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TOP STARS IN THE NEW FOREST FIRMAMENT

March 2003

Two very different accommodation establishments share the glory in a new report from Consumers’ Association in the Spring 2003 edition of Holiday Which? magazine.

The New Forest, featured in the latest edition of the quaterly magazine used by millions as their leisure “bible”, is described as the “ideal backdrop for the simple pleasures of the English countryside in a pocket-sized landscape”.

While ten local hotels and restaurants-with-rooms feature under “Good Places to Stay”, just two are highlighted as “Editor’s Choice Hotels”: The Nurse’s Cottage in Sway and Whitley Ridge Hotel, Brockenhurst.

Rennie and Sue Law have been running Whitley Ridge for fifteen years and their constant improvements have seen the three-star hotel garner increasing awards in recent years, with the upgraded “jet age” bathrooms, carefully produced cuisine and magnificent views from this former Royal hunting lodge attracting most attention.

Former BBC Radio presenter Tony Barnfield launched the three-bedroom Nurse’s Cottage as “an attempt at early retirement” eleven years ago and has been showered with universal recognition of his hospitality skills by all the major guides. From AA Best Breakfast in Britain to Hotel & Restaurant magazine placing the tiny restaurant’s Wine List in its Top 20, Tony’s venture has rarely been out of the limelight and has recently been expanded with a new conservatory restaurant.

However, say Rennie and Tony, “We would be nowhere without the unique surroundings of the New Forest, that’s what truly makes us different from anyone else and it’s really great to have this national recognition from the Holiday Which? report.”

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