Daily Mail Dream Cottage - where is it located?
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Jul 30 2010 |
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This summer's free Daily Mail Dream Cottage competition seems to be attracting lots of interest so far. The 'idyllic' £320,000 thatched cottage is certainly picture-perfect: dating back to the early 17th century, it features 3 bedrooms and a beautiful mature garden. While the description sounds great, very little information is provided about the location. However, thanks to the investigative work of some of our members, we think we've found the place!
When we wrote to the Daily Mail to ask for more details about the location, they indicated that "any further details of the prize will appear in the paper or on the main Daily Mail website." So far, all we could find on their website about the location was that the "Grade-II listed home offers British country living at its very best". A little vague at best. Based on the Daily Mail's description of the prize, here is what we know about the outside of the property:
Lots of members wrote to us in the last couple of days with ideas of where it could be. Then, this morning, we received a message from Carole in Edinburgh. Thanks to some local knowledge and an inquisitive mind, she managed to track the property below on Google Maps. I'm sure you'll agree it looks very familiar:
Thatched roof? (check); 'country-style' garden? (check); double garage? (check); stone path and chapel porch? (check). We're guessing the Daily Mail is looking to protect the identity of the current owners of the property, so we've purposefully excluded the full link details. Of course, if you're familiar with the area, you're likely to have recognised the cottage anyway by now. The house pictured above is situated in the village of Elmswell in Suffolk in the south east of England. It is situated between Bury St. Edmunds and Ipswich, just to the north of the A14 road, and within easy access of Norwich and Cambridge. One of the largest villages in Suffolk, its history can be traced back to the Roman times. So there you have it! We'll leave it to you to decide if this is indeed the same cottage. A big thank you to Carole once again, as well as to everyone else that wrote in asking about this.
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Hits: 6323 Comments & Opinions35 comments so far, what say you? Subscribe to this comment's feed YES!!! There's no mistake, that's the same cottage, well done! Carole deserves a prize, I was wondering about the exact same thing this morning!!! , 30 Jul 2010
Idyllic?! Elmswell isn't what I'd call idyllic by any stretch of the imagination. Looking at the Daily Mail's photo, you'd be forgiven for thinking the village is composed of lovely thatched cottages, but in reality you're more likely to find 1970s style homes. Sorry to break it to you! , 30 Jul 2010
Disappointed And here I was thinking the cottage is surrounded by beautiful forests with no neighbours in sight! Oh well :) , 30 Jul 2010
 Thanks :)) I'm glad you agree! It's a nice cottage, though I'm sorry to say there's a train track running just behind the garden with an industrial estate behind it! Something the Daily Mail forgot to mention... , 30 Jul 2010
How misleading!! I can't believe it!! A power line, train tracks running just behind the garden and a heavily built-up area... Who are they trying to kid? I bet that cottage isn't worth anywhere near £320k!! , 31 Jul 2010
Keywords Here's what I have so far... Words need to be typed exactly as below: Sat 24/07: roses Sun 25/07: thatch Mon 26/07: pond Tue 27/07: garden Wed 28/07: lawn Thu 29/07: fuchsia Fri 30/07: pub , 31 Jul 2010
Price In 2005 it was valued at £195,000, there is a three bed up the road on sale at £290,000. [Link removed: Hawk End Cottage listed amongst properties for sale at Homes & Property for £319,995] , 31 Jul 2010
Could it be? Is that a low voltage line in front of the house as well? My dreams of woodland shires and darling buds of may are well and truly shattered... , 01 Aug 2010
For sale? This cottage is still listed for sale on 2 websites for some reason: mousePrice.com and homesandproperty.co.uk... (both £320k). I wonder if the DM bought it already or if the owners are hedging themselves? , 02 Aug 2010
 Oh dear Lovely cottage but I'm afraid I wouldn't want to live there, especially since there are train tracks so nearby. I would sell it and buy something I like better! , 04 Aug 2010
 Hawk End Cottage Looks like it was removed from the mousePrice.com website: "This listing was removed on 05-Aug-2010. It may now be sold, rented, under offer or temporarily withdrawn from the market." , 12 Aug 2010
Old pictures of Daily Mail 'dream' cottage Hey, I just found a link with old pictures of the cottage if anyone's interested, dating back to the 1920s: http://www.elmswell-history.org.uk/arch/buildings/hawkend.html , 12 Aug 2010
Why dissapointed? Firstly, nice work for finding that Carole! So, the Daily Mail didn't mention the surroundings about the house. So what? If I won a house like this, I'm not going to be complaining! , 19 Aug 2010
