The Maytime Inn, Asthall
The Accommodation
The Maytime Inn. in the lovely Cotswold village of Asthall has all the ingredients for a memorable bed and breakfast stay. Great food and drink, including local ales and an amazing selection of gins, great location, and gorgeous ensuite bedrooms set around a peaceful courtyard of smart clipped box, bay trees, with scented lavender and mint.
Dominic Wood and his dog, Alfie arrived three years ago and with his team of staff have refurbished and transformed this delightful old coaching inn to make it a welcoming and restful place to stay.
There are six, cosy, contemporary styled bedrooms converted from the original smithy and stables, all on ground level and all with names that reflect its history. Rooms slightly vary in size and lay-out and are decorated in linen white, soft browns, and Cotswold checks with comfy Hypnos beds, squeaky-clean ensuite baths and waterfall showers. Homemade shortbread, teas and locally roasted coffee with fresh milk in each room.
It’s so restful here that it’s hard to wander far. Stop for an aperitif by the bar, with Alfie alongside ever hopeful for a bar treat, or sit outside on the heated terrace, listen to the sounds of the countryside, maybe a game of backgammon, and mull over the evening menu.
Awake revived. Breakfast is a treat with a choice of cereals, juices and sweet pastries to start. Followed by a full English with local bacon, sausages and black pudding from Castle’s in nearby Burford, or a vegetarian breakfast with mushrooms and cherry vine tomatoes. Alternatively, muffins with free-range eggs, bacon, or smoked salmon with hollandaise sauce; or porridge finished with cream, sultanas, honey, or their own homemade preserves. Pots of tea, coffee or hot chocolate close by with the papers, magazines, and books.
The village is lovely to wander around with many places in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire to visit and explore nearby.
Perfect for a night or weekend away, or perhaps switch all gadgets off and stay a little longer.
The Village and Location
Asthall is a small, peaceful and very lovely village close to the river Windrush. Peeling off from the main A40 near the sign for Minster Lovell the narrow road takes the visitor down into a calm and green place with an avenue of beech trees, water meadows, fields with contented sheep, horse riders clopping through the village, wild birds, river birds and ducks.
At one end of the lane which runs through the village lies the pub, The Maytime Inn, and at the other, set up on a grassy bank, the beautiful church of St Nicholas with a medieval stone alter and in-between a smattering of stone cottages including the beautiful Elizabethan house of Asthall Manor, once the family home of Lord Redesdale and the Mitford sisters. Privately owned, nowadays Asthall Manor opens its gardens throughout the year for private tours and the National Gardens Scheme and hosts a number of exhibitions from artists and sculptors.
Way back, wool was a prized commodity in these parts. The nearby river was used for washing and cleaning fleeces. The churchyards of Asthall, Burford and others show how prosperous the place was with a number of domed, ‘wool bale’ tombs’ carved from limestone.
Village Perfect For
