{"id":16736,"date":"2014-12-09T17:00:15","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T17:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/?p=16736"},"modified":"2014-12-09T17:02:55","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T17:02:55","slug":"middlethorpe-hall-the-perfect-escape-to-north-yorkshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/middlethorpe-hall-the-perfect-escape-to-north-yorkshire\/","title":{"rendered":"Middlethorpe Hall – the ideal choice for an escape to North Yorkshire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mid\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

LOUISE MIDGLEY steps back in time with a visit to historic Middlethorpe Hall in York<\/h3>\n

As the mellow brick\u00a0facade\u00a0of Middlethorpe Hall came into view I had every expectation that this majestic\u00a0country pile would be the ideal venue for my husband and I to recharge our batteries, especially after a tiring four-hour drive up the M1.<\/p>\n

We were greeted with a warm Yorkshire welcome\u00a0and shown to our spacious room where hand-made chocolates, fresh fruit and home-made shortbread biscuits lay waiting. Heaven for a sweet-toothed girl like me!<\/p>\n

The room overlooked the grounds\u00a0where neatly clipped box hedging, immaculately manicured lawns and tidy borders were rolled out like a stunning oil painting. A view of neighbouring York racecourse completed the picture\u00a0and during our stay I sat admiring it from the comfort of our window seat on more than one occasion.<\/p>\n

Our room, one of 10 in the Grade 11 listed William and Mary main manor house, had been sympathetically furnished with d\u00e9cor true to the period but with all the mod\u00a0cons\u00a0you would expect from a four-star National Trust-owned property. So I was surprised that there were no tea or coffee making facilities in our room.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0meant either ordering room service or going down to the lounge. And at \u00a35 a person per cup plus \u00a35 for service, we were in danger of running up a hefty bill to quench our thirst.<\/p>\n

Opposite the main house were\u00a0a pair of sympathetically extended Edwardian cottages housing the Health and Beauty Spa. We decided a dip in the 40 foot indoor pool would re-energise\u00a0us.<\/p>\n

\"spa\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Facilities were top notch with three treatment rooms, a steam room, sauna, spa bath, gymnasium and a clubroom where\u00a0you could buy refreshments.<\/p>\n

Dinner in the grand wood-panelled dining room didn\u2019t disappoint. We choose the slow-cooked fillet of 40-\u00a0day matured Waterford Farm beef, braised rib meat, cavolo nero, cepes and banana shallots from the a la carte menu and savoured every delicious mouthful. Attention to creative detail in every course was all down to the culinary wizardry of the award-winning chef Nicholas Evans.<\/p>\n

\"nic\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We could also have chosen the seven-course tasting menu priced at \u00a369 per person or pay \u00a399 to have\u00a0matching wines.<\/p>\n

We rounded the evening off with coffee and liqueurs in the stately drawing room and relaxed in the comfy sofas in front of a roaring fire.<\/p>\n

Middlethorpe is ideally located\u00a0for exploring a wealth of places of historic interest such as the country houses of Castle Howard, Newby and Beningbrough and also the ruined abbeys of Fountains, Rievaulx and Jervaulx.<\/p>\n

But you would need longer than\u00a0a\u00a0two-night stay to visit all the inviting locations dotted around\u00a0including York,\u00a0Harrogate, Richmond, Ripon, Helmsley and Scarborough not to mention the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors.<\/p>\n

We settled for an adventure closer to home and the next day I went to explore the\u00a0sights of\u00a0York while my husband played a round of golf at Easingwold Golf Club, one of many courses in the area.<\/p>\n

York holds its own unique charm within its medieval city walls. A generous sprinkling of independent shops in the old cobbled streets of the Shambles and profusion of museums and impressive urban architecture are all worth investigating.<\/p>\n

I had to indulge in afternoon tea at Bettys Tea Rooms.\u00a0The art deco interior, crisp white linen and neatly uniformed waiting staff enveloped me in\u00a0an ambiance of times gone by;\u00a0one I enjoyed savouring.<\/p>\n

Our trip to Middlethorpe Hall turned out to be the perfect mix of relaxation and exploration. Throughout our stay, eagle-eyed staff were attentive without being intrusive and provided excellent\u00a0customer service, surely the mark of a great hotel.<\/p>\n

For more information about a break to Middlethorpe Hall & Spa visit: www.middlethorpe.com<\/a> \/ 01904 641241<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOUISE MIDGLEY steps back in time with a visit to historic Middlethorpe Hall in York As the mellow brick\u00a0facade\u00a0of Middlethorpe Hall came into view I had every expectation that this majestic\u00a0country pile would be the ideal venue for my husband and I to recharge our batteries, especially after a tiring four-hour drive up the M1. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[41],"yst_prominent_words":[7703,306,152,231,1958,6423,7699,7698,7701,2204,7702,257,7700,1368],"class_list":["post-16736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-travel-2"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-01 01:56:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16736"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16750,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16736\/revisions\/16750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16736"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=16736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}