Wait, We're Staying in the Stables?

Our first hotel in England was nice, nothing special. I did have an issue with the shower, but that is another story. After several days there, we were ready for a change.

After leaving Oxford, we set off into the English countryside. After we stopped at Warwick Castle, dealt with the rain, we headed to our hotel, the Breadsall Priory.

The original priory was built in the 1200’s by Augustinian Canons, who were disbanded in 1535 one of the first religious houses shuttered during Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries.

Not being English, of for that matter Catholic, I thought the first residents were most likely monks.

According to the encyclopedia, they were “the first religious order of men in the Roman Catholic Church to combine clerical status with a full common life.” So maybe, sorta?

There is very little of the original building remaining, most of what exists today was built and remodeled several times in the last four hundred years. 

Our Hotel in Derbyshire

England is much different than the High Mojave Desert of Southern California where I live. The biggest difference is England is green, the HD is usually kind of brown. The reason England is so green is simple, it rains. And rains.

Don’t get me wrong, I like a little rain. And we were well prepared for the weather.

But there can be problems with three-hundred-year-old windows and rain. They leak. So there were some parts of the hotel that the carpets got a little wet. But the team handled it well.

We enjoyed the hotel, but the staff were the real stars.

Maybe we were the only American staying there, but by the second day, they knew who we were and they were able to anticipate our needs. 

Exterior of our room

After we returned home, I looked up the hotel’s history. One thing I found out; our room used to be part of the stables. I’m not sure if I should be offended. But I'm not.