An idyllic thatched cottage where you can run your own Devonshire tea garden
Amid steams and waterfalls, Rose Cottage boasts a stunning tea garden perfect for hosting a few friends – or 185 neighbours.


It’s not often that you find a home and profession all rolled into one but we've seen a few cross our desks in recent months. We’ve had vineyards from all around the world, beautiful country hotels perfect for family living or running as a business, and now we've added a new potential career to our collection: a thriving tea garden complete with a restaurant that can cater for 185 tea-lovers.
Mini waterfalls, a footbridge, a lake and a clear stream pepper the playfully picturesque 1.4-acre grounds around Grade II-listed Rose Cottage, currently on the market at a guide price £995,000 with Jackson-Stops.
In the centre of Cockington village, a mere mile from Torquay, the delightful cottage is in fine fettle. A fireplace with wood burner greets one walking into the sitting room where doors lead out into the garden, a rolling 1.4 acres teeming with delightful features.
A bedroom with a dressing room sits at the top of the house, charmingly worked into Rose Cottage’s unusually quirky, historic architecture.
The first floor boats three further bedrooms and another bathroom, while a dining room and idyllic country kitchen join the sitting room on the ground floor.
While these attributes alone make this property worthy of consideration, the tea garden is what sets Rose Cottage apart from other country houses currently on the market.
Decked terraces and covered dining areas spread out from the house into the surrounding tree-lined gardens, sporting their own dedicated kitchen, bathrooms and serving area.
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
The cottage has become quite famous for its cream teas and live piano music, entertaining the residents of the quiet village for the last twenty years.
With summer around the corner we cannot think of a more idyllic place to enjoy a few scones – just make sure you put on the cream first, then the jam. This is Devon, not Cornwall!
Credit: H Tiddy
12 stunning character properties for sale at under £400,000
Thatched homes in Cornwall and West Sussex are among the many highlights of these gorgeous character cottages for sale.
A grand country house built by Robert Bruce, with a billiards room, tennis courts and equestrian facilities beyond belief
The Great Barn at Harmondsworth: 600 years of grandeur, history and restoration, now under threat by Heathrow's third runway
The Great Barn at Harmondsworth is the largest standing medieval timber-framed structure in Britain – and it has just been restored.
Credit: Strutt & Parker
A magnificent ten-bedroom country house in Devon for sale at a startlingly low price tag
Curious Questions: How do you make the perfect cream scone?
-
Name that hat! Country Life Quiz of the Day
Tuesday's quiz has a wartime property for sale, plus popes, linoleum and more.
By Toby Keel Published
-
Everything you need to know about the stealth red carpet tease and Breitling’s new Top Time B31 watch — as seen on Austin Butler’s wrist
In the space of a month, Breitling has signed Austin Butler as a brand ambassador, launched a new collection and snapped up a dormant brand.
By Chris Hall Published
-
A waterside cottage in Devon with a private quay, idyllic views and the prettiest summerhouse we've seen in years
Right beside the picturesque Yealm Estuary, No 1 Noss Mayo is an idyllic home that feels like an escape from the world. Annabel Dixon takes a look.
By Annabel Dixon Last updated
-
This elegant Greek villa offers would-be buyers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live in the shadow of the Acropolis
Athenian Legacy consists of two houses in walking —and almost touching — distance of one of the world’s most famous and precious landmarks.
By Rosie Paterson Published
-
Six charming homes up for sale, including one dubbed 'one of the most picturesque in Dorset', as seen in Country Life
Our look at the finest houses to come up for sale through Country Life in the past week is full of delights, from a new-Georgian mansion to a perfectly-sized Hertfordshire estate.
By Toby Keel Published
-
A Buckinghamshire mansion built for the speech therapist who set Churchill on his path to greatness
Penny Churchill takes a look at Rignalls, a classic Arts-and-Crafts home that looks like it's stepped out of the pages of an EM Forster novel.
By Penny Churchill Published
-
An idyllic Hampstead mansion whose price has risen nine times faster than inflation — and it's not hard to see why
Cloth Hill is even more beautiful on the inside than it is on the outside.
By Carla Passino Published
-
Some of Scotland's most beautiful churches are being sold off for as little as £40,000 — but a word of warning before you take the plunge
Lucy Denton examines how best to help former church buildings thrive as times move on and property changes hands.
By Lucy Denton Published
-
Inside the £28 million mansion designed to 'shake things up' and 're-define the English country house of the 21st century'
With everything from helicopter parking and a 1000-bottle wine cellar to bespoke wallpaper designed by Christian Lacroix, Harford Manor is a country house like no other. Annabel Dixon took a closer look and spoke to the man behind its creation.
By Annabel Dixon Last updated
-
A blissful and beautifully named home in one of the most exclusive spots in Cornwall
Penny Churchill takes a look at Boswodegh, a wonderful home that makes the most of its superb location in Helford Passage.
By Penny Churchill Published