Birds’ Nest is no ordinary luxury shed!
Family and Community
We bought Birds’ Nest in 2023 as a way to remember Margaret’s parents. Her mother, Peggie, had Alzheimer’s and even in the later stages, she managed to enjoy a few lovely holidays in the local area, thanks to the kindness and discrete, thoughtful understanding of the local people who smoothed the way for us many times.
We chose Birds’ Nest because it offers ground-floor accommodation and its open-plan design means everything is visible, with no confusion navigating around the space. An equally important consideration was that due to the size and layout, it was clearly a holiday-let rather than a home. We both work as market gardeners in what is now, sadly, commuter-belt country and have friends in the Lakes and Forest of Bowland, so we know how difficult it is for young people and people who want to downsize to find somewhere affordable. Taking a home like that off the market was therefore never an option.
The two weeks (running Friday to Friday) that include Christmas Day and Easter Sunday have been ring-fenced for local families who live or work in Gatehouse of Fleet parish, who may wish to accommodate loved-ones at these special times of year, but don’t have suitable accommodation to do so (this doesn’t necessarily mean the wet-room: it could be a friend or family member who just needs the peace, quiet and relaxing, cosy layout for whatever reason: no need to explain!)
These weeks are available for a discretionary donation, which will go towards running costs. Please get in touch for more details.
Please enquire about short breaks at local mid-term holidays and we will do out best to accommodate you.
Margaret’s late father, Sean, saw active service with the Tank Regiment in Egypt and after completing the Arctic Survival Challenge for the Royal British Legion, one her fellow ‘survivors’ Lizzi, who is an Army Wife, asked if we could work with a charity called ‘Give Us Time’ to provide much-needed breaks for people in the Armed Forces and their families. We’re so glad she asked because it’s a wonderful charity. Many of the adaptations we’ve made at Birds’ Nest to create a calm, orderly and cosy place to stay are also helpful for people with PTSD or other mental trauma.
We had help designing the website from our good friend, Sohina Singh; a great friend who just happens to have a brain injury. Sohina pointed out how many of the things we’re doing at Birds’ Nest might also be useful for people with a whole range of hidden disabilities and spent hours for us, looking at other websites and jotting down all the barriers she found to processing the information.
Memories
Above all, Birds’ Nest is a place that we’ve furnished with love, to help us remember happy times both at home and on holiday. We’re business owners and we chose other Lancashire family businesses to help with our blinds (Marshalls of Preston) and lighting (James Kok Lighting in Preston) The native breed sheepskin rugs are from Sheepland in Glastonbury another family business, this time in Somerset, where our family enjoyed so many lovely holidays courtesy of Auntie Pat (ex-QARANC) who settled there.
Sustainability
The furniture is a mixture of upcycled, re-purposed and new, combining antique and customised pieces from Pinefinders Pine Furniture – Specialists In Restored Antique Pine UK with brand new seating from HSL Chairs Posture Specialist designed for support and comfort and pieces sourced from second hand dealers too (in Dallbeatie)
Our choice of complementary products (and cleaning products too!) reflects our commitment to minimising waste as well as finding the best quality we can. Of course, there are mint humbugs (who doesn’t need a humbug now and then?) but we’d seen so many examples of welcome packs that included things that perhaps wouldn’t be used, or things with excessive packaging that we decided to be different.
Duck Island | Specialists in luxury toiletries for hotels and washrooms
The Rare Tea Company | Sustainable Loose Leaf Teas, Teaware and Gifts
Eden Project Coffee Sustainable Tea, Coffee & Soft Drinks | Eden Project Shop