Sedgebrook Hall

“More a business, conference and wedding hotel, in a rural setting.”

Sedgebrook Hall has some good things going for it. The staff are very friendly and helpful. The rooms and bathrooms are spotlessly clean. The breakfast is plentiful and of good quality. The restaurant has a good , varied menu. There is plenty of parking and the hotel is in a picturesque rural setti… more

Sedgebrook Hall has some good things going for it. The staff are very friendly and helpful. The rooms and bathrooms are spotlessly clean. The breakfast is plentiful and of good quality. The restaurant has a good , varied menu. There is plenty of parking and the hotel is in a picturesque rural setting. However, Sedgebrook Hall main house is for weddings and conferences only. The guest rooms and facilities are all in a modern annexe. From our two night stay it was clear that the day to day focus of this hotel is business, with conferences and seminars being the name of the game. As long as that is your expectation, despite the online marketing always majoring on exterior shots of the main house, then fine. Don't expect to stay in it though. To that extent we were disappointed. This is not a traditional country house hotel where you actually stay in the house itself. Apart from a few quibbles ( reception does not pick up the phone after 6pm, the in-room cupboard has minimal space, there is only one reading light in the room, only liquid soap in the bathroom, and so on) our stay as an ordinary couple, not in a seminar or conference, was pleasant enough. The hotel staff helped make it so.

less

“good for getting to places worth visiting”

the swimming pool was not as big as it looked in the picture online, and the rooms all seemed to be behind the old part of the hotel. It was a bit soulless, but okay as there were places close by to visit. The food was only average. We went because of the special online offer; not sure it would ha… more

the swimming pool was not as big as it looked in the picture online, and the rooms all seemed to be behind the old part of the hotel. It was a bit soulless, but okay as there were places close by to visit. The food was only average. We went because of the special online offer; not sure it would have been worth the full price.

less

“Nice room, bit chilly, AVOID DINNER AND THE EVENING FOOD AT ALL COSTS”

PROS We arrived here to celebrate our recent engagement as a little getaway. The rooms are really lovely as they seem to be fairly newly refurbished. The bed was comfortable with cute little snacks as a complementary extra. The bath robes were a great touch and the superior room came with a lovel… more

PROS We arrived here to celebrate our recent engagement as a little getaway. The rooms are really lovely as they seem to be fairly newly refurbished. The bed was comfortable with cute little snacks as a complementary extra. The bath robes were a great touch and the superior room came with a lovely walk in shower. We enjoyed the room all in all. The grounds are well kept and it’s around a 5/10 minute walk to a lovely little pub next door called the Brampton Holt - would 100% recommend going for a drink here instead of the hotel bar - I’ll mention this in the Cons however. The leisure centre was decent enough, the pool was a comfortable temperature and we enjoyed having the jacuzzi and pool to ourselves for an hour around 3pm - 4pm as we checked in and headed straight to the leisure facilities which seemed like the right call. The pool and jacuzzi area is not huge so more people in there would definitely make it feel quite crowded, as even just 2 others who joined us near the end of our usage made it feel just that bit smaller. The sauna is quite small so bear that in mind if there’s a few people using the facilities - luckily we also had this to ourselves for a good 15 minutes which was just enough for us. We realised a lot more people were coming to use the facilities as we were leaving and this was around 5pm so we got quite lucky to have the whole place to ourselves for an hour. The breakfast at the hotel is great, a fresh buffet with a good selection of hot and cold items alongside a few pastries such a butter croissants, English muffins, crumpets etc. Orange and apple juice was available to help yourself to as well as coffee machines which made an okay cup of coffee. No issues with the breakfast however…. The dinner…. That’s another story. CONS Although the rooms are comfortable, it gets very cold at night and it seems the hotel doesn’t have enough heaters to go around as we overhead a very unhappy lady talking about how they ran out of heaters to hand out to her during the night as we were checking out. Luckily, we’re quite warm people and could deal with cuddling up to one another so we didn’t need a heater but for other people, especially older people, the cold would definitely be a big issue. THE BIG DOWNFALL is the food. Breakfast had no issue and was actually one of the best hotel breakfasts I’ve ever had - but then again, breakfast isn’t very hard to mess up. Dinner was awful. The menu firstly was all over the place - definitely not what you’d expect from a luxury country hall. There was no theme to it and it was just sub par bar food that seemed to be jazzed up on the menu. We waited around half an hour for our starter which was a sharing board of nachos (for a luxury hall? Very odd), loaded fries and chicken wings. It was really the only appetising looking starter on there so we decided to share between the two of us as we’re a sharey sort of couple. It was just quite normal food that was pretending to be a bit fancier than what it was really. The main courses - we were convinced we were forgotten about. When we finished our starter, we waited for about 20 minutes before a server came over to take away the plates. She asked if we wanted dessert and we said we’re waiting on our mains but I think she got flustered and didn’t really take notice of that because she took our plates and said, ‘let me know if I can get you anything else’. We then waited a further 40 minutes for our mains before my fiancé had to call over a server to ask if our mains were ready yet. Only then did our mains come out, after another 20 minutes of waiting. We reckon we were forgotten about as 2 big groups of elderly patrons came in after us and had everything (starters, mains and desserts) served to them before our mains had even come out. Then the mains… how do I even start on this. Not only does the menu need a complete rehaul, but I don’t think I’ve ever gagged at food in my life. I’m not a fussy eater, actually I love a bit of everything and rarely complain but this was something I can’t let slide. The pork belly was basically ALL fat. And not the good kind you’d find on a pork belly. It was basically pork fat jelly on about a bite of dry stringy pork. The bok choy was almost drowning in the sweet and sour sauce and I had to get a meat knife to be able to cut it. It was like eating slime it was that bad. The chicken schnitzel was basically a Birds Eye battered fillet on the plate with a sad bit of rocket and Parmesan chucked on the top to try and hide the fact that bland, dry chicken lay dead on the plate beneath it. Truly and awful dinner experience. I wouldn’t buy the dinner and breakfast deal and opt to go for dinner at the Brampton Holt instead because that food looked truly amazing. If we didn’t have the dinner and drinks package with the overnight stay, we would’ve 100% eaten and drank at the Brampton Holt instead and saved the insane extra money a large coke cost us as well as the dismal dinner. Other than the food and the chilly temperature of the rooms, it was a nice hotel. Just get the restaurant inspector in to give the restaurant a much needed revamp and you’ll have a gem of a hotel. Or at least a chef who cares about what he sends out the kitchen…

less

“Clean comfortable room, pleasant helpful staff but not really suitable for people with mobility problems”

We only stayed overnight so did not use the amenities. The room was clean and comfortable and had an excellent shower with grab-rails. I agree about the noise problem. We could certainly hear the neighbours but luckily they were quiet at a reasonable hour. We enjoyed a pleasant and reasonably pric… more

We only stayed overnight so did not use the amenities. The room was clean and comfortable and had an excellent shower with grab-rails. I agree about the noise problem. We could certainly hear the neighbours but luckily they were quiet at a reasonable hour. We enjoyed a pleasant and reasonably priced evening meal Sadly, although most of the breakfast items were good, even at 8am several of them were cold. The staff are a major asset. We found them pleasant and helpful. I’m afraid that I could not recommend the hotel to people with mobility issues. Even with a ground floor room, there were two sets of stairs to negotiate on the way to the dining room. Might I also suggest more and better signage. Finding one’s way around the hotel was not easy.

less