Tel.01747 811881 Fax. 01747 811881
Discover a little gypsy passion under the stars!
Rooms: Total 1 Private
shower-room Double
Origin: Showman's Wagon
Price Guide: £37.50 - £47.50 per person
Open: Easter to October
Your Hosts: Tim and Lucy Kerridge
If you're a bit of a gypsy, wander no more, this could be the place to put down a few roots.
The Gypsy Caravan is parked up at the edge of a small complex of buildings and is bounded by a pony paddock. The former estate buildings known as Fanner's Yard, are in the tiny hamlet of Compton Abbas a few miles south of Shaftesbury. The various buildings have now been restored/converted for B&B and S/C from their original uses, but still retain the timeless appeal of 'Between the Wars' Dorset - a Hardy novel come back to life. See the entry for the "Old Forge at Fanners Yard" for more detail of B&B in the main building.
Whilst Lucy has her hands full being nice to guests, Tim restores classic cars to their original glory in his workshops behind the house. Tim has an eye for what looks right and has delightfully incorporated the workshop by evoking the character of a small village garage from the pioneering days of motoring. An old fashioned petrol pump and colourful enamel signs and adverts remind you of a time when fuel cost pence per gallon and a shot of redex would stop your big end seizing up!
Built in 1934 as a Showman's Wagon for itinerant fairground workers and circus performers, this design was soon superceded by bigger and heavier wagons as horses were replaced by steam and then diesel in the rapidly evolving heavy transportation world. The interior has colourful Romany handpainting, the old range, a cosy (compact!) romantic double bed and stirring bucolic views across to the Dorset Downs. The workshop, a short distance away and across the courtyard, incorporates a private shower room and loo just for the Gypsy Caravan, so bring sensible night attire for this is not the place to be caught short wearing nothing but a feather boa as you trip to the loo by the light of the silvery moon.
You may be far from the maddening crowds in London but you could still bump into Troy and Bathsheba, or their present day equivalents, en-route to a midnight tryst.
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