Queen Victoria made Osborne House her home for 50 years before her death in 1901. The house, overlooking the Solent on the Isle of Wight, was then given to the nation and used as a naval cadet training centre.

It was at this time that a cricket pavilion was built, a fine black and white timbered affair that eventually became a storeroom. The cricket pitch went over to arable farming.

But English Heritage has converted the building and it is now one of 14 EH properties to rent. What's more, it's the most popular in the portfolio and is booked two years in advance (with the odd availability here and there).

It's part of a growing demand for special places to stay - 10 more have opened to rent in 2008, joining hundreds of others as Britain's heritage custodians open up castles and towers to tourists.

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• Inside the Osborne House holiday cottage

It works for all: we get a far greater choice of quality, idiosyncratic holiday homes in great locations, while the country's heritage guardians receive more income (largely forced by government pressure to become more commercial) and the satisfaction of showing off their work to more and sundry.

The Pavilion cottage - which opened for rent in April, 2006 - is available for hire year-round, but high season periods are booked for two years in advance - and was full on 86 per cent of all days last year.

It must rank it among the most popular holiday cottages in the country - if not top of the lists. During the summer weeks and public holidays, only week-long rentals are available - at other period, three- or four-night breaks.

"It's very much an anniversary-type place: people come here for special occasions," said housekeeper Pauline Ford. "But it's booked so far in advance that people ring up for a big occasion a year or more in advance and find the dates are already booked."

The majority are couples, then families. One couple married in the grounds of Osborne House, then spent their wedding night in the cottage. Lots of visitors are return guests - including the Perkins family (three times in 2007) and Carol and Chris (twice this year, returning in June).

Also in the visitors' book are the Hyams family: "We have waited a long time for this holiday!"

One of the big attractions of the cottage is that they have the grounds of Osborne House to themselves after the last visitors leave at 6pm. And they also have private use of Queen Victoria's beach - which Prince Albert dubbed reminiscent of Naples Bay.

Not many holiday cottages can boast that.

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