This 300-year-old country house hotel offers a unique mix of award-winning food, acres of greenery and easy access to the beautiful historic streets of York
It always surprises me how SouthWest-centric southerners are when it comes to holidays and mini-breaks, when some of our finest cities are a hop, skip & a train ride up to the north.
The most perfect example is York, one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe with such immense charm, culture & history it’s hard to cram into a couple of days.
It’s an ideal city to enjoy without a car. By train, it's one hour 50 mins from London King's Cross. You arrive at the stunning 19th-century Victorian train station – once the largest in the world – and from there it's an easy walk to all the main attractions, among them the most complete medieval city walls in England, an immense Gothic cathedral and the magical 14th-century winding timber-framed streets of The Shambles.
Middlethorpe Hall Hotel
It's also suprisingly easy to combine a city experience with a relaxed countryside stay in a city of this size. A quick 10-min Uber ride will bring you to York’s finest (and only) country house hotel, the magnificent red brick Middlethorpe Hall Hotel & Spa, just two miles from the city centre, but surrounded by 20 acres of parkland and gardens.
Built in 1697 as the family home of Sheffield vintners and steelmakers, the Barlow family, its grand façade was inspired by Christopher Wren’s Hampton Court Palace.
Over the years, it’s seen many different incarnations, a girls’ school, flats, even an upmarket nightclub in the 1970s. These days it's owned by the National Trust – one of three Historic House Hotels given to the charity in 2008 in the largest single donation in its history.
Middlethorpe Hall Hotel
First impressions
The hotel oozes Downton Abbey charm with an easy, casual Lord-and-Lady-have-left-for-the-weekend décor. Nothing here is too shiny or new, or obviously ‘vintage’.
There’s a lived-in family estate vibe, with giant portraits (not the Barlows, sadly), sloping doorways as the weight of the chimneys has caused the house to drift to the middle and quirky idiosyncrasies such as the dining room decorated with pineapples, once a signifier of great wealth.
The liveried staff are friendly and charming – and quietly in the background. Parking is away from the main house, so arriving here feels more like visiting a private manor house rather than a hotel.
Middlethorpe Hall Hotel
Rooms with history
Despite the grand scale of the house, there are just 29 rooms and suites, including three ‘cottage suites’ adjacent to the main house.
We are staying in the main house in the spacious White Rose Suite, overlooking fields at the front of the hotel.
It's like stepping into a period stage set – huge floor-to-ceiling draped curtains, a sitting room filled with comfy chairs and a leather-topped bureau, vintage rugs, a carefully laid tray of tea & chocolates and a swagged superking bed with six big fluffy pillows and a heavyweight bedspread.
There are plenty of signs of its age: creaky floorboards, wonky lampshades and extension cables (some masterfully ‘vintaged’) are a reminder that this is a grand old dame of a hotel converted for a modern role, not a purpose-built hotel. A discreet note asks guests to make allowances for her age and history.
Some things could perhaps be a little more obvious – it takes us a day to find the heating control to turn the radiators on. But discovery is almost part of the charm – later we stumble upon a sunny, light-filled reading room adjacent to the first-floor rooms, which soon becomes our favourite spot to sit and enjoy the views.
Middlethorpe Hall Hotel
AA-rosette winning food & drink
Last time I visited was six years ago. It was during the strange days of Covid and the staff were doing their best to navigate a new set of rules. Despite the masks and the two-metre spacing, the hotel’s fine dining experience was a highlight of our stay.
Today it is exceptional. With two AA rosettes and still helmed by Yorkshireman Ashley Binder, now in his 16th year at the Hall, the menu is a showcase of his clever twists on traditional dishes and his close relations with local farmers, fishmongers and butchers.
There are four starters and four mains for dinner (£85 for three courses, £66 for two). A wonderful warm and light selection of bread includes black treacle rolls and comes with two slabs of butter – sea salt and ‘bovril’.
Middlethorpe Hall Hotel
We start with Crab Tortellini served with som tam, green curry and prawn toast and halibut with lobster bisque. Both are excellent, but the halibut and lobster bisque, full of flavour and depth, is an absolute fish lover’s dream.