Re: Daily Mail Dream Cottage - where is it located? According to the Houseprices.co.uk web site, in September 2006 it changed hands for £250,000. Nationwide's online house price change calculator reckons: "A property located in East Anglia which was valued at £250,000 in Q3 of 2006, would be worth approximately £242,648 in Q2 of 2010. This is equivalent to a change of -2.94%" Are competition prizes covered by the Sale of Goods Act? Has the Daily Mail been unfairly boosting its sales by overstating the value of the prize? I can just imagine the blurb in the estate agent's window before the Daily Mail had it taken off the market: "For Sale. Period cottage in tasteless 70's housing estate. All the inconveniences of country living without the environmental benefits. Suit deaf railway enthusiast as probably cannot be soundproofed with secondary glazing due to its listed status. Was £400k, now 40% off for a quick sale." So would I turn it down if I won it? Er, no. I'd smile dutifully for the publicity photo as the keys were handed over : ) I'm intrigued, though, how someone in Edinburgh could have possibly tracked down this cottage from a simple photograph. This budding sleuth would love an explanation as to how it was done... , 31 Aug 2010
Correction to my comment yesterday I confused the advertised value of the Daily Mail cottage with the Win a London Flat competition! My imaginary estate agent's blurb should have read: "Was £320k, now almost 25% off for a quick sale" not "Was 400k, now 40% off for a quick sale." It's still quite a big difference in the likely value, though. , 01 Sep 2010
Explanation @ Greatly Moved Do you think the fact that someone will win it for free means that the value of the cottage isn't as important as if it were being sold normally? I don't know. I like your comment about railway enthusiasts! To answer your question, actually I'm not that good a detective and I used to live in London! I happen to have a friend who used to live nearby (Stowmarket) and recognised the cottage. She gave me the tip-off, I did a bit of research and tracked it down on Google Maps... So all thanks to a little help from my friend :) , 01 Sep 2010
Bonus Tokens I missed two tokens for my second postal entry and have been looking for the Bonus Tokens. I have downloaded one by Mail On Sunday but they say this is restricted to one only. Where can I find another one? I rang Promotions at the Daily Mail and they did not know that extra Bonus Tokens had been advertised. I drew their attention to the following as printed in Terms and Conditions on the on-line entry site: 8. For postal entries only original tokens collected from the Newspapers will be considered valid. Tokens found to be altered, reconstructed, forged or tampered with in any way will be void. Photocopies are not acceptable. Up to a maximum of 5 bonus tokens can used per person for postal entries only, there are no bonus tokens for online entries. Can anybody help? , 03 Sep 2010
Bonus Tokens "8. For postal entries only original tokens collected from the Newspapers will be considered valid. Tokens found to be altered, reconstructed, forged or tampered with in any way will be void. Photocopies are not acceptable. Up to a maximum of 5 bonus tokens can used per person for postal entries only, there are no bonus tokens for online entries." Where can I get the Bonus Tokens? I rang the Daily Mail but they had no idea that this was stated in the Terms and Conditions as above. , 03 Sep 2010
Win a Dream Cottage Daily Mail Competition Can you help? I have searched the Dail Mail and the web in vain to find out when the announcement will be made as to who the winner of the Dream cottage in Suffolk will be made. All I have is the closing date of 17th September. I wonder if you can. Yours sincerely B. Campbell (Mrs) , 22 Sep 2010
Bonus Tokens/Winner The bonus tokens were available from the Daily Mail website. Does anyone know who won the cottage? , 23 Sep 2010
 Re: Win a Dream Cottage Daily Mail Competition winner @ Barbara, Rob I could only find a couple of paragraphs in the T&Cs about how announcing the winner of the competition: 7. [...] The winner will be notified by telephone and post by September 30, 2010. 10. [...] Details of the winner may be obtained by sending an SAE to: Dream Cottage Winner, Promotions Department, Associated Newspapers Limited, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT within six weeks of the closing date of September 17, 2010. I'm afraid I haven't read any updates in the Daily Mail. Based on the T&Cs, it's difficult to know exactly when the winner's details will be published. You can either write to them as instructed above, or check our site from time to time: we'll publish the details as soon as we get hold of them here: http://win-house.co.uk/property-competitions/closed/2010/366-daily-mail-dream-cottage-competition-2010.html Good luck! , 26 Sep 2010
Elmswell I lived in the lane for many years, and spent many a good evening in this cottage (which at the time was owned by good friends of mine). The Cottage has lovely character! It is a quiet lane, there are train tracks running at the back of these gardens but the line is not a main line and very few trains pass, mainly 'sprinters'. The village itself is friendly and welcoming, and has a lovely little school. Perhaps I am biased as I lived there. But I am still fond of the place. :) , 29 Sep 2010
