Parsonage Farom Cottage, Spixworth, Norwich

Where do we start with this review. We booked this cottage for a weekend away for my sisters 30th birthday, ages in party ranged from 60 down to 10.

we arrived and were promptly vetted by the owner. Why were we staying, how many, who were we, where were we from from etc........The owner then went round the building and turned on every electric heater, electric fire and light. (The reason for this becomes clear when you realise he checks the meter before you leave and charges you £1/ per unit of electricity).

Do not be fooled by the image of the front to the house, these are the only double glazed windows, all other windows are rattle cold single glazed.

Once he was statified he had enough information on us he finally left (approx 45min). we were then left to explore this dilapadated and run down house.

All the rooms have a cold damp feel to them. All fixtures and fitting are from 1940, the decore to has not been touched since the 50's. The 2 x lounges smelt like old peoples homes.

Where description reads open fire - these in fact have electic fires in front, with exposed cable trailing over the floor. There is a lovely note left fopr you stating that there is a bag of coal (we never found it) at a cost of £8.50.

The owner informed us the nearby pub is not worth visiting.

The television, this has a digibox, great we thought as there is no radio in the property we can put a music channel on and have some fun. ...... Nope, we turned on to a orange flickering screen, channels would not change. Absolutely useless.

The bedrooms are resonable, if there is a group of you going i suggest you get there first to ensure you do have to sleep in the creepy actic room, or the far double room which ever one felt uneasy in, during our stay this was name the murder room.

The toilets leak and the bathroom carpets are soaked through because of this. Out of the 4 bathrooms only 2 have showers, so cues formed in the morning.

Behind the house is a medow with horse's, which looks very welcoming to children. BEWARE we were told when the horses carer arrived after we had been in the field for a while that the horses are disturbed/ troubled 'special' horses, and should not be touched/fed/go near at anytime. Somethig the owner didnt mention.

On the last mornig the owner again arrived, meter reading were taken, no evidence was shown, and we were not allowed to read the meter ourselves to verify the £48.00 charge for 3 night.

the owner then told us proudly that it cost over £100.00 a day to heat in the winter time! a nice little money earner for him.

On top of this we were then accused of letting off fireworks !!!!! Apparantly the nieghbours had complained to the owners in church on sunday morning. this left us totally bemused, 1 because we didnt have any fireworks and 2 because the description doesnt state no fireworks.

Anothyer warning sign should also be the guest book, clearly those peolple who told the truth have had the pages ripped from the book!. This is evident from the stubbs of pages left.

A terrible experince and has put us off renting a cottage again.