Hotel review: The Priory Inn, Tetbury, Gloucestershire

TUCKING into my Gloucestershire sirloin steak, bordelaise sauce and homemade chips, I knew my diet was doomed.

I grinned from ear to ear at the unadulterated pleasure after pretty much two solid weeks of Ryvita and reduced fat houmous and told myself an extra hour or six at the gym would be worth it.

And as my partner Neil savoured his slow-cooked Wiltshire pork belly and our daughters their freshly baked pizzas they’d designed themselves, I knew this memory would last a lot longer than my willpower had managed so far.

This was an award-winning ‘gastro-inn’ after all – not something we’d sampled before. And possibly not the most obvious port of call for a family with young children.

Emily was still talking about the ghost story she’d heard an hour earlier. Tanya Kelly, owner of the Priory Inn, Tetbury, Gloucestershire, told us a young man was believed to have hanged from the rafters of the stable block which had now been transformed into the restaurant we were sitting in.

The team at The Priory has launched high profile hotels or restaurants in New York and London, so it’s little wonder that the attention to detail – such as sharing with us the ghoulish tale that was now firing Emily’s imagination, made this feel like a very special place to stay.

Melissa, meanwhile, was busy eying up her handiwork, having selected her favourite ingredients – ham, peppers and chicken to top a pizza base which had been made before her eyes in a wood-fired oven.

Even this staple came from a locally produced foodstuff. The dough was made with organic flour from Shipton Mill in Long Newnton, a five minute drive away. The beef in my steak came from a local butcher whose stock comes from within five miles of his shop.

It really made me stop and think. This was the first time, apart from a few packs of eggs or strawberries picked up in the supermarket, that I’d eaten something when I knew exactly on a map where it came from.

Perhaps I’m behind the times. With all the current hype about ‘provenance’ of food, chances are you may be thinking about where the meat, vegetables and dairy produce on your plate comes from.

If you’re anything like me, thinking about it could be as far as you’ve got. It’s one thing to nod and smile angelically when we see a TV chef banging on about the nutritious and environmental benefits of shopping local, it’s quite another to leave the car at home and traipse around the local butcher, baker and greengrocer with double or triple buggy plus basket in hand!

I haven’t got that excuse of course any more – my girls are 10 now.

But, for whatever reason, how many of us are really putting our money where our mouth is and seeking out food produced on our doorstep? Especially when finances are tighter than ever.

Maybe when Prince Charles is your neighbour it’s a bit easier, especially when you consider the fantastic organic food the Duchy Home Farm, which is less than half a mile away from The Priory Inn, produces.

So I suppose, it’s little surprise to see this award winning gastro inn making the most of their neighbourhood produce.

Now owners Tanya and Dave Kelly have gone much further – or perhaps I should say have stayed much closer to home – to impose a 30 mile food zone on their menus.

They say they have always been strong and vocal supporters of buying locally, but agree local produce has become a bit of a ‘band-wagon’, with some restaurants jumping on-board without really practising what they preach.

Tanya says: “Many places talk the ‘local food’ talk now and ‘low food miles’ has become a well-trodden path.

“This is definitely what consumers want, but how do you really know that you are getting locally produced food? We want our customers to know that we have substance behind our “local” statement, and we are not just paying lip service for the sake of good press.

“When you eat at The Priory Inn, you are guaranteed local food and we will tell you about our dedicated and passionate suppliers. To this end we are committing ourselves to the 30 mile food zone and only when it is absolutely necessary will we buy food from outside that zone.

“We provide information about our local farmers and producers on our menus and customers are told exactly where the beef they are eating was reared, and where the grapes were grown to produce the bubbly they are drinking.”

But what of life – and attractions – outside the hotel? A break isn’t all about the food is it? (Even if I sometimes have to be convinced of this!)

On this visit, we mooched round Cirencester – where much to Emily and Melissa’s delight we fitted in a tiny bit of celebrity spotting as we spied ex EastEnders actress Kim Metcalfe window shopping like us.

We also strolled through Malmesbury and Stow on the Wold, looking at antiques and buying presents in the sort of lovely quirky gift shops I hadn’t been in for years, well since I had children to be precise.

Our girls loved it but they are that bit older. I know walking round shops isn't the most enticing of activities for a couple of three-year-olds.

The Cotswolds does have plenty to offer for younger visitors including the Cotswolds Wildlife Park, which we’d had a great day at with their cousins aged nine and six, a few months earlier.

Westonbirt Arboretum is just up the road and flagged up as a good place for a bracing walk.

And despite my reservations about somewhere offering such a high quality service being welcoming to children, I’m pleased to say The Priory Inn itself goes beyond the call of duty to earn a place in a top 10 ‘family-friendly’ destination list compiled by the Sunday Times.

For a start, all children under 12 stay for free if sharing their parents' room.

Tanya adds: “We also have highchairs and most baby monitors work from the bedrooms to the restaurant and our coffee bar is a perfect place to close the door, enjoy a cappuccino and let them run amok in our toy box.”

A small selection of toys is also made available in the bedrooms and younger diners are kept busy in the restaurant with colouring before their meal arrives.

When it comes to accommodating larger families, or families with more than one child of the same age, Tanya says there are a range of options available.

There are 14 en-suite contemporary bedrooms including a family suite and two sets of interconnecting rooms.

She says: “The family suite very comfortably and very regularly accommodates four people. It’s two rooms with an internal door between the rooms and a shared bathroom. “The second room has two proper - not pull-out sofa beds with its own TV and DVD. In terms of larger families, this second room could take another extra bed making it OK for older triplets and an extra bed could also fit into the parents' room making the whole suite a possibility for parents with older quads.”

For younger children, Tanya can supply cots for younger triplets and quads. She adds: “I think the special thing we offer to larger families is that we will welcome them and their children as much as we welcome every other customer and we will do everything to make their stay easy and relaxing.”

Now then, forgive me, I’m sorry but I can’t leave out another mention of the food. An overnight stay at The Priory Inn also includes what they describe as a ‘hearty breakfast’ – and oh boy, was it hearty. I’m a bit of a breakfast connoisseur – albeit one who has eaten economy sausages at various Blackpool B&Bs and lived to tell the tale. If anyone had told me as I struggled through the gristle and warm orange juice served up in one of those guest houses that fast forward a few years and I’d be tasting a breakfast this good, I’d have loved them forever.

Like the meal the night before, thanks to the menu, we knew where the bacon, eggs, sausage and bread came from – I must apologise for the hyperbole but it was lovely, really great, like the best farmhouse breakfast you could ever taste. Even writing about it now is making me hungry.

There was also plenty of cereal, fruit and other more healthy stuff on offer – for those of a less portly persuasion. (That’s my partner Neil and Emily and Melissa in case you are wondering!)

* Tanya invited us for a complimentary overnight stay at the Priory Inn to help report on its family-friendly facilities, which also include a coffee bar and pizza takeaway. Different offers and packages are available throughout the year at The Priory Inn. More details are available on the website.

Comments

[Camilla]

Wow - the Inn looks lovely. So nice to see somewhere that welcomes families and serves great food too.