The Priory

There’s certainly nothing monastic about the rooms in this much-loved hotel, standing in four acres of ‘beautiful grounds’ bordered by the River Frome beside the Saxon priory church. ‘Our room exceeded expectations,’ writes a reader who stayed in one of the Boat House suites with French doors to a riverside veranda. ‘It was beautifully decorated and furnished with polished wood and various artefacts, a super-comfortable bed.’ The bathroom had a walk-in shower and what our reader considered to be a slightly impractical spa bath (‘the idea was nice, though’). Bedrooms in the main building all have their own character, perhaps toile de Jouy wallpaper and fabrics. Some have views over the garden to the river, others overlook an inner courtyard. In the ‘beautiful, airy, modern’ new Garden restaurant, Stephan Guinebault’s menus include dishes such as turbot, watercress and crème fraîche crushed potatoes. ‘The food is particularly good’ and service is ‘friendly and attentive’, although one reader disliked the ‘anodyne piped music’. Breakfast brings ‘lovely fruit salad and cooked options’. 
(Jill Cox, Edward Gosnell, and others)