Pheasant Hall
Sleeps 16-23
Whitchurch, Shropshire
Hot tub, gardens and grounds
When your car wheels crunch on gravel, you know you’re in the right place. You get that here, plus parking for just the 20 cars. Beyond that, Pheasant Hall gives you a delightful fenced two acres, manicured lawns and the chance for two dogs to roam, rummage and sniff.
There’s outdoor living space aplenty here, with a covered seating area for late-night beers and banter, and a sun terrace perfect for after-dinner Nespresso. Head to the eight-seater hot tub beneath the clear-roofed pergola for late-night stargazing. Keep an eye out for pheasants.
Living spaces
Leather sofas, Queen Anne legs, swagged curtains, stags’ heads and homely rugs abound. Living spaces at Grade II-listed Pheasant Hall are suitably polished and perfected, yet they’re cosy, too. There’s no brutal minimalism here: this is a family home and, for the duration of your stay, it’s yours.
Come together at day’s end in the living room for movies on Now TV, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video streamed over the BT broadband. Escape to the snug for alternative viewing or to boost your social battery. Bang out your holiday tunes on the Speaker. Relax, rejuvenate, feel just a little bit refined and regal.
Cooking and dining
You’ve a country-classic four-oven Aga on which to lick into shape ingredients from Lewis’s Farmshop or Alderford Lake deli, or just Sainsbury’s or Aldi in Whitchurch. If you’d prefer to put your feet up with a Prosecco, the experts from Wild Garlic are on hand for a one-off celebration or fully catered break.
Eat around the dining table that looks longer than a submarine, or out on the terrace with steaks and sausages on the coal barbecue and seating for 23. Takeaways? Penley’s Takeaway is the place you need, for wraps, pizzas, burgers, pittas, chips and salads.
Pub it at The Lion at Malpas, just over the border in Cheshire, for buttermilk fried chicken or fish pie topped with wild-garlic mash. Consider The Boat Inn at Erbistock for rabbit and king prawn Vietnamese-style broth or cow pie with ploughman’s chips. Or the Combermere Arms for braised ox cheek or sea bream.
Head to Etzio in Whitchurch for Italian classics such as spaghetti alla carbonara and fettuccine alla Sanremo. Consider Spice Heaven for Indian, Asian and Balti, or The Black Bear for English classics with beer brewed on the premises. Or push the boat out at Docket 33, a Michelin-awarded eatery.
Bedrooms
Here on the rural Welsh borders, only the wind and the wings of the odd red kite disturb your slumbers. Or maybe the odd pheasant: who knows? Pheasant Hall sleeps 23 across eight beautiful bedrooms and eight bathrooms. All rooms come equipped with TVs and their own bathrooms.
Bedroom one, the master, offers a kingsize and a single, while the Nursery room and the Nanny room are both kingsize options. The Groom’s room is a family bedroom sleeping seven in a kingsize and five singles.
The Gardener’s room sleeps two in a kingsize bed with a spiral staircase up to the bathroom, while the Housekeeper’s room offers a superking and a single. The Butler’s room and the Gamekeeper’s room are ground-floor kingsize rooms.
What people say
Crocklebogs and Twiggles
Head to Hill Valley Golf and Spa for two challenging courses, to Llandegla Fishery for coarse and fly fishing, or to the delis, cafes and antiques emporiums of Wem and Much Wenlock. Learn the secrets of the deep at Blue Planet Aquarium and the meaning of fear at Alton Towers. Or meet Crocklebogs and Twiggles at BeWILDerwood.
