My sister-in-law kindly organised a weekend in beautiful surroundings as a getaway for her birthday, and Middleton Hall Coach House in Belford, Northumberland, was a very impressive place to celebrate it.
It was the ideal venue for 10 of us to relax and enjoy a three-night break. This five bedroom self-catering property, each with its own en-suite, is right on the side of Middleton Hall itself and within a 10/15 minute drive of Alnwick, Bamburgh and Berwick.
We all arrived at varying times during the Friday afternoon but it wasn’t a case of those who turned up last got the worst bedroom as they were all equally lovely. Very spacious and with large comfortable beds. The master bedroom was the only one with a bath AND a shower, and the birthday girl quite rightly decided this was hers for the weekend.
Middleton Hall Coach House also has two lounges, a dining room, kitchen and children’s playroom. I was slightly wishing I’d brought my grandson as he would have loved it … maybe next time. The main lounge was a large comfortable room with two huge leather sofas and an armchair … plenty room for all of us to feel the warmth of the cosy wood burning fire.
Our first night was spent chilling out with a few drinks and some loud laughter as we played with some Paladone Face Mats and my brother-in-law’s virtual reality headset. The face mats are a strange idea – the pack consists of 20 double-sided beer mats, each with a different mouth and chin … some hilarious, and some with the kind of teeth I wish I had! They each have a cut out notch so you can attach the beer mat to your nose … not very comfortable, but after a few drinks you definitely get a laugh out of them. The VR headset was also very funny … but mostly for those of us watching the reactions of the person wearing the headset. We all took turns entering spooky houses and riding very rickety roller coasters (neither of which I would do in real life).
After quite a few drinks (we did have a good variety of alcoholic beverages between us), and maybe because of the spooky house setting on the VR headset, some people felt the need to share ghostly encounters they had experienced. Middleton Hall Coach House is quite a big house and the lights have sensors so they come on as you walk past them and go off a minute or so afterwards, so going to the loo after a couple of spooky stories and a few gin and tonics was a bit scary. I was sure one of our group was going to jump out on me as I walked back but they didn’t. However not long after hubby and I had gone to bed our bedroom door handle started to rattle and then someone was scratching at the door. We both laughed at the thought of my sister-in-law or one of the others standing on the other side of the door trying not to giggle. The scratching and rattling went on for a few minutes but neither of us could be bothered to get out of bed and see who it was. No-one would own up to being the culprit the next morning but I’m pretty sure it was my sister-in-law … well at least I hope it was! Come to think of it this place would be an excellent venue for a murder mystery party!
On Saturday a few of us decided to take a trip into Alnwick, a lovely little town with shops, cafes, pubs and home to the fantastic Barter Books. I could spend hours in this quirky secondhand book store. Located in Alnwick’s old Victorian Railway Station it has an enormous amount of books, from cheap paperback fiction to some very interesting, and expensive, antiquarian books. Along with open fires, armchairs, model trains and a cafe it’s a place you really should visit if you’re up this way. As we wanted to look round the charity shops in Alnwick while we were there (we’ve always got our reselling heads on), and have some lunch, we only spent an hour in Barter Books on this occasion but I did get myself a couple of paperbacks.
After a lovely afternoon browsing the shops it was back to Middleton Hall Coach House for a walk around the grounds. The Hall is a grade 2 listed country mansion and is quite an impressive building surrounded by well-kept lawns and woodland. It would be a great place to hold a wedding and is available to hire for all kinds of events. Within the grounds there are also a couple of lakes, and three other properties to rent. The Folly, The Boat House and Lake Cottage look equally as inviting as the Coach House … in fact I’ve got my eye on The Folly as a romantic weekend venue for me and hubby.
Saturday night saw us take a taxi into Belford for a night out at the local pubs. There are three of them in the village … The Black Swan, The Blue Bell, and The Salmon Inn. As it was the weekend they were quite busy and apart from The Blue Bell, the pubs aren’t very spacious, so if you’re looking for a quiet drink you may want to avoid the other two. And be warned, if you stay at Middleton Hall Coach House and want to take a taxi to the pub, there is only ONE taxi available. As there were 10 of us the taxi needed to make three trips to get us all there and back! To be honest if you’re staying at the Coach House with a group of people there’s really no need to go out on an evening. There’s a very well equipped kitchen and a fantastic 10-seat dining table, and if you don’t fancy cooking you could always send someone out for takeaway from the local chippy. There’s also a large TV with a DVD player in the lounge so you could settle back and watch a good film or you could always take some board games with you … whatever takes your fancy. I wish I’d taken a murder mystery game with me.
On Sunday hubby and I took a trip into Berwick to visit a car boot sale we’d been to once before. I told you we always have our reselling heads on. Unfortunately it wasn’t great this time but we did buy a pair of Tramp-it jump boots for £5 that sold within 24 hours of me listing them for £18.99 +p&p, which was nice. We met up with a few of our group in Bamburgh for lunch at The Victoria Hotel. Unfortunately the menu didn’t have a great variety of veggie options. I chose the Wild Mushroom & Spinach Risotto which was too creamy for my tastes and I only ate half of it. At £12.95 it was quite expensive. They also do a traditional Sunday lunch, but unfortunately for hubby they don’t do roast chicken (only beef, lamb or pork, which he doesn’t like). He asked for the lunch without the meat and only paid £5.95 for it … quite reasonable considering the full Sunday lunch actually costs £15.95 … like I said fairly expensive. There are several other pubs in Bamburgh that do Sunday lunch so it would be worth checking out their menus first to check what they serve and for how much.
My favourite part of the weekend was Sunday afternoon tea. My sister-in-law suggested that she make an old-fashioned afternoon cream tea for everyone. She loves catering for people and does it well. The large dining table was packed full of sandwiches, quiche, pies, salads and of course cakes plus scones with cream & jam. With 10 of us seated around the table, it felt like the big family Sunday afternoon we had when we were kids. In hindsight I think it would have been better if we’d all pitched in and made Sunday lunch – eating it at that dining table would have been much nicer than the pub in Bamburgh.
By Sunday night we were all pretty tired so we all spent an evening relaxing in the lounge, having a couple of drinks and eating what was left of the afternoon tea. The ‘going in’ episode of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here was on the television so we spent an entertaining couple of hours discussing which celebrities were the most irritating … always a good discussion.
I thoroughly recommend Middleton Hall Coach House to anyone looking for a short break in Northumberland and it’s available for hire all year round. Next year I think we’ll try a lodge in Scotland with a hot tub. Note to Middleton Hall … get a hot tub!
If you liked this blog post you may like: