Ettington Park Hotel

About Ettington Park Hotel

Ettington Park stands in about forty acres of Warwickshire parkland at Alderminster, six miles south of Stratford-upon-Avon on the A3400 towards Shipston. The house is an extravagant piece of Victorian neo-Gothic, rebuilt in the 1860s in banded local stone with carved friezes, gargoyles and a private chapel, on a site the Shirley family had held since the Domesday survey. It has long been the most architecturally ambitious hotel in the district, and it holds an AA four red star rating.

Inside, the public rooms keep the scale of the original house: a galleried hall, a long drawing room with a heavy carved chimneypiece, and a library that serves as the bar. Bedrooms run from comfortable doubles in the newer wing to substantial feature rooms in the main house with four-posters and park views, and no two are laid out identically. The Oak Room restaurant works to two AA rosettes with a seasonal British menu, and afternoon tea is a significant part of the day here.

Facilities are better than most country houses of this size manage, with an indoor swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi and treatment rooms, plus tennis and croquet in the grounds. The location suits people who want Stratford within a fifteen-minute drive but would rather wake up in open country, and it is equally well placed for the southern Cotswolds and for Warwick. There is ample free parking, and the hotel is a popular wedding venue, so it is worth checking what else is booked if you want a quiet weekend.