Cantley House Hotel & Barn, The Briar Barn

I booked an afternoon tea at Cantley House Hotel (at The Stables restaurant) for 2 friends to celebrate their 40th birthdays. Paul Moffett, who served us was an utter gentleman who fully deserves this 5 star rating for his customer service alone. The ‘afternoon’ tea itself was delicious. Wide selection of teas to drink. Beautifully made sandwiches with 4 different varieties of fillings (only thing that would improve this would be one additional alternative filling say, in the case of a dietary requirement of pregnancy or something - but not entirely necessary) . Delicious scones both fruit and plain with ample clotted cream and jam The tea looked gorgeous in its presentation. Paul offered to take a photo of us almost before we asked. My friends were brought chocolate tarts on the house with ‘Happy Birthday’ written out in white chocolate - a complete surprise. We were offered little boxes to take remaining goodies home. Given plenty of time and not rushed. Gorgeous intimate setting which felt private and homely. Perfect for spending quality time with friends on their birthdays. Would highly recommend for afternoon tea. Also love that they serve it from midday. Thank you Cantley.

We had to attend a very unwell family member, so booked a room at Cantley House to be close. It was, unfortunately, Valentines Day, so we were informed that the restaurant was full and that they would not be able to do room service (understandable). Adrian on the reception was very nice and and very helpful. On check in, I asked if they had a breakfast menu for the next morning, but they didn't. We went up to our room, and in about 10 minutes, Adrian had brought us a printed menu without us even asking. Very kind of him. The hotel is beautiful, but is getting a little bit tired. The reception area has had a face-lift, which looks very nice, but the rooms are starting to get a bit shabby. This being said, the room was very clean and comfortable. The bed was nice and comfortable as well.

Not good! Avoid room 15 at all costs! It's above a very loud swinging door or something which was banging all night. Went to Cantley House for a weekend to catch up and relax with a friend. We specifically sought out this hotel for the double room so we could catch up. We got there and were told even though we had reserved and paid for a double, we would be put in seperate rooms on opposite sides of the hotel. The man at the reception desk was very salty with us when we asked why that had happened. We were also not informed that a wedding would be taking place, meaning a VERY loud PA system until 1am. Breakfast was poor, the poor staff were struggling to get food out to the buffet fast enough, there were 2 staff and about 70 guests. I did complain to the man at the front desk as our whole weekend of catching up, relaxing and getting some rest had been a pointless waste of money (no sleep, no hanging out together), he took my details on a piece of paper and said someone would be in touch to talk about a partial refund, but he almost certainly threw that paper in the bin. No one was ever in touch.