaneous and wait until it got closer to the time and do a last-minute deal, however when we found Pump Cottage we were sold and booked it up! This was our first booking through Airbnb, so I was keen to find out what it was like and how successful to use it.

Pump Cottage is situated in Shaftesbury, Dorset, a small market town and is famous for being the setting of the Hovis bread advert on Gold Hill in 1973. Pump Cottage is about 1-minute walk from the bottom of this hill!

As you can see from the featured image, Pump Cottage is beautiful. It is set in Pump Yard, which is like a courtyard of little cottages, it can be a little hard to spot but just look for this gate, and you will find it up at the top.

With a thatched roof and stone walls, Pump Cottage looks picture-perfect, in fact, they have even made a postcard with it on! The parking is on-street parking, which is very quiet during the day but a bit busier if you come back in the evenings to park. However we never had a problem parking, just had a little walk to the house. Also, pop your wing mirrors in as the road is quite narrow in places.

When we arrived Pump Cottage was super clean, tidy and stocked well for us to use. We all quickly ran to look around and explore the house and garden, and we were very happy with our little holiday cottage for the week. With 2 sitting areas, me and Hubby could see some nice chilled-out times, with the kids in one sitting room and us in the other! However, both were big enough for us all to snuggle up together in.

This is the first 2 rooms that you walk into from the front, a reading area, and the 1st sitting room which is more cosy, we liked using this one in the evening.

The second sitting room was at the back of the house, it is classed as the conservatory and had a comfy sofa and chairs, which looked out over the garden. It had high ceilings and lots of light, so was very peaceful and relaxing. This room also had a little cloakroom off it, with a toilet and washing machine.

This room led out onto the garden, which had a well in it! The garden was lovely, a great size and split into sections. The patio is right outside, with a patio table and chairs, a pond which is netted over with a raised wall, and a BBQ to use too.

Then up some steps and through is more garden area, with grass lawns and flower beds. However very secluded and if we had warmer weather on our holiday, it would have been a lovely garden to picnic with the kids in. There is more garden behind this picture, however I think they are possibly starting to clear it and tidy it up as it wasn’t as nice as this part but looked work in progress!

Back inside the house, you have the kitchen, what a lovely kitchen, however, be careful of your head if you are tall! The ceiling is very low in here, however, my husband is 6ft 2″ tall and couldn’t quite stand straight, and bumped his head on the doorway (at the start of the week!)

The kitchen is very well equipped with everything you need to prepare dinners, we ate out for lunch each day, either picnic or purchased and had dinners at home each evening. With a dishwasher too it was nice and easy to clear up!

The dining room is conveniently positioned next to the kitchen, with a large 6-seater table and chairs. Pump Cottage even had their Pump Cottage plates, how cute are they?!

Next was upstairs, with 3 bedrooms I wondered how large they would be, however, I wasn’t disappointed at all. First off was 1 double which my son slept in, the room was a great size and built-in wardrobes for hanging and storing clothing meant it was all kept neat and away.

Then it was the twin room, which had 2 single beds and another built-in wardrobe.

The bathroom was situated between these two rooms, which wasn’t going to disappoint! It had a roll-top bath with a shower overhead, we don’t have a bath (just a shower!) in our house so my twin girls were so happy to have a bath in it!

Then it was the main bedroom, this was a great-sized room, with the addition of a dressing area and an en-suite shower room!

We were really happy with the upstairs, plenty of room for us all, and nice to have options of both bathroom and shower. We did find the beds rather hard and springy but I am used to a gel support mattress, so may be a little fussy!

On the same road as Pump Cottage, there is a great park for the children and a very nice pub for the adults! The pub has a garden with a climbing frame overlooking the hills. Very nice!

We had some lovely days out at Camp Bestival, Corfe Castle, Knoll Beach, National Trust Stourhead and National Trust Kingston Lacey. So there is lots around to do and we had a wonderful week!

We had a great week at Pump Cottage, the host was very communicative, friendly and helpful. We really could have done with a handbook of useful numbers, tips on running the house, where to put bins, electronic gadgets info and any other useful tips.

I have put together a video house tour for you, as sometimes it is more helpful to see how beautiful it is in the videos and not just pictures.

This was our first experience of Airbnb, which was a fantastic experience and we will be using it again. There are some really lovely places on Airbnb, and Pump Cottage is one of them!

Pictures taken July 2018 house has been updated in places since

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