Pool, hot tub, gardens and grounds
Out beyond the gates, delightful Box wends its way down the main road into Bath. Inside, the pool, in use from April to 1st November, is a generous ten metres by five. Dig out the inflatables or just the deck chairs to laze languorously with a novel on the 200-square-metre pool terrace while the steaks sizzle on the barbie.
Check in, spread out and gear up for a party, celebration or getaway to remember!
Living spaces
The grand lounge that once echoed to the chatter of schoolchildren and the shrill rebukes of the schoolmistress has become a modern classic: light, bright and welcoming, and taller than a double-decker bus.
An L-shaped sofa sits beneath the giant arched windows and heavy drapes. You can pick at nuts or fruit from the table and sip coffee or Cabernet as you dial into the flatscreen Sony TV or tap into the fast broadband. You can even play music from your phone through the sound system.
Head over to the Coach House to raid the DVD collection for a film night. Back in the School Rooms, you can break out the board games or shoot a little pool in the living room. When hunger calls, the open-plan arrangement means there’s a smooth flow from aperitif and appetiser to antipasto.
Cooking and dining
Thanks to the open-plan arrangement, you’ll segue neatly from living-room sofa to pool table to antipasto around the large dining table. Cook up a storm on the two gas ovens (one range-size), and three hobs. Or carry on with your pool or Prosecco and let our chefs take the heat.
Eat around the chunky dining table, with light flooding the room from the giant arched windows. Or head out to the terrace to the gas barbecue and table and chairs to sit in the sunshine with steaks and sausages. After dinner, maybe a dip in the pool beckons?
Head out for a ploughman’s, a summer salad or a steak-and-kidney winter warmer at The Queens Head in Box, take a stiff walk up to The Quarryman’s Arms, or grab some gastro at The Northey Arms, with extensive food menu and great wines. Or try The Birdhouse Café for salads, quiche, Portuguese custard tarts and lovely décor.
Go Indian at The Bengal Bear and take your own bottles, or try The Ivy Brasserie for relaxed yet sophisticated all-day dining, or The Methuen Arms for partridge and chips or broccoli risotto. Head to Mother and Wild in Corsham for hearty food with all the flavour and none of the pretension.
Bedrooms
Sumptuous, swish and elegant bedrooms sleep up to 20 across the three properties.
The School Rooms comes with three bedrooms. The first is an en-suite kingsize, the second a double en-suite, and the third offers twin singles along with en-suite.
In The Lodge, ideal for a couple, you’ll find a kingsize en-suite, while The Coach House comes with a double.
What people say
Skiff, punt, shop and chill
Learn about local literature at the Jane Austen Centre, skiff or punt your way down the river with the Bath Boating Station, or go underground at Wookey Hole. Grown-ups can shop and drop around gorgeous Bath, live it up at Komedia comedy club or Po Na Na nightspot, or chill the twilight hours away at Bath Thermae Spa.
