We rented Footstool Cottage from Manor Cottages for two weeks in June 2009. The price was good - 557 GBP per week in high season (about $900). Footstool is a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom historic cottage on a quiet lane in Fulbrook, a small village on the main A361 road north of Burford in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds (England). The main road is busy and splits the village, but you do not hear road noise from the cottage. Fulbrook has no shops, two pubs and a Norman church. There are a couple of footpaths you can take for countryside walks. You can walk into Burford - 1/2 mile away (you have to walk along the main road but there is a sidewalk - the agency description says "public footpath to Burford" which I assumed was through the countryside, but they must mean the sidewalk). Burford has all the shops and restaurants you need and is a charming market town.

Footstool is a nice cottage with a few problems. First the good things. The location is good. The cottage has one of the best outdoor spaces we have ever had - a terrace leading to a small lawn surrounded by trees and flower gardens (no views). The garden has high walls and is private. Nice outdoor furniture. We used the outdoor space a lot on those long June nights. For colder weather there is a fireplace and they leave you lots of wood.

Now the problems. The kitchen (which looks like a gourmet kitchen in the photos) is "tired". I could not get the gas stovetop to go below a medium flame (to simmer I had to use 2 heat diffusers on a burner). The fridge makes a loud noise when running. Not much counter space. I think my main problem is that the website photo makes it looks like a gourmet kitchen, but it is not.

The heating system is night storage heaters which are not easy to use (no mention of this in the agency description) and only work well when the weather is consistent (you have to know the night before how to set them for the next day). The information about the heating system in the house book did not explain how it works. When we arrived the heaters were turned off because it had been hot the week before. We had a few cold nights at the start of our stay. We called the house keeper and left a message which was never returned (we should have called the owner but I had assumed the house keeper would call back). We finally figured out how to use the heaters after calling the agency (they called the owner).

The furniture in the cottage is plain and a jumble of styles, but is comfortable. The ceilings are shockingly low in some rooms (but this is to be expected in an older cottage).

We rented this cottage because of the location, which was good, and because the cottage had internet access, which worked well. I would not rent the cottage again because we cook most of our meals at home and the kitchen was not good to work in.

We rented a cottage from Manor Cottages May 15-22, 2009. All correspondence was professional, reservations and payment went smoothly. The cottage was called The Cottage (THECOT) on their website and was located in Moreton-in-Marsh. It was extremely well located, a short distance from train station, one block off the High Street.

The cottage was originally a 16th century toll keeper's cottage and retains many of the original features including the hearth and an 11th century window installed at a later date. This is not a modern cottage but one that has been lovingly restored by the owners retaining all the charm but with modern conveniences. Therefore the ceilings and doorways are a little lower and the floor is a little uneven but that doesn't detract from its charm.

The ground floor has a siiting/living room, dining room, kitchen, half bath and conservatory (that half bath is very convenient). The second floor contains two bedrooms, a double and a twin with shared bathroom. The third floor is a double with ensuite bathroom.

The cottage was clean and all the bedrooms had beautiful linens. An assortment of books, games and DVDs were available as well as a telephone and the basic TV stations. The kitchen was fully equipped and included a washing machine. Having a conservatory is a real bonus and we loved it so much that we have decided that it is a must anywhere we rent in England.

This is a lovely restored cottage with all the amenities and I would not hesitate to recommend it or rent it again. I gave it a 5 star rating because it is a well restored 16th century cottage not because it is as luxurious as 5 star hotel.