The Cornerstone of British Hospitality - The Country House Hotel is an Enduring Classic
• Owned by the National Trust and filled with antique treasures, Historic House Hotels
are no ordinary hotels
• Sleep, dine, explore and relax in magnificent surroundings
• A unique way to soak up centuries of history
The best country house hotel experience feels like you’re staying in the guest bedroom of a well-heeled friend’s house in the country. The service is full of thoughtful touches, but never over-fussy.
Reception rooms are furnished with deep sofas, wing-back armchairs, classically patterned wallpapers, and floral and striped fabrics. Framed oil paintings hang on rich-coloured walls, with decorative china, and vases of hand-picked flowers on tables.
Each of the bedrooms is bespoke, with vintage furniture, antique glassware, and personal touches such as bath oils or herbal tea bags left on pillows at bedtime.
Because the traditional country house hotel experience is a classic formula not to be messed with. Sleep, dine, explore and relax in magnificent surroundings. Then repeat. It’s a unique way to soak up centuries of history.
Time stands still at the country house hotel. After a restorative face or body treatment in the spa, you can read in the oak-panelled library, where a famous 18th-century lady diarist once took afternoon tea. Or to have a sparkly cocktail mixed to perfection by the bar team.
Dinner is served in the wood-panelled, candle-lit dining room, set with antique furniture and fine paintings. Classic British dishes are given inventive twists – roast duck with cherry and pistachio, sea scallops with compressed cucumber, ginger and wasabi, and a yummy Bakewell tart with chamomile and apricot. Wines are also taken seriously with extensive wine cards featuring the old and new worlds. And wine surprises include ‘bin end wines’ with special prices for popular finishing wines.
If you overindulge on the dinner menu, how about a spot of stargazing, or maybe a moon-lit stroll along the lime walk before bed?
Next day, after waking up in your royal suite or four-poster, it’s time to enjoy a leisurely gourmet breakfast, followed by a swim in the mosaic-lined pool, or a ramble in the 17th-century parterre filled with sweet-smelling herbs.
Today many country house hotels are part of large chains. But the best – like Historic House Hotels – are in private ownership. They continue in the old style and retain much of their original spirit. Unlike the newcomers on the block, many of their key staff have been in place for decades.
Now owned by the National Trust and filled with antique treasures, Historic House Hotels are no ordinary hotels. The service is made up of small acts of kindness from a glass of perfectly squeezed orange juice to the crisp turn-down of the sheets. Local area knowledge is also key on historic places to explore.
Expect all the classic country-house hotel treats, but offered with a level of charm and warmth to suit the discerning modern customer. Every inch of these National Trust-owned hotels has a story, and the knowledgeable staff have plenty of stories to help bring it to life.
Historic House Hotels was founded over forty years ago to acquire and rescue run-down country houses, then restore and convert them to hotels. Each building is at least 300 years old, and there are few hotels of such charm and historic interest.
In the past, each has been home to remarkable people. At Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire, the exiled King Louis XVIII of France lived for five years with his Queen and members of his Court. Bodysgallen Hall, in Llandudno, North Wales, was the home of the Mostyn family, who have featured prominently in Welsh history. And Middlethorpe Hall near York was once occupied by the 18th-century bluestocking and diarist, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
All three hotels have outstanding restaurants and serve delicious food, sourced locally and using seasonal produce grown on the hotels’ estates, for menus that are mainly British, with a few light continental inspirations. Every day, the head chef takes his pick of fresh ingredients from the huge kitchen garden bursting with salad leaves, vegetables, fruit and herbs.
Guests can relax in the superbly appointed Spas, where swimming pools, gymnasia and beauty treatments await.
Dogs are also invited to enjoy the country house hotel experience with each hotel welcoming dogs in selected bedrooms. Each hotel provides a dog bed, water bowl, snacks and those all-important little bags and there is no charge to bring the well-behaved pooch along.
In 2008, the three splendid houses were donated to the National Trust – the largest gift the Trust had ever received. They are run as a self-sufficient commercial operation by Historic House Hotels. But all profits generated directly support the Trust’s ongoing work.
Each stay, meal and spa experience at the three hotels supports the National Trust. So, you can book a guilt-free stay and help fund one of our great British institutions.
And you’re part of living history. The country house hotel was born in the late 1940s. The Second World War was over; people were looking for new ways to spend their time off and keen to explore their country. There had been leisure hotels in Britain before, of course, but this was a stay where you could be pampered in luxurious surroundings; offered a home-from-home with attentive service, good food, rest and recuperation.
