Self Catering in Oxfordshire - Banbury

Very pleasing stay in a beautiful location
This beautiful old cottage is in a small village in the middle of the Oxfordshire countryside, within easy reach of Cropredy, Banbury and the Park & Ride service to Oxford. Also close to Upton Hall, a National Trust property well worth visiting. There is also a small reservoir within walking distance of the cottage, for picnics or birdwatching. The house itself is wonderful, each of its three bedrooms overlooking the sunny garden, with glorious views of rolling Oxfordshire. Occasionally a train goes by in the far distance, but is never disturbing. The house was spotless, except for the windows, which given the views through them, was a pity. We had to give them a wipe ourselves. The huge fireplace and big open fire were delightful, and beds and furniture comfortable. This is an extremely well-fitted and equipped cottage. And the welcome basket on our arrival, with lovely cake and biscuits, and the best honey we've ever tasted, was really nice! Unlike a lot of ancient houses (and this one is truly ancient!) there was no musty smell. Everything felt clean and fresh. I would recommend this place to anyone looking for a peaceful country retreat, with good access to interesting places.
Ruth W
2019-10-24

Thinking of booking, read on...
I will be fair and list the pros and cons to give a balanced review. Pros; - Amazing garden and gorgeous views - Spacious accommodation (though we could not comfortably use all the spaces because the place was filthy and dusty) Cons; - Communication with the owner before our arrival was really really slow - though this did improve when we arrived and I had to ask for several things ie a vacuum cleaner - The place would have benefited from a good airing, one bedroom in particular smelled of urine - Even in the height of summer the living room in the cottage is very dim and not at all as light and bright as in the pictures - There was a huge amount of spiders/very dusty spiders webs all over. I do not have a problem with spiders, but it was such a large amount I ended up spending quite a lot of time vacuuming them up on the first night. Of course, it's reasonable to expect insects etc, but that was shocking - honestly I've never seen anything like it - The bathroom generally was clean, but the toilet bowl itself was really dirty with dark brown marks in it so I had to bleach it - The fridge in the kitchen was not properly cleaned and the second fridge was completely filthy so we were not been able to use it at all (I didn't want to spend the whole of my holiday cleaning after all) - The tablecloth for the outside table was not only covered with paint but was dirty/dusty on top and underneath - The cutlery holder in the kitchen was dirty and grubby as we're other kitchen items - The kitchen chairs and table were dusty and grubby as we're most surfaces - And something which I personally find insulting was finding what can only be described as a dark public-like hair in my bed. These were the worst of the things we found, there were others, it was pretty shocking to know someone has the audacity to rent out a property in such a condition. We were so dissatisfied with the conditions at the cottage that we complained to the owner the day after arrival, Sykes the day after that (who's advisors need some serious training by the way), and after various phone calls to Sykes, one lasting over an our we managed to secure a large percentage of the cost to be refunded. Would I recommend booking Priors Mead, Cropredy again? Definitely not! Would I book through Sykes Cottages again? Not likely! Trying to upload pics but can't at the minute, will as soon as I can though?! This review was originally posted on the Sykes Cottages website but has since mysteriously been removed!!
Don B
2019-08-10