Brockencote Hall Hotel

A beautiful Victorian country Manor House, now a popular luxury hotel, set in 70 acres of parkland, with its own lake, restored dovecote, and extensive parkland with many specimen trees. The hotel itself has 21 elegantly decorated luxury bedrooms, award winning 3AA Rosette restaurant with stunning deco offering afternoon tea, dinner, and during the summer months, a lunch menu. Dining here will be an occasion you will never forget. The Doomsday book mentions the village of Chaddesley and of three mills that were here at that time, where a Mr Richard Millward worked as a miller in 1397. The land around here once formed part on an ancient manor of Chaddesley, with one of the pastures known as “bumpy meadow” which referred to the uneven ground making up the surface, which some say was caused by a number of now dried up fishponds and a water mill that also stood on the land. During 1880 a Mr Henry Willis, a well respected and rich man, bought the Brockencote estate, then rebuilt the hall on the site of the ancient manor. He became a patron of the arts and had a fine collection in his new hall, but sadly, in 1897 he faced financial problems and had to sell the hall at auction. In the early 1920’s the hall was bought by Ernest Palethorpe, who also owned Stone Manor, just a few miles away. Then It was sold to the Butler family, of the brewery Mitchell and Butler, and they started to redeveloped the hall, but a fire caused considerable damage, which made them alter the structure of the building. The hall was then sold in 1980’s to Mr Robert Lench. He then sold the property in 1983 to Rowland Jones, a builder, who then began to restore this Victorian Manor. He cleared the land, pulled down old buildings and planted the dead and dying trees with a variety of specimens, which you will see around the grounds. Having improved the land and hall, it was put up for sale, and in 1985, Joseph Petitjean and his his wife Alison bought the estate, and put in a lot of money and extended the hall, and for 25 years built up a reputation for a fine dining experience here. But in 2011, the hall was once again sold, to Mr Peter Rigby, founder of the Eden Collection of Hotels, and a multi million pound refurbishment has made this hotel one we should not miss without a visit. It is now one of five hotels under their care, and we have previously reviewed one such, the five star Mallory Court country hotel, in Warwick, which we raved about, so this will be interesting to see how it lives up to our expectations. We have also enjoyed their hotel in Stratford apon Avon, and we will shortly be visiting their Greenwood hotel in Cheltenham, so keep your eyes open for this review. OUR REVIEW OF BROCKENCOTE HALL HOTEL. You arrive along a long drive in a beautiful setting (photo 1) and pass a lovely lake (2) with many’s birds on it. Then we had our view of this impressive Hall (3) with a fair sized car park, but only one disabled parking spot (4). Alongside you see the long and paved steep ramp you use to get up to the hotels main entrance (5) and a small Easily picked up ramp was at the top ready for us to lay down on the step to get us into the reception area (6) and we entered the hotel (7). A beautiful stained wooden reception desk welcomed us, (well the gentleman behind the desk did so) with an ornate staircase next to it (8) and invited us to sit and enjoy the delightful reception lounge (9) beautifully decorated and so inviting, while he instructed his staff to prepare a table for us so as to allow us to partake of a drink or two, and here we advise you to prebook a table for either afternoon tea or when available, the lunch menu, as we discovered, this is a very popular hotel. He then kindly escorted us through a small but attractive dining area (10) into the bar lounge (11) with again beautiful ornately carved wooden fixtures of the bar itself, and an inviting lounge in mellow decor, and large open windows overlooking the grounds, (12) where we enjoyed our coffee and biscuit break, while with envy we joined those who had prebooked afternoon tea. A doorway by our side in the corner led out to the delightful terrace, (13) but unfortunately there are steps and no ramp. From the terrace there are beautiful views of the grounds to enjoy. (14). The restaurant is quite large and very elegant (15), with room to get your wheelchair around so as to sit at one ot these delightful tables (16). Afternoon tea may be enjoyed at a number of smaller but lovely rooms (17) or even arranged private dining may be booked in one of their opulant dining rooms, very elegant (18). Back at the bar, (19) we admired the delicate carved oak bar itself, while my husband poured out his longed for pot of tea, while I suffered a glass of wine, or two, thank goodness he is driving. OUR FINAL THOUGHTS Absolutely delightful. The deco throughout was tasteful, elegant, and comfortable, and the whole hotel was lovely and warm on this cold windy February day, it’s such a lovely hotel to sit and relax in. Without question we recommend you giving this hotel a try, even if you have to make the effort with its few steps you need to get over, so go and enjoy the experience when you can.