Cotswolds, United Kingdom

The Rectory Hotel

Price per night from$178.87

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP141.67), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Best of British

Setting

Winsome walled grounds

Once upon a time, a rector and his 14 children had the original rectory all to themselves – these days, we can all rock up to The Rectory Hotel (praise be). Items worth giving thanks for include: the romantic rooms with their field-and-village views, the excellent restaurant, the al fresco pool and the thoughtful extras, from the relaxed service to the just-baked cakes. Of course, the Cotswolds countryside (and its snug-as-a-bug pubs) isn’t half bad, either…

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A full-size hand cream from the Bramley bath products array

Facilities

Photos The Rectory Hotel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Eighteen.

Check–Out

11am; earliest check-in, 3pm. (Both are flexible, subject to availability.)

Prices

Double rooms from £170.00, including tax at 20 per cent.

More details

Rates usually include a generous buffet breakfast featuring home-made granola, muesli, toast, cereals, fruit salad, crème fraîche, yoghurts and the ilk. If you’re still hungry for more, order from the a la carte menu (options are £12.50 each).

Also

The communal areas on the ground floor are suited to wheelchair-users; that said, there are no wheelchair-friendly toilets.

At the hotel

Walled grounds; free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, marshmallow-soft bathrobes, Bramley bath products, tea- and coffee-making kit, fresh milk, home-made biscuits. Some rooms also have a retro Roberts Radio.

Our favourite rooms

Thanks to the historic building and its characterful irregularities, each of the Rectory’s rooms differs in shape and feel. Room 11 is particularly lovely, thanks to its top-floor perch and garden views. The roll-top bath tub in the bedroom and the village views through the large sash windows are the icing on the (Victoria sponge) cake. Make the most of the bathroom’s stash of muscle-wooing lavender bath salts while you’re here…

Poolside

In the summer months, expect to while away a lot of time in the outdoor heated pool, which is equipped with an honesty bar and a telephone for ad-hoc guest requests.

Packing tips

Accessorise with a dog: it will complete your country-casual look. If you’re not a fan of man’s best friend or don’t have easy access to a hound (we’re not suggesting you steal one), bring a couple of good reads, some cosy cashmere and a spiffing British cologne: a Penhaligon’s elixir, perhaps.

Also

The hotel’s restaurant gets booked up in advance; to avoid tantrums, arrange your own table asap. (The same goes for the Rectory Hotel’s sister property, the Potting Shed Pub.) Rooms are stocked with tea, coffee, fresh milk and home-made shortbread.

Pet‐friendly

Dogs are welcome in the Small and Medium rooms, as well as the Cottage, for £30 a night. Dog treats and beds can also be provided. See more pet-friendly hotels in Cotswolds.

Children

This hotel is designed for grown-ups, but well-behaved little ’uns can come too, as long as they’re supervised. Extra beds can only be added to some rooms, so ask at time of booking if you're bringing little Smiths along.

Food and Drink

Photos The Rectory Hotel food and drink

Top Table

The restaurant’s Glasshouse conservatory is a winsome setting for meals: by day, it’s lavished with natural light; by night, it flickers with candles.

Dress Code

Slippers and a smile at breakfast; something a little more formal for dinner.

Hotel restaurant

Traditional but unstuffy – and decidedly delicious – British fare is served in the laid-back restaurant: sink your teeth into beef Wellington, wild-boar steak, local crayfish, clams with seaweed butter, Florentine doughnuts or dark-chocolate marquise with candied hazelnuts, for example. A cheese trolley adds a pleasingly theatrical flourish.

 

Hotel bar

The bottle-green bar with its snug corners and inviting velvet sofas is definitely designed for convivial lounging. There’s an impeccable gin and wine selection and a cocktail list that ticks off all the classics (you could also try a local ale or cider). If you’re peckish, order from the restaurant menu, or nibble on olives, nuts and bar snacks.

Last orders

The bar has a 24-hour license. Breakfast is served between 7.30am and 10.30am, lunch from noon until 2.30pm, and dinner between 6pm and 10pm. In summer months, food is also served outside from noon until 10pm.

Room service

A full menu is available during restaurant hours, but the kitchen can usually magic up a sandwich, salad or omelette if you’re peckish at peculiar times.

