Rest and relax in the Shropshire countryside

Life has become so busy these days. I seem to struggle to find time to spend with friends and I resolved that 2010 was going to be different. Which is why, at the start of this year, I planned a chilled-out girlie weekend in the country with my two best friends.

In Shropshire. Which might not be the most obvious of destinations, but was all the better for the sense of heading off into the unknown. And the five-star cottages at Combermere Abbey are a real hidden gem in the heart of the countryside. It's an easy journey from London, an hour and a half on the train (with Virgin); an hour's drive from Manchester and Liverpool, and just a few miles from the Welsh border.

And so into the suitcases went the bottles of wine, the slabs of chocolate, the 'Sex and the City' DVD and the glossy magazines, and the three of us headed for the country. Straight off the train and we made our taxi driver stop at the off-licence to pick up a bottle of Jameson's (for the post-bracing-walk restorative hot whiskeys) and then it was a 12-mile drive from Crewe station to the Combermere estate - 1,000 acres in the heart of the countryside, where the cottages have been converted from 19th-century stables.

Me and my friends like our comforts - we're big fans of spa breaks and luxury hotels - so a self-catering cottage wouldn't be our most obvious choice, but Combermere offers independent breaks with a luxury twist. All of the cottages around the cobbled courtyard have been stylishly restored; each is the work of a separate designer and styled around a theme.

Ours, Cotton cottage, sleeps four, is the work of designer Jane Churchill, and has been created around an Indian theme. So the four-poster bed in the master bedroom is made from Indian wood, the coffee table in the living room started its life as a chicken coop in India, fabrics are from Churchill's exotic Indian summer collection, and all paintings and prints throughout the cottage are also connected to the country. Rather bizarrely, I've also brought with me a bottle of Indian wine, a souvenir of a recent trip to Mumbai.

Cotton cottage is named after the Cotton family who were given the estate and remains of the Abbey by Henry VIII in 1536, after the dissolution of the monasteries. The Abbey was founded in 1133 and though nothing remains of the original building, the Abbot's Lodge still stands on the estate and is the home of Combermere's current owner, Sarah Callander Beckett, and family. Sarah's grandfather bought the property in 1919 and Sarah inherited it from her mother, beginning work on converting the derelict stable buildings in 1992. Today the estate is run as an organic farm, with livestock, extensive woodland and a large glacially formed mere (lake) at its centre.

We coo excitedly over the large breakfast hamper which awaits us in the kitchen (free to All About You readers booking a stay any time in 2010). It's packed full of fresh local produce, like the butcher's sausages and back bacon from nearby Cheerbrook Farm and Shropshire free range eggs; there's also marmalade and apple juice from Combermere's orchard. And a welcoming tea tray set with three cups and a packet of hand-baked fruit Shrewsbury cookies.

The kitchen is so well stocked, it's like staying in somebody's very well-equipped home; plenty of kitchenware, cutlery and cookware - even baking equipment should you feel so inclined! - and as many glasses as you could find a need for, right down to tiny elegant sherry glasses. There are books, games and jigsaws in the living room, DVDs and CDs in the estate office, left open for visitors to help themselves. If you don't feel like cooking, there's a store-room packed with refrigerated ready-meals from Cheerbrook Farm, staples like pasta and sauces, and bottles of wine and soft drinks. And it's all very reasonably priced (main courses from £3, wine from £8.50), which is very good of them because they could so easily have taken advantage and pushed prices up a bit. There are plenty of toiletries in the bathroom and - the very best thing we decide after we've explored the whole cottage - a wood-burning stove, set and ready for us to light, with a log-filled basket beside it.

And so the weekend passes in a relaxed blur of walks around the estate, trips to the scenic mere - perfect for a bit of sketching, cosying up on overstuffed couches watching DVDs, eating huge meals and just catching up on each others' lives. One of the nights we make the mile-long walk down the avenue to local pub the Combermere Arms; the next day we set out the deckchairs on our cottage's little lawn, with blankets and hot whiskies to keep us warm.

Had we brought a car there was a whole host of entertainment on our doorstep; local towns Nantwich and Whitchurch are great hunting grounds for antiques and Chester, 20 miles away, is a walled city with a 900-year old cathedral. There are over 20 historic homes and gardens to visit within an hour's drive, plus Bridgemere Garden World, Europe's biggest garden centre. Alton Towers is close enough for a day trip, as is Waterworld in Stoke-on-Trent. But we're quite happy to stay at Combermere, it's one of the nicest weekends we've spent in a long time.

Prices and booking

A three-night midweek break costs £379 (cottage for four, including welcome tea trays); four-night midweek break, £399. Quote All About You when booking to receive a complimentary breakfast hamper crammed with local farm goodies.

Phone 01948 662876 or visit the website at www.combermereabbey.co.uk.

Click here for an online enquiry form.

Getting there

Bernadette and her friends travelled with Virgin Trains from London to Crewe, for further information and to book tickets phone 0845 722 2333 or visit the website at www.virgintrains.co.uk