The Landmark Trust is a charity, set up in 1965 to rescue and preserve historic buildings, which it lets as holiday rentals. From gothic temples to towers, they are a world away from standard holiday brochure fare. The Pineapple, an elaborate Scottish summer house, is perhaps its most widely recognised property, but there are almost 200 spread across Britain, plus a handful, recently added, in France and Italy.
M and I are off to Ingestre Pavilion because – well, I rarely visit Staffordshire and the building looks fantastic. I phone several days ahead, as requested, so that Wendy the (very helpful) housekeeper can give me key collection instructions. Tea and milk are provided, as are towels and bedding, but nothing else. As at most Landmarks, apparently, there is an open fire and we can purchase fuel locally.
Directions are good and clear. M and I head off-road confidently, along a semi-flooded track, through a farmyard, and eventually into woodland until – "Ooh look!" – the headlights pick out a stone facade with Ionic columns. It's not Mellors' hut (from Lady Chatterley's Lover), that's for sure.
On this wet, windy evening, we get everything inside in record time. Flick, flick, lights on. Ta-da! A chandelier illuminates a red, octagonal, double-height drawing room. Oo-er! An oil portrait above the fireplace and an Arcadian scene complete the look. Arched doorways lead to the kitchen, ground-floor shower room, and ground-floor twin bedroom. Upstairs, a galleried landing (with marble bust) connects a double room and bathroom with a further twin bedroom. Altogether it sleeps six.
"A historic wendy house in the middle of a wood," says M, wrestling with 10ft curtains to keep out the filthy night.
We get a fire going, then make supper from farmshop purchases in the eat-in kitchen. Good crockery, plenty of pans and teapots. "Nice collection of 1950s Pyrex, and even one of those brown mixing bowls," says M.
No telly, no Wi-Fi, scant phone signal. We browse the bookshelves and take up positions in fireside armchairs. Outside, owls are hunting.
A Pevsner architectural guide tells us that the pavilion is mid-18th-century, "Rusticated and pedimented. Central recess and a screen of Ionic columns." We're left in the dark about why it was built and who might have lived here, but the Trust had to reconstruct it completely, we learn, apart from the ornate frontage.
The bedrooms seem cosy, but the sleeping arrangements are a bit more "period" than we'd like. Does the Trust put sheets and blankets in all its houses? If so, someone should tell them there is a reason why everyone else has switched to duvets.
"Weirdly, it's warmer out of bed than in," says M in the morning, and that's with the two extra blankets my jammy companion found in a cupboard.
I'm first to brave the shower – a good hot blast in a nippy bathroom. Fab view though, down a clearing in what was once a Capability Brown landscape. By contrast, the upstairs loo has a double-aspect view of woodland and the tops of the stone columns.
"No matter how grand a place is, suburban reality always lurks nearby," says M, surveying the bins from the kitchen sink. If we'd brought a little more suburbia with us – duvets, hot‑water bottles and thick slippers for cold bathroom lino – we could happily have stayed put in this magnificent woodland hideaway for a whole week.
• Landmark Trust (01628 825925, landmark.org.uk). Ingestre Pavilion sleeps six; from £551 for a three-night weekend or £362 for four-night midweek break. Many Trust properties are pet-friendly and Ingestre Pavilion is one