Cottage location Hi everyone, it is in Elmswell, Suffolk as my in-laws live in that village. They said that on the day of photographing the house they pinched flowers from all of the neighbours to make it look pretty and they don't believe that the roof is thatched like that at the back of the house either. , 04 Oct 2010
If only it is true!!! If someone was truly giving a house away, there wouldn't be codes. I think it is a scam to get money from us poor people. How could someone be so mean as to do that? The economy is bad right now and is only going to get worse! Wake up people nothing is ever free!!!!!!! , 07 Nov 2010
Re: If only it is true!!! @ Christine Frazee I'm as frustrated as you are by the delay but I disagree when you say that it's a scam. The DM having been running house competitions for years (usually 1 or 2 a year). These always involved collecting codes to enter. I've even read about winners in the past in the paper. That said, I think it's really bad that they haven't published the details yet I mean it's been ages! I'm sure they'll say they're waiting to confirm blah blah blah but it's taking too long... , 07 Nov 2010
Rigged? I don't believe they give away prizes on some of these newspaper competitions. It's easy to print fictious names and even pictures of prize winnners in papers, the Readers Digest were guilty of this. What about these past newspaper competitions where they were giving so much cash to the winner for life I can't see them paying out now still. I entered a national newspaper competition where you had to pick six horses on a nominated Saturday fixture it was the one before the king of the punters anyway entered my horses on this premium rate number I was given a code number watched the race all my six horses came in in the first six past the post. Wait until the next day no phone call so I rang the paper up on the Sunday I'm sure they weren't going to contact me. I gave my code number to the guy on the phone and he said I was 1 of 3 people who had won and gave me a another number I think it was a Newmarket area number the guy's name was Paul Smith a convenient hard to trace name I thought. Anyway gave this guy a call on the Monday I had to do the same thing again and pick six horses for a Plumpton race on that monday gave my selections watch the race and I thought I did quite well as much as though I've won this never heard anything so I gave the guy a ring later in the day and asked how well I'd done (I could hear a baby crying in the background) he got a bit snotty because I rang him up and said this other lady winner done better than me. They did print her name in the paper it was a Mrs Jones from Kent. A nice untraceble name again. Well I don't think they gave this 10 grand prize away back in about 1984 never had a letter or anything of them they must of got more money in premium rate calls. I think there should a independent body checking these competitions I notice they were quick in slating off the television comps when I believe there doing the same. , 19 Nov 2010
 Re: Rigged? @ Dean I think you're right to be suspicious! If the TV companies do it, why not the newspapers? Your story about the horses doesn't sound very transparent if you ask me and yes, the names they gave you couldn't be more generic! In this case the DM announced the details of the winners yesterday, with photos (Angela and Lee Mills from Sheffield). I think this one's genuine but you're right it would help to have someone controlling this a bit better to protect the players - especially if you're having to call a premium rate number! , 20 Nov 2010
Differences Hi, am I the only one who has noticed the elmswell cottage has 1 chimney the daily mail has 2, elmswell has 3 windows in the roof the mail has 2, and the elmswell has a porch the mail cottage has none. , 08 Dec 2010
Re: Differences @ Graham Yes, I think you're right about these differences. But the Elmswell cottage is definitely different from the latest one, even though they are both Daily Mail cottages - i.e. this post was about this summer's cottage, the post about the location of the Christmas cottage (Stowmarket very near Elmswell) can be found here: http://win-house.co.uk/blog/competitions-in-the-news/380-daily-mail-dream-christmas-cottage-location.html I think that explains why the 2 cottages definitely don't match! Good luck with the competition , 09 Dec 2010
Rigged Yes I think they have given the cottage away they have advertised the winner and a big picture which is not normal I think we had them running for cover I think too many people were on to them I think the power of the internet has helped. After all these hacking accusations I think I'm even more suspicious. The competition I entered was in 1994 not the date above. I've just ordered a copy of an old paper of the said date and month and year off the internet as I'm going to contact some relevant departments to look at my case. , 19 Jul 2011
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After publishing details of this year's free Daily Mail Dream Cottage competition, we receive lots of messages from people wondering where the thatched cottage could be.
