Webley Cottage; Susan Stanley's Little Home On The Web!

Hello and welcome to Webley Cottage, deep in the beautiful green countryside. I'm glad you found your way here. Remember, first on your left and straight on 'til Tuesday and you will never lose your way. So come on in and make yourself at home. The tea's brewing and I'll cut you BIG slice of apple pie (from our own orchard of course!) ~no need to worry about calories, they don't exist here :)

I'm originally from Wrexham, in North Wales, U.K. Mike, my husband, and I moved to New Hampshire, USA in 1982. We have three children; Carl, who's 17. Sarah, who's 16, and Craig who just turned 10. We also have two dogs; Sophie,our loving, plump, golden retriever. Jenny, a sweet little Heinz57. Emma our extremely pretty and very vocal two year old cat, and Sunny, a baby parakeet/budgie. Jenny and Emma found their own way to our door. They knew where to come!

So as you can see our house in the real world is extremely busy and always noisy. This is why I need this place. ..It's tranquil here. So for as long as you want, this place is home for you too. There are lots of spare rooms, four-poster beds, a nice deep bathtub, a library filled with the best literature and poetry, a cozy country kitchen adrift with delicious aromas, a living room filled with comfortable sofas and chairs and a coy fire for cool nights, listening to wonderful music, and outside is the garden of your dreams...roses, flowerbeds in every shade imaginable, wisteria tumbling down the mellow stone walls, and the air is filled with the scent of flowers and the song of birds. One of my favorite places is the wildflower garden I planted one day, I just opened the packets of seed. scattered them and the results were magical! There's springy grass that feels wonderful under bare feet, and over there by the pond, in the shade of that lovely old willow tree, are chairs for lounging away a dreamy afternoon. Beyond the garden gate are inviting walks down the leafy country lanes which lead down to the sleepy little village of Lower Webley, and at every turn there are glorious views of meadows and softly rolling hills which become ablaze with gold when the sun sets. (They do say that there was once an Upper Webley, but noone seems to know where it went to :)

The History of Webley Cottage

Let me tell you a bit about the cottage. As far as I can tell it was built around 1750 by Sir William Webley of Webley Manor, for his mistress Anne. But William fell off his horse and died not long afterwards and so Anne continued to live alone here. Curiously, Anne became very good friends with Sir William's widow, Lady Penelope, and after the great fire of 1754 when the Manor burned down to the ground, Penelope found herself penniless -and so moved in with Anne and it is said they spent the rest of their days doing marvelous needlepoint -that cushion your leaning back on for instance, raising chickens, making very good cowslip wine and growing prize-winning roses, some of which have survived to the present day.

There are no ghosts here as far as I know, but there is an atmosphere that only an old house can have, and it is one of warmth and welcome. Now I'm settling in this place it's really starting to feel like home and I'm getting very attached to it -I'm even dreaming about it!!

I love to read. I enjoy many different authors, (my bookshelf groans with all the weight) but I do have favorites; Thomas Hardy, Elizabeth Goudge, Rosamunde Pilcher, Gladys Taber...to name just a few. I also like poetry, especially John Keats, William Wordsworth and John Clare. I like nothing better than to spend a half hour or three in a used book store -I love those places!!
I also love music, particularly classical...I like many composers, but I particularly like Ralph Vaughan Williams, Delius, Bantock, and Dvorak. and I love the music of Enya.-She has such a beautiful voice. I never tire of listening to her music. - I plan on providing lots of good literary and music links as soon as I have finished compiling them, As well as posting some special treats right here.

Have you ever been to Wales? Even though I love living in the U.S. I still get very homesick at times for my family and my homeland. Pretty soon I'm going to post lots of pictures and information about it so you will see where I'm from..

Please email me with any tips or simply just to say hello, and while you're here, please visit my chat room or sign my guestbook--I'd love to hear from you!

Bye for now. Enjoy your stay here. The music playing is "My Heart Will Go On."
The theme tune from the movie, "Titanic."

Old radio