Langford Fivehead
Style Big-hearted historic house
Setting Sleepy Lower Swell
Langford Fivehead, a historic Somerset estate, has all the qualities you crave in a companion: epicurean sensibilities, natural good looks, a rich history, and a surprise or two up its elegant sleeve.
Need to know
- Rooms 10, including a suite.
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Rates
Double rooms from $169.19 (£108), excluding tax at 20 per cent.
Prices have been converted from the hotel's local currency (£108), via XE.com, using today's exchange rate.
- More details Rates include Continental breakfast (plus pancakes and sausages on a Sunday). Guests are welcomed with a glass of bubbly, and a bottle of Madeira is left in each room.
- Facilities Gardens with a lake, croquet lawn and tennis court; ping pong table, library, stash of DVDs and CDs, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: free bottled water and Madeira (don’t expect TVs – the owners want guests to escape the trappings of daily life).
- Check-out 11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm (ask nicely, and a later time might be arranged).
- Children Very little ones don’t quite fit with the hotel’s atmosphere of grown-up sophistication, but over-12s are welcome. However, if the hotel is booked exclusively by one party, babies and small children can be catered for.
- Also Teasel can only be booked in conjunction with another room, because it shares a bathroom. Dukie’s Cottage, a three-bedroom building on the grounds, can also be booked for hotel or self-catering stays.
Food and drink at Langford Fivehead
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Hotel restaurant
Forget stuffy, starched hotel restaurants, Langford Fivehead breathes fresh air into the hotel-dining formula. Owner Orlando Murrin has years of experience as a food journalist and four cookbooks behind him, and it shows in his elegant dinners, served on Friday and Saturday evenings (be sure to request when booking). Guests can eat together around a stately wooden table in the dining room (or separately, if preferred). Past dishes include: smoked eel and hazelnuts, braised hogget with cider brandy sauce, and iced lemon soufflé.
- Dress code Dress for the menu: artfully relaxed in the week; poised and polished on Saturday night.
- Top table Get to know your fellow guests around the candlelit table in the dining room.
- Last orders Breakfast is available from 8.30am until 10.30am (enjoy it in the kitchen or in the dining room); lunch isn’t served; there’s one sitting for dinner, at 8pm.
- Room service None, but it’s bad form to snack between meals, given the effort Orlando goes to.
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Hotel bar
Despite the lack of a formal bar area, guests won’t go thirsty: there’s an honesty bar and an impressive wine list (bottles start at around £18), and each room has its own supply of Madeira. Owner Peter is a wine expert, and is happy to guide your choices.
Langford Fivehead Lower Swell, Taunton, Taunton, TA3 6PH
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Smith extra at Langford Fivehead
A signed copy of the owner's cookery book 'A Table in the Tarn'
Current offers at Langford Fivehead
In the know
Our favourite rooms
We love Nathaniel Barnard for its original graffiti (look at the fireplace, where Nathaniel – a former owner – etched his name into the stone). Ornate plastering meandering across the ceiling, a commanding four-poster bed, and a freestanding bath tub by the window are other standout features. A less lavish, but equally stylish option, is Jessie de Mowbray Matterson, named after another previous owner, who bought the estate in 1900 and steered it towards its most dramatic renovation. Victorian photos of Jessie and her family hang on the walls.
Packing tips
Tennis whites, an LBD (or the male equivalent: crisp ink-blue shirt and tailored trousers, perhaps?) and song sheets for your favourite show tunes – owner Orlando is a dab hand with the piano.
Also
Every weekend, the hotel offers a special package, which includes a wine and cider tasting, and a cookery demonstration. Go for a wander in the gardens looking for the pet graveyard, which dates back to the Edwardian era.
From the Guestbook…
After the slightly surreal lunch in Glastonbury and slight hiccup with the Sat Nav, driving up to Langford Fivehead fulfilled my expectations as the house came into view through th...
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