Back to stories

CENTENARY CELEBRATED IN STYLE

July 2009

One of the New Forest’s best-known restaurants has celebrated the centenary of the building in which it is based. Built for local landowner Herbert Moser in 1909, the Cottage originally housed his chauffeur, it is believed, and then from 1913 for 70 years was home to the village’s five successive District Nurses. Frances Liddell was first to make the Cottage her home until 1919, when Alice Lloyd took over. Annie Southerden nursed Sway’s residents for 10 years from 1927, while Muriel Lipscombe held office for the next 30 years. Hazel Gibson was the last Nurse to live in the Cottage, from 1967 to 1983, when the property was sold and the proceeds used to found the Sway Relief in Sickness Fund, a charity which continues to support the local sick and needy to this day.
Chef/Proprietor Tony Barnfield bought The Nurse’s Cottage in September 1987 and launched the business in 1992, originally as a B&B with optional evening meal. Today’s Restaurant with Rooms has been featured in publications from The Daily Telegraph to the Michelin and AA Guides and an almost continuous stream of awards has been bestowed on the business, one of the most highly acclaimed in the area.
To mark the centenary, a permanent exhibition telling the story of the Cottage’s first century was launched, there was a Champagne Reception, attended by Desmond Swayne MP, New Forest District Council Leader Barry Rickman and others associated with the Cottage’s past, and a Four-Course Celebration Dinner was held, with wines selected from the 84-bin List.
And one theme emerged from it all – as one guest noted in the Visitors’ Book:
It’s always been a house of care
And still is now that Tony’s there
A house of welcome, comfort, good food too
And, of course, an immaculate loo.”

site by aack