Main courses include Black Truffle Macaroni, Yorkshire Chicken with shitake, dumpling, soy and ginger and Skrei Cod – “the fish that built Norway” – a leaner, meatier version of its North Sea cousin, which comes with herb gnocchi in brown butter. Our favourite dish of the day is the Aged Beef Au Poivre with black garlic, a superbly simple dish that shouts quality provenance.
With just three tables in for dinner, the high-ceilinged room makes for a slightly strained atmosphere. Guests at the next table are loudly worrying that they will run out of dishes to choose from on their multi-night stay. The kitchen soon obliges with something new.
Most people eat here once or twice on a stay and then taxi into York for more variety. Others, like us, choose to alternate with an afternoon tea, served until 5.30 pm.
Middlethorpe Hall Hotel
Afternoon tea in the drawing room
It’s hard to imagine a more apposite setting for tea and cakes than the elegant drawing room with its dramatically high ceilings and delicate plasterwork, a room straight out of a Jane Austen world of county balls and tea dances.
At £39.50 a head, the three-tiered selection of freshly baked cakes, pastries and savouries is a popular gift option. Three types of sandwiches, a pork, apple and chorizo sausage roll and a delicate fruit scone with clotted cream are beautifully served.
For an extra £15.50 a head, I can highly recommend the Champagne Bernard Remy Carte Blanche, which turns our afternoon treat into something more special.
You can also take tea on the lawn – if you find the low growl of the A64 which abuts the main garden off-putting, take a wander through the beautiful walled gardens and terraces to the left of the house.
Middlethorpe Hall Hotel
Glorious gardens
Originally the gardens were designed to mimic those Thomas Barlow had seen ornamenting the villas of Rome, with terraced walks and statues of eagles atop the gates.
Over the years they’ve changed with the fashion, for a while under the guidance of one of the first female landscape gardeners, Fanny Wilkinson (1855-1951), whose father married into the Barlow family and inherited the hall.
Restored in the 1980s to some of their original formality, they are a joy to wander around and the walled garden, replanted with fruit trees, herbaceous plants and herbs, is a perfect place to sip a gin and tonic as the sun goes down.
A handy leaflet provides a guide to the work of Fanny Wilkinson and the trees of interest, including the magnificent 180-year-old Deodar Cedar on the south lawn.
Middlethorpe Hall Hotel
Swim, spa and sauna
Behind the facade of two listed Edwardian cottages, the hotel spa has three treatment rooms on the first floor offering a variety of health and beauty therapy treatments and a large indoor swimming pool with views onto the enclosed garden, a Spa bath, steam room and sauna.
There is a private sunny garden with loungers in the summer, and in a restored Victorian summer-house a small gym with a programmable bicycle, rowing machine, cross-trainer and treadmill.
Walking to York
One of the hotel’s most attractive features is how accessible it is for York – it’s an easy 45-minute walk through the racecourse and along the river to the centre.
The route takes you past the Joseph Rowntree factory now converted into luxury flats and along past the medieval shipyards that once fuelled York's great wealth.
The city itself is full of architectural treasures from the obvious such as York Minster, the City Walls and the Jorvik Viking Centre to the small curiosities on every street corner. Call in at Holy Trinity Church in Goodramgate to see its rare high-sided box pews. These pews, often seen in the BBC drama Gentleman Jack, provide a glimpse into Georgian family worship.
Always a very liveable city, York’s popularity has soared post-Covid and today, its largely pedestrianised centre is a joyful buzz of people, bikes, pavement cafes and busking violinists from the local music college. Steeped in history, it’s the kind of city many of us travel to Europe to enjoy.
After a day of sightseeing, we pick up a picnic from one of the many delicatessens in the city and enjoy it on the banks of the river midway between the bustling city centre and the peaceful 17th-century Hall.
It’s hard to imagine a more balanced Yin & Yang break.
What’s the cost?
Courtyard rooms from £320 per room; the White Rose Suite costs £795 a night. Rates include cooked breakfast and use of the spa.
For booking info, see middlethorpe.com
