Simon C
February 2016
Spent a long weekend (Fri-Mon) here with my extended family, a total of 17 people with ages ranging from 82 years to 14 months, to celebrate my birthday. My wife discovered the property on line and made all of the booking arrangements which, according to her, was a very smooth process with good communications from the owners. Her choice was made on the basis of Winster's relatively central location for the guests who were travelling from NW and NE England, and from the East Mids.
The other main criteria in her choice was the ability of Winster Hall to accommodate our extended family in a way that offered comfort and convenience for the differing needs of our respective families. So, for example, the young adults had a room to themselves, as did the children, while my sister and her husband shared their room with their baby son and young daughter.
In addition to the privacy that the room layouts could offer, the large sitting room and dining room both offered sufficient space to accommodate all 17 of us. In fact the only times that all of us were in the same room at the same time was for meals: the children spent most of their time playing hide & seek in the hall, while the adults were able to make use of the very good wifi connection or the 50" television with access to Freeview and/or a DVD player.
Due to the time of year, and the weather conditions, I can't offer any insight into the grounds, but can reassure potential visitors who are thinking of staying in colder weather that the Hall's central heating system is very efficient and can be supplemented by a gas fire in the sitting room and a log burner in the dining room. The Aga keeps the kitchen warm, but the conservatory and ground floor bedrooms were relatively chilly compared to the rest of the house.
The owners very thoughtfully provide towels for all of the guests, as well as a selection of DVDs and board games. The village store, which is a 30 secs walk from the house, provides everything you'd expect it to, including logs for the fire.