"Ancient, evocative coaching inn, with good spa and restaurant; multi-million pound room upgrades underway."
The Lygon Arms in the Cotswolds was a coaching house for 500 years before it was a luxury hotel. Just think, while landlord John Trevis was carving ‘1620’ above the door to mark the year he took it over, the Pilgrims were setting sail for the New World.
All the Lygon Arms’ history lives on in its original flagstones, crooked beams and oak panelling; there are secret passageways and vast inglenook fireplaces and lots of fascinating nooks and crannies. There is also furniture and art that has been handed down from the very start of its life as an inn, including some fine Jacobean paintings. It overflows with atmosphere and character, without feeling Disney-fied.
The facilities
The inn is a surprisingly large maze of buildings, twisty corridors, outbuildings and gardens. The outbuildings are now mainly given over to a spa, complete with a heated indoor pool that has a retractable roof for the summer time. There are three acres of planted gardens, with a tennis court and croquet lawn.
The Lygon Arms is wise enough to keep its guests fed and watered in very fine style. The restaurant, in a dramatic baronial hall built to house the North Cotswold Hunt during their annual Ball, was awarded its first Michelin star in 2005. It’s a grand space, better for dinner en famille than for romantic dalliance. Service is formal yet solicitous and friendly. After dinner, retire to one of the bars, a little snug with battered leather armchairs in front of a delightfully wonky inglenook fireplace that’s big enough to park a car in. Fantastic.
The rooms
This luxury hotel has 69 rooms and suites, half in the original building and half in the Garden and Orchard wings. Naturally, for such an ancient building, they are all different in style and layout. The further you go up the scale from double and twins to deluxe kings and queens, the more original features you get – exposed beams, fireplaces, original leaded windows. Décor tends towards the traditional and English, very comfortable and not too chintzy. Amenities are decent - good solid stuff.
Suites are wonderful. The Broadway Suite has a large, old-fashioned bathroom, a glorious four-poster and a proper fireplace with logs stacked next to it in the sitting room.
You can sleep in the same room as Charles I, who rallied his Cavalier supporters here, or Oliver Cromwell, who met here with his generals (you can imagine him being a horrible fellow guest). The Charles I Master Suite has 16th-century panelling on the walls, a roll-top bath and lots of furniture that’s original to the room – it’s hard to get more evocative than this.
Address: Broadway, Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom, WR12 7DU
Rates from:
GBP 99
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Who stays here
The guest book records Diana Rigg, Sir Alec Guinness, Tom Cruise, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and, lately, Kate Moss and Stella McCartney.
Come for
- It's steeped in history: Charles I and Cromwell both stayed here
- Good location in a very charming Cotswolds market town
- Great spa and indoor pool
Not suitable for
- Intimate weekends - it's rambling, with annexes
- The superstitious - there are ghosts galore
Children
The hotel welcomes children, but has few family-oriented services or activities. They can give you a number for a babysitting service, but do not arrange a babysitter for guests. Extra beds are available for the room. Families can request rooms next to each other, but there are no interconnecting rooms.
Eating in
Book ahead for the one-Michelin-starred restaurant, in a grand baronial hall with a minstrel's gallery (last orders 9 p.m.) Excellent wine cellars; a French-style cafe for pastries and light bites; log fires in the bar.