Over the decades, of course, country house hospitality has been re-focused, wings and extensions have been added. Hotel owners now offer Michelin-starred restaurants, state-of-the-art gym facilities, aromatherapy saunas, vineyards, organic farms and market gardens.
These enduring classics have been subtly updated with modern fixtures. You can try your hand at padel, pickleball or petanque, take a tennis lesson or borrow an electric bike. But when you gaze out across the garden you can still imagine the French royal family playing croquet there with their children.
It’s that juxtaposition of modern and old, classic and design-forward that sets the modern country house apart. And Historic House Hotels understand better than anyone that, while the country house hotel continues to evolve, in some ways it has returned to its roots as a quiet sanctuary from the storm.
In a frantic modern world, we all love slow weekends tucking into wholesome food, wallowing in the spa pool, wandering the romantic grounds.
Yes there will be scones for tea on a silver cake stand, but also coffee and tea served to the bedroom, 111SKIN facials and Jessica nail treatments, as luxury and history rub shoulders.
Take your wellies, a copy of Wolf Hall and a generous appetite.
Notes to editors: B&B is priced from £315 at Hartwell House / £275 at Bodysgallen Hall / £289 at Middlethorpe Hall – based on a double room with two guests. This also includes use of the spa facilities.
• Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire – “The Royal Retreat”
Forty miles north west of London, with 48 unique bedrooms and suites, individually designed in a traditional country house, with antiques and fine paintings, Hartwell House is a Grade I-listed property standing in over 90 acres of gardens and parkland. Guests will be staying in illustrious company. The most famous resident was Louis XVIII, exiled King of France. In 1938 the house and estate were acquired by Ernest Cook, an early hero of the conservation movement. The main Dining Room has been designed in the style of the early 19th-century architect, Sir John Soane. The restaurant has been awarded two AA Rosettes. Hartwell Spa in the grounds has a mosaic-lined indoor swimming pool, sauna and steam rooms, gym and café. Guests can spend hours discovering the grounds which include a Gothic Tower, a Statue of Hercules, a Bridge which comprises the central arch of James Paine’s Kew Bridge, Lime Avenue; a mile-long double avenue of limes and the Canal Temple home to 10,000 daffodils. A kitchen garden used by the chefs features apricot, peach, pear and plum trees. Guests can follow a trail around the grounds with a copy of their Tree Map, to identify 10 prize specimens, from a Horse Chestnut and a London Plane tree to a Giant Sequoia. Two all-weather, outdoor tennis courts are also available for guest use.
• Bodysgallen Hall, Llandudno – “O’r Môr I’r Mynydd” (“From Mountains to Sea”)
Seventeenth-century Bodysgallen Hall enjoys a privileged location in North Wales with spectacular views of Snowdonia. Grade I-listed, the house now features 31 spacious bedrooms split between the house and cottage suites. Each of the bedrooms has been individually furnished in a traditional style and decorated with antique furniture and works of art. The rooms enjoy glorious views over Bodysgallen’s 220 acres of parkland and gardens. Several cottage suites have their own private gardens. Bodysgallen Spa includes a large indoor swimming pool, steam room, sauna and gym. There is a tranquil relaxation room and sun terrace for warmer days. The restaurant at Bodysgallen Hall overlooks the stunning gardens and has been awarded three AA Rosettes for 20 consecutive years. The Gardens at Bodysgallen Hall have been described as Wales’s greatest gardens in a hotel. Featured are the rare C17th parterre of box hedges filled with sweet smelling herbs, natural limestone outcrops, a rockery with cascade, walled gardens, a lily pond and several follies. There is also a formal rose garden and a variety of well-established specimen trees and shrubs. Several woodland walks enhance the outdoor experience, including a dramatic terrace to the South of the main garden with wonderful views of river, mountain and castle. Another highlight is the kitchen garden which provides the freshest of ingredients for the table, with an abundance of seasonal foliage for in house arrangements.
• Middlethorpe Hall, York – “The only Country House Hotel in York”
Middlethorpe Hall, the only country house hotel in the City of York, is the perfect base to combine both a country and city experience. Standing in 20 acres of its own award-winning gardens, the beautiful William and Mary house was formerly the home of the famous 18th-century diarist Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. There are 29 bedrooms, an award-winning restaurant and boutique spa. Each of the bedrooms at Middlethorpe Hall is individually designed and has its own distinct story. The classically panelled dining room provides the perfect setting to enjoy the contemporary take on traditional British food. The restaurant has been awarded two AA Rosettes. The boutique spa at Middlethorpe Hall, with its blue-tiled pool and sauna, is the perfect place to relax and recharge with spa treatments.
