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Website Design and all photography rights reserved. Copyright Bob Cook & Leslie Whipps - La Denillière. Website Design - sabina.lorkin
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About Us
Leslie has worked and competed with horses for almost 35 years. As a small boy along with twin brother Tony Whipps, the pair went looking for riding stables when the family moved from south-east London to Kent in 1969 and they have been around horses ever since.
Bob bred, showed and judged dogs for many years and this led on to owning a grooming parlour during the late 1980's.
Renovation
After several setbacks, the main one being the freak hurricane in December 1999 which caused some damage to La Denillière, work began at the beginning of 2001 to convert the two barns.
After our holiday experience a year earlier we were determined to provide gîtes that could be lived in all year round.
"We wanted to create a proper 'home from home' rather than a temporary holiday cottage"
"We chose Normandy as we both love history and the countryside and we found an abundance of both"
However the gîte we stayed in was less than adequate. It was this that helped make our decision to return the following year and try to find a suitable property.
"In the Spring of 1999 we made that return journey and on the second day of house hunting we discovered La Denillière"
"Now that the gîte is complete we will each year endeavour to try and improve on the good work that has already been done"
Therefore, it is tastefully decorated and furnished. It is also complimented by quality antiques and artwork and is fully equipped to the highest standard.
"Our aim has always been to give you excellence, everything to enable you to enjoy your holiday"
Bob Cook & Leslie Whipps
When we met we decided to take on an Equestrian centre in Horsham in Sussex, but after the rating changes of the early 1990's decided to give it up and make a complete move to the West Country and seek new careers.
Leslie started a course in horticulture at agricultural college, but horses soon found their way back into his life.
At the end of 1997 Bob took early retirement from a career working with children with emotional and behavioural problems.
Leslie was still traveling from their home in Wiltshire to Surrey each week to teach riding.
"We dealt, as we occasionally still do, in antiques but by the spring of 1998 we decided that we needed to do something a little different with our lives"Always keen on travel and looking for a new challenge or adventure, we had in previous years considered
Owning a home in France had been considered as far back as 1988 so ten years later we decided to have a gîte holiday to see what we thought about it.
La Petite Maison (The little house) during restoration.
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