Verve by Diss We were spending the day in Norwich doing a dummy run to the Castle for my Son’s wedding. This was our very first visit to Norwich, what would be a 5hr round trip, and I must say IT IS CERTAINLY NOT a place for anyone with mobility issues. The place is all steep hills, a lot of cobbled pathways and the majority of the shops have lots of stairs to get into them, and if you do work up the energy to get into them, the aisles are quite narrow for anyone with a walker! We did not see anyone else with a mobility walker all day - and now we know why!! I myself walk with a walker and will NEVER be able to visit there ever again! It is going to take me a good while to get over the trip, but thankfully we had booked a room at a 17th Century coach house for the night in Diss to break up the journey. As we came to the end of the road before turning for the hotel, there before us stood a beautiful old thatched house - well it was 3 terraced houses really. We had seen many similar gorgeous buildings and little villages on route reminding us of the area’s simpler history - it was a lovely drive up. We turned into the hotel’s narrow driveway which took us to the rear of the property where the actual beauty of the building could be seen in all it’s glory - WOW!! The stables area looked gorgeous and the main building even more so. We went to check in with our masks on, there were hand sanitising stations on the outside of the door and again on the inside with a one way system in place throughout the main building. Checking in at the main desk was easy enough, we had to complete a couple of forms while the Man at reception explained the one way system, told us that we had to wear our masks whenever inside the buildings, what time the bar closed and when breakfast was served; and then we were on our way out to our room which he said was at the stables. I joked that there wasn’t going to be any ghoulies in the stables, but he said you never know.....oooooh exciting!! We walked under a gorgeous archway with a sign indicating this part was built in 1820, it had a gorgeous stag sitting below the sign and beautiful lighting underneath. There was a willow tree to the centre of the grounds surrounded on all sides by an old wall - I do LOVE an old wall! Our room was along to the left, another sanitising station and then through a door and up the stairs, with our room being directly to the left of the stairs. There was another 3 rooms along the very cute landing. The room was very cute, although slightly different to what the photos promised. The bed looked huge, but turned out to be two singles put together; there was no luxurious fluffy mauve or grey throw at the end of our bed and the pillows were an extreme let down. The photos showed deep filled pillows with scatter cushions on the bed too, but our pillows were as thin as envelopes and NO scatter cushions - We could really have done with those!!! There was a full sized repro desk with a full sized kettle, with tea and coffee and 6 individual small pots of milk and some sachets of sugar. Thankfully I always carry sweeteners with me for my tea, and Hubby only drinks sachets of cappuccino which we always bring with us too. There was a very small tv on the wall and a remote which was very temperamental. The bathroom was generic but had everything one would need; there was a small wardrobe which housed the contraption to hold a suitcase, an iron should you need one and 4 hangers. As we were taking pictures of the room, a very flimsy door between the bathroom and the wardrobe opened up which housed a huge boiler type contraption with scary wires and levers all over the place. It obviously wasn’t closed properly by the staff as it required a key to open it, so we forced the door closed. Just infront of this door the carpet has been crudely added to. You have to remember you are standing in an 1820 stables of a 17th century coaching inn and therefore The floors are all spongy and uneven underfoot throughout! I have to admit the attention to detail regarding the cleanliness let them down slightly. The window frames had black mould all along them, the fan on the bedside table which I had to use constantly because the room was very hot for me was EXTREMELY dusty - it obviously hadn’t been cleaned in years; the bathroom floor, the skirting boards and the doors were extremely dusty too. Yes it’s an old building and I don’t mind the cobwebs and the odd insect making their homes up in the old beams; but the more reasonably priced rooms should have the same cleanliness as the more expensive rooms in the main building! When it came to bedtime I knew I’d be in trouble.....I did not sleep a wink all night on the stiff bouncy bed, although Hubby liked it. Like I said, the pillows were as thin as envelopes and there were no spare ones anywhere!! At one point Hubby didn’t have any pillows for a couple of hours in the night because I had all of them, until I got up in the middle of the night to use the two bath towels underneath my pillows, and then I could give Hubby one pillow back! The double quilt was extremely thin and certainly didn’t fit inside the super king size quilt cover!! What a shame we didn’t have any ‘visitors’ in the night, although the pouring rain bashing on the old windows until I thought they would literally cave in was a worry for a good while! Unfortunately we also had an issue with some unruly guests making lots of noise in the middle of the night - slamming doors over and over and screaming and shouting. We also heard glass smashing at one point. The slamming of the doors started up again early in the morning when the people were obviously leaving!!! When We went to start packing our stuff in the car, we came across broken glass underneath the archway and found an empty bottle of champagne next to our car door, thankfully we found no damage to our car! A staff member said that someone had hit the corner of the main building wall leaving a piece of their bumper or something behind, so Hubby told him what we had heard in the middle of the night!! We went down for breakfast at just gone 8am, sanitising our hands at every station. The breakfast room was very nice with the tables set socially distanced and a gorgeous flower display in the fireplace. A staff member with a face mask came to our table to take our order which he brought over to us immediately. We ordered yoghurt with fruit juice and then a cooked English breakfast, and a Vege-option too. It is not often that we go out, so when we do we like to treat ourselves to a fried egg, and this one was served perfectly runny. The vege sausages were very yummy and the ingredients were obviously fresh. We left via the one way system and had a cup of tea and a cappuccino in our room before tidying up and leaving. We were waiting quite a while at the reception desk for someone to arrive, so pressed the bell. Still No-one came so after a while we pressed the bell again. The man who served us in the breakfast room came to see what was going on and then went to get someone to help. The lady came, apologising for the wait and we started sorting our bill. We told her about the noisy guests and the smashing doors and glass, and she also told us about the wall of the main building being hit, which was why she was not there at the desk - she was sorting out their insurance! What a shame!! Fingers crossed the building is ok! Overall it was a nice enough stay, we felt safe from the dreaded C-Word throughout - just a shame there were no ghoulies to be seen in the night.…
Excellent food in comfortable surroundings. Staff were helpful and courteous. Three meals were lamb shank, burger and chips, fish and chips. All were very well presented and had obviously been freshly prepared.
We walked here from the Willows campsite,a large hotel in the village of Scone. Reception friendly as were the staff,meal was about average but I think they had just reopened so things hadn't got going properly yet. Very nice outdoor courtyard for drinking but found the bar a bit souless and rather disappointed to find only one real ale on. Thought the hotel may have some history to it.
These are not ordinary times and the hotel, along with other industries, has had to adapt and implement new rules. Yes, things are not as previous e.g.:- no housekeeping for the duration of the stay, but I felt safe throughout the stay and felt they were doing all they could under these difficult circumstances. Room was excellent-with a variety of chairs which my husband appreciated having health issue. There was room to move around. Reception were happy to give anything we ran short of-tea, coffee etc. All staff were pleasant and helpful throughout the stay. As a hotel inspector, I would like to see the hotel graded by a recognised body but overall a great venue
Fantastic service from start to finish with a team who bent over backwards to make our stay perfect . We stayed in the stables and the rooms were really lovely with comfy beds and everything you could want . Gorgeous dinner outside and beautiful breakfast! We’ll be back next year !!
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