My wife and I recently spent five weeks touring Wales and the south of England and had the misfortune to stay at Hartswell Farm and agree and sympathize with Pam who wrote the review below.

We are a retired couple and after a particularly busy day we were have trouble finding accommodation in the Lostwithiel area. It was late afternoon when we saw the sign for Hartswell Farm B&B. We were shown to a room by the owner and although my wife was decidedly unimpressed, I was so tired that I made the decision to stay for the night. On our way back down the stairs the gentleman said it would be 36pounds. His wife, who we had not yet met and was laying down called out from a bedroom somewhere, "That's each."

This was the most expensive B&B of our trip and the only one we would not revisit.

Little has been done to make guests comfortable and what has been done is cheap and shoddy. I found the hosts to be amusingly quirky but they seem not to understand the business of hosting. Breakfast was also the poorest of our trip. My wife's "free-range" scrambled eggs were undercooked and my full English was small and mediocre at best. The lady seemed preoccupied with a cow she thought might calve that day. I would describe the place as, "Cheap rustic" and grossly overpriced for its grading and what it offers when compared to other B&B's we stayed at.

I fully understand we were not forced to stay there but feel we were taken advantage of due to our circumstances.

Needless to say, family and friends both in Canada and the UK know to avoid Hartswell Farm like the plague.

My rating of terrible is due only to there being no rating lower!

If you’re looking for a relaxing and stress-free holiday, the AA 3-star Hartswell Farm is NOT for you.

The 17th Century working farm conjours up an idyllic picture of Old England - wrong - what it is in reality is a few chickens surrounded by dozens of abandoned wrecked cars and rusty tractors and boats. The herd of cows we presume were grazing somewhere out of sight.

The intimidating and “over friendly” proprietor, together with his understandably nervous wife did nothing to relate to the advertisement we responded to. Apart from there being no privacy and no lock on our bedroom door, Mr & Mrs Jordan seemed intent on joining in on all our conversations

The website boasts :

Bedroom - Easy chairs and space to relax - we could only just walk round the twin beds and the en-suite was the size of a cupboard. There was no toilet brush or cleaning products in the bathroom and the room smelled extremely damp and musty.

Guests have their own sitting room - not true. The room, which we had to pass through to go out of the front door, was the owners‘ lounge. Each evening they were in the sitting room which meant we retreated to the bedroom to read and watch TV.

Ideal place to relax in peace and quiet - the few days we were there we were constantly confronted by the Jordans and had no privacy apart from our cramped bedroom. The strict rules on breakfast time which they dictated - (not a minute either way), the fact that we had to be out of the house by 10.00am and not return until 4.00pm, the inquisition when we requested a light breakfast which was clearly unacceptable to them - were just a few of many reasons which led us to vacate after only a couple of days.

So, we headed home, financially bruised and still in need of a holiday. We paid for 4 nights as a gesture of our speedy exit although we actually only stayed for 3 and for 2 breakfasts, one of which was cooked (cremated).

Cornwall has a lot of lovely attractions to offer - this is definitely not one of them.