The Old Vicarage

Some might call it old fashioned; we prefer to say traditional. We enjoyed a two night stay of relaxation and recuperation in this perfectly pleasant countryside gem A comfy bed, delicious breakfasts and a bit of banter. What more could one wish? Thank you to David, Sarah and staff for 'ministering' to us so well at The Old Vicarage.

So February was my last visit here.. I was planning one popping back soon, but didn't know when! Having seen on their Facebook page that they was doing a Christmas menu, but having finished visiting restaurants for the year. I thought to myself that i could slip one more in before the end if the year, and having it only being a 20 minute drive away from my house.. It was time to pop back and see what the 3 course Christmas menu has to offer.. With a few family members in toe 'as it's was the Christmas season'.. Having been greeted with a friendly face, we sat down for a relaxing beer in the lounge area beforehand.. Like i said this was a planned visit so no taster, so for me i was quite going to enjoy having 3 course for a change... So as the proceedings started some lovely bread & olives was give for us to devour.. Then my starter come out which was Touched machine, chive Crème Fraîche & Pickled Kohlrabi... Mackerel was just perfect with just the right amount of Crème Fraîche. And some good acidity from the pickle... And for my main !! That was Venison, roast pear, Beetroot, Higgis bon bon with Red wine sauce... Now that Venison was banging cooked to perfection ! Haggis worked extremely well and sauce Marinated all the other elements together! This was just the right portion, not to small and not to big ! Brilliant 👍 And for my dessert, that was a Dark Chocolate Ganache, mulled berry jelly, Cinnamon ice cream... Ganache was smooth and decadent with a cracking delicious berry jelly on top.. with a festive feel taste of ice cream.. perfect way to finish off the 3 courses... And was we finished the night off in the lounge, surprisingly we was given some banging little petit Fours which consisted of Mince Pies. Which was absolutely divine!! Some of the best ive tasted.. Then some Stollen which again was brought!! And some perfection Chocolate bon bons. What a fantastic way to finish off the night! Looking forward to a future trip again to the Old vicarage....

The location is lovely and I can imagine how nice it must be in the summer. Staff were friendly. We were a bit disappointed. We had to wait a long time for breakfast. We booked dinner and it was not cheap. The steaks they served were mini and look more like hamburgers. The rest of the food was tasty but we felt it was too expensive. The heating went off at 8.30 am on Sunday morning so when we got up the room was quite cool as we had switched off the radiator overnight.

Food was very nice although came with a service charge for dinner. The bed was very comfortable, slept really well. The room however, was dated and in need updating. There seemed to be a lot of ladybirds in the bedroom and eating area. A lot of hair in the bath plug and bathroom floor, the toilet in the bedroom didn’t flush and the shower head was broken. A bit disappointing considering the price

We had a lovely stay at The Old Vicarage. The room was delightful with a very comfortable 4 Poster bed and Antique Furniture. En suite clean and modern with a super large shower. The staff were very friendly and the service superb. Breakfasts superb. We will definitely stay again when next in the area.

What a very pleasant overnight stay at the Old Vicarage, the room was very comfortable and spotlessly clean, staff helpful and professional. It was a taster menu and could not be faulted breakfast next morning (overlooking snow covered lawns) superb. I fully recommend a visit a real top class experience.

We really enjoyed the hospitality, the food, the room. The owner and the staff were really great. We will go back.

Room very very dusty. No hot water for shower or wash. Cushions on bed stained and dirty. Breakfast was good and plenty. Emailed hotel for their comments but had no reply from them, so believe they don't care!

We had booked to stay at the Old Vicarage on a Saturday night following a friend's wedding at the Bridal Barn up the road. It looked great online so we were rather looking forward to it. They are careful not to mention this on their website before you book, but the earliest check-in time is bizarrely 5pm, and check-out is at 10am (what they do in the rooms for the 7 hours between is a mystery as it didn't appear to involve cleaning). When we completed the booking, I put a note on the booking that we would be at a wedding from 2pm until 11pm so, if unable to check-in before, we would check in on arrival in the evening. We dropped the car at the hotel before going to the venue at around 2pm and asked on the off chance if we could check in early. We were told we could not. We attended the wedding and all was well until I checked my phone at 9pm to see I had six missed calls from the hotel and an email asking me to call them "urgently". I did so and was told they were going to "lock up and go home" unless we were back before 11pm. I reminded them that they were in fact a hotel and that I had informed them that I would not be arriving until after the wedding at the time of booking. The unhelpful woman on the other end of the phone simply repeated her mantra "if you are not here by 11pm I'm going to lock up and go home". I was so flabbergasted by this that I apologised, said we would do our best to be there before 11. We were unable to re-arrange a taxi for an earlier time (the taxis in the area are understandably not the most abundant given the rural locale) so I called the hotel again to beg them to stay later and let us in. I was told they would give it another half hour but otherwise they were going home. I asked if they would be so kind as to try and contact a local taxi company for us in case they could get to us sooner - they declined. Our taxi was delayed (again, the joys of rural taxis) and we were forced to constantly update the hotel and repeatedly beg them to stay a little longer to prevent us from having to spend the night in the car. I was so baffled and irritated at the bizarre notion of being locked out of a hotel we had booked, that my wife took over these regular communications - she performed with such restraint and tact that I have since recommended she pursues a career as a hostage negotiator. When we eventually arrived at the hotel, we were "greeted" by a sultry character who sulkily processed the inflated payment of £132.50, gave us our key and informed us we had to be out by 10am. On entering our room, it felt like entering my Grandmother's house, surrounded as we were with naff, damaged antiques and bedding which I assume was bought second-hand from an old folks' home. To try and calm my nerves after facing the prospect of sleeping in my VW Polo, I ran myself a bath. Unfortunately, the hot water ran out on reaching a depth of around 4 inches. After splashing about in this warm puddle for a few minutes, I retired t