There’s been a bit of a drama in Tetbury the night I arrive. A window has been smashed in a second-hand bookshop. Nobody is exactly sure when the crime occurred however. It could be any time between 7pm and 11pm.
That’s a clue there to how many people have walked past the premises on this particular Saturday night – the perpetrator (presumably) and not many others. Or not many who were very observant, at least.
As this tale implies, Tetbury is a quiet kind of place. Safely hunkered down in the Cotswolds it is home both to myriad antique shops and the estate boutique of Highgrove – Prince Charles’ extensive nearby property.
The 15-room Ormond is housed in an attractive, Cotswold-stone building. Rather frustatingly, however, it does not have its own car park and the nearest free of charge parking is around a quarter of a mile distant – at the bottom of a not-inconsiderable hill.
That can’t be helped. Tetbury’s streets and houses were created long before the motorcar honked into view.
What perhaps could be avoided, however, was the distinct whiff of toilets in the Ormond’s (unattended) reception – to source my room key I had to cross a passageway to the bar and wait for a break in cider service.
Inside, the hotel has a certain higgledy-piggledy charm that befits an elderly building, though there if you’re in one of the more distant rooms you may take a few wrong turns before you work out the lie of the land.
My room was clean, with an ensuite shower – whose on switch I found within just a few minutes.
Tea, coffee, kettle and biscuits are all provided. Though one of the packets of the latter mysteriously disappeared once the room had been cleaned. A strict one person-one packet rule appears to apply at the Ormond. Quite right, too.
Tucked away beneath the kettle was a fan-heater – and it took only a few seconds to realize why. Outside it was an averagely chilly April evening, but the room was positively Arctic. Forget the biscuits, maybe the staff should just leave out a can of explorer-grade pemmican for guests.
That said, the bed was comfortable, once the excessive numbers of cushions had been hauled out of the way, and the covers were entirely adequate to keep out the chill of a Gloucestershire night.
The Ormond prides itself on its food and rightly so. The menu is largely locally sourced, portions are generous and meals are tasty. The restaurant is popular and it is highly advisable to book.
The restaurant is adjacent to the bar which, in the evening, adds a rather welcoming hubbub to the place and means patrons do not have far to wander for a post-prandial glass of whatever takes their fancy – it doesn't have to be cider.
There was unfortunately a downside to this, though. The fact that breakfast coincided with the scrubbing of the bar floor – with a particularly odiferous bleach – rather detracted from the appealing looking mélange of eggs, bacon, sausage and mushrooms.
Still, the overall feel of the Ormond is pretty good. It just needs to focus on the details to really secure its appeal.
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