Oakley Court

About Oakley Court

Oakley Court stands on the Berkshire bank of the Thames at Water Oakley, three miles upriver from Windsor on the road towards Bray. The house was built in 1859 in full Victorian Gothic - turrets, gables, tall chimneys - and its silhouette is oddly familiar to a lot of first-time guests, because Hammer Films used it as a set through the 1940s, 50s and 60s and it later appeared in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The grounds run to 35 acres, with lawns dropping to the river and a boathouse at the water's edge.

Accommodation is split between the Mansion House, where the rooms have the original proportions and window bays, and the Garden and Boathouse wings, which are newer and quieter. All were refurbished recently, and the style now mixes traditional English fabrics with plainer modernist furniture rather than the heavy period look the building might suggest. The best rooms look straight down the lawn to the Thames.

Dining includes Akira at Oakley Court, a ten-seat omakase counter serving Japanese technique applied to British and European ingredients, and the River House, which opens at weekends through the warmer months for terrace dining above the water. There are extensive function and meeting facilities, which means the house does a steady wedding trade - worth checking your dates if you want it quiet.

This suits couples who want country-house space within ten minutes of Windsor Castle, and anyone using the area as a base for Bray's restaurants, Ascot or the Great Park's western side. A car is effectively essential; the road frontage is on the A308 and there is no useful public transport. Parking is on site and free, which in this part of Berkshire is not a small thing.