Broadway hit that keeps running
WHEN you learn the last guest to check into your room was enjoying his 22nd stay – and that he hailed from Tennessee – you realise The Lygon Arms is hallowed ground for old-school Americans on a grand tour of the British Isles looking for a pit stop in the Cotswolds.
The attraction is obvious, as the walls of this 14th Century coaching inn reverberate with easy to devour history.
Charles I met Royalist supporters here and Oliver Cromwell spent the night on the premises before the Battle of Worcester in 1651. And after visits by King Edward VII and VIII, it trickles down to Hollywood elite: Cary Grant, Vivien Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Throw in a lavish multimillion-pound refurb from the owners of grand country hotels Cliveden and Chewton Glen, then watch overseas bookings flood in.
Dogs and children are made an equal fuss of (take advantage of the groomer or kids’ club) and there’s a buzz that makes for a sociable, unstuffy vibe. The knowledgeable staff keep the 86-room hotel running slickety-slick. For charm in every flagstone and mullion window, ask for a room in the main inn.
There are also mews cottages and, beloved of Americans, seven courtyard suites. Big and with air-conditioning, step-free access and vast wet rooms, the accommodation ticks every box for multi-gen stays.
Robust twills, tweeds and tartans in soft heathery palettes run from upholstered headboards to curtains and cushions, while cool black-andwhite photographs hang on slatehued walls. Sip coffee in your monogrammed robe on your mini terrace or stroll in the three-acre gardens where not a petal is out of place. An air-punching bonus is the spa swimming pool – Romanesque, bright and, praise be, long enough to swim decent lengths.
From the wine bar, guests spill out into the courtyard to sit beneath garland-lit trees. Inside, beyond the lounges, The Lygon Bar & Grill is relaxed despite the grand space. Diners sit at marble-topped tables with a backdrop of wood-panelled walls adorned with paintings beneath a 16th Century barrel ceiling hung with antler chandeliers.
The menu is easy-going brasserie fare. Torched mackerel with beetroot, watercress and Lygon horseradish to start, steak and chunky chips with steamed greens followed by Evesham strawberries and sorbet hit the spot.
Refreshingly, the inn doors are flung open first thing and breakfast is a military-neat buffet with muffins, granolas, fresh fruit and bread, plus good sausages, black pudding, bacon and scrambled eggs on parade.
Broadway is a village so sweet, so quintessentially English – all bunting, brisk bustle and trade – that you half expect a film director to pop out from behind a box hedge and shout ‘Cut!’ The boutiques on the wide High Street will tempt even hardened savers into purchases of wood baskets, woollen throws and linen napkins.
Do make a date for the Moretonin-Marsh agricultural show, the largest in the UK, held on the first Saturday in September. On my visit, who should be found swaggering among the pens of prize bulls but the poster boy of the Cotswolds – Jeremy Clarkson.
B&B costs from £225 per night (lygonarmshotel.co.uk).