Birthday weekend - Malmesbury

Early August was largely wet and windy down in Cornwall this year, and with a birthday to celebrate the adults in the family decided to escape up country for a grown up weekend. We had packed the teens off to the Boardmasters music and surfing festival - tented, waterproofed(ish), covered in glitter and copiously supplied with muesli bars and cheese strings, so we were free!

We had booked a couple of nights at the newly refurbished Rectory Hotel in Crudwell near Malmesbury. This was a random choice based on knowing the Operations Manager and we had been following his progress on social media. 

It turned out, however, to be inspired!

Not only was the hotel wonderful and in a lovely setting...

the food was delicious...

and the rooms were soooo comfortable...

with lovely design touches...

but it also had a rather special garden.

with a pond, borders and places to sit and rest..

and a church at the bottom of the garden!

  
And just down the road was the lovely town of Malmesbury.

With one of the sunny days this summer (as I mentioned they were a bit few and far between) falling on the Saturday we spent a couple of days exploring this pretty town.

Malmesburys ancient Abbey is where the first king of all England and Wales is buried and is an impressive building despite only being half an Abbey. There's also a pretty market square and pub, and the river Avon runs through the town, it was perfect for gentle exploring. 

Tranquil references to the Abbey.

And then there was Malmesbury Abbey House...

 built in the grounds of the old Abbey (where the missing half was), this house sits in a lovely garden - but that deserves a post on it's own!

Coming soon!