Location

Photos The Rectory Hotel location
Address
The Rectory Hotel
Crudwell, Malmesbury,
Crudwell
SN16 9EP
United Kingdom

The Rectory Hotel is a beautiful small boutique hotel in the Cotswolds. It's nestled between Malmesbury and Cirencester, in the Cotswolds-pretty village of Crudwell, which dates back to the Domesday Book.

Planes

Bristol Airport is a 70-minute drive away; London Heathrow is an hour and a half from the hotel by car. (Let Smith24 sort your flights and transfers.)

Trains

Kemble station is three miles from the hotel. It takes around 70 minutes to get here from London Paddington (www.gwr.com).

Automobiles

The hotel is a 10-minute drive from the town of Cirencester; the hotel has plenty of on-site parking space.

Other

Use the lawn as your helipad if you wish to arrive in style.

Worth getting out of bed for

Post-breakfast at the Rectory, go for a ramble in the grounds and seek out the Grade II-listed dovecote, which dates back to the 13th century. Next, pootle around the dinky village of Crudwell, admiring All Saints Church and the village’s historic architecture. Back at the hotel, borrow a magazine and snuggle up by the fire with a slice of just-baked cake. Try horse riding and clay-pigeon shooting near the hotel (obliging staff can arrange either). Sample the region’s bountiful produce at the Stroud Farmers' Market. Browse antiques at Lorfords Antique Emporium in Tetbury or roam around Stow-on-the-Wold: the Cotswolds' epicentre for antiques. (Perusing the shops of Burford, Cirencester and Moreton-in-Marsh is just as enjoyable.) Westonbirt Arboretum has one of the world’s most spectacular tree collections. You can happily spend a day kicking up leaves and gazing at the staggeringly tall redwoods. Take a picnic – and binoculars for some top twitching. Malmesbury Abbey is the oldest abbey in England; ambling around the town there is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Go for a helicopter ride or aerobatic flight at nearby Kemble airfield, or try your hand at piloting a light aircraft.

Local restaurants

Adjacent to Malmesbury’s mediaeval abbey, Wisteria-covered 13th-century inn The Old Bell has an elegant Edwardian restaurant with a classic Anglo-French menu. There are outside tables in summer, but on busy weekends you’ll need a reservation for the dining room. If you like the idea of thin-crust pizzas cooked to nonno’s standards, try The Birdcage, also in Malmesbury. The Wild Duck Inn is a lovely old pub in Ewen, with real ales, good food and an attractive, tree-shaded courtyard. Also nearby, in Tetbury, Calcot Manor has two restaurants: book dinner for truly fine dining in the Conservatory, or drop in on its gastropub the Gumstool Inn on your way home from Westonbirt Arboretum. A few miles east of Malmesbury, Whatley Manor also has two excellent eateries: splash out one of the French tasting menus in the Dining Room, or have a relaxed Sunday lunch at Le Mazot, an informal brasserie.

Local bars

The Potting Shed Pub (01666 577833) is across the common right here in Crudwell, and is the sister pub to the Rectory; here you can enjoy an exuberantly British menu of seasonal produce such as honey-glazed roast rabbit in Farrow & Ball’d surroundings.

Reviews

Photos The Rectory Hotel reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this ravishing hotel in Crudwell and unpacked their cider and shortbread, a full account of their British country break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Rectory Hotel in Crudwell

In another life, the Rectory Hotel was a home for the parish rector and his 14 – that’s right, 14 – children. You can’t help thinking that they had a helping hand in accessing saintly feelings, given their celestial surroundings: this honey-hued country home set in handsome walled gardens. Crudwell, the Rectory’s village, has all the requisite rustic charm that you’d expect from its prime Cotswolds postcode, including a historic church that backs onto the hotel’s grounds (look out for its original baptismal font, reimagined as a water feature in the grounds). Hallelujahs also go to the friendly, relaxed staff and the excellent chef, who turns out irreproachable clams with seaweed butter, wild-boar steak and other delicious morsels, best enjoyed in the pretty conservatory. Add in G&Ts, just-baked cake, rural rambles and cosy spots by the fire, and you’ve all the ingredients for an irreproachably great British mini-break…

 
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Price per night from $178.87