The Olde Barn Hotel, Belton House & Newark Air Museum

Clean and comfortable,
our bedroom in the rafters

The gardens at Belton House

I've been meaning to tell you for ages about a Group on offer that we took in August.
I spotted it not long after we had cancelled our May holiday and thought it would be a nice way to get a few days away. The offer was for 2 nights stay at the Old Barn Hotel in Marston near Grantham for £109 (we then paid an extra supplement for a Saturday night) including free entry to either Belton or Burghley House, Belvoir or Rockingham Castle. We booked in for mid August and when the time came around Tony was working in Leicester on the Friday, so me and Lauren set off on our own, knowing he would join us later.
The hotel was a hotel of 2 styles, one persona slightly tired olde world hotel, the other bright and modern. I think it's fair to say it's getting there slowly. Reception were efficient and sorted out our room quickly and gave us information about the swimming. Our room 1004 was a long way from reception but was in the new part of the hotel, so it was fresh, modern and clean. The bathroom was lovely. There was an iron and ironing board, tea, coffee and biscuits. The television was old style and a bit dodgy but they are replacing them I understand. I had free wi-fi in most areas. A nice touch was a little pack of colouring and treats for the children.
The hotel advertises itself as having a "spa". They do some treatments, there is a lovely small pool, 1.5m deep all the way along, a jacuzzi, steam room and there would be a sauna but, when we stayed, it had broken for good and the owner was trying to get a replacement. Lauren was only interested in swimming, so once we'd unpacked that was our destination, some of the pool was cordoned off for lane swimming but there was plenty of room for us and we were in there for about 90 minutes before I forced Lauren out for a shower and to get ready for Tony arriving and having tea.
As we don't know the area well, but realised we were a little bit in the middle of nowhere, we decided to eat at the hotel. The restaurant was rammed so there was no chance of getting in there, so we headed for the bar, which was also really busy, but we managed to get a table in a very dark corner. The drinks were very expensive, the food reasonable, Tony had pie and veg, I had a steak and Lauren had lasagne, you couldn't have complained about anything other than the price of being there. The food was a good portion size, the steak cooked as expected with nice accompaniments. And so, as is the case with hotels and young children it was off to bed we go!

Secret gardens

The next morning started with a buffet breakfast, not the best I've ever had, I thought the mushrooms were tinned and the sausages were not good, but the bacon was. The other downside was that the restaurant was full, so we had to carry our plates and coffees etc down the corridor to the bar to eat it, very precarious!

Beautiful Belton

Saturday was Belton House day, we'd never been before and heard it had an excellent adventure play area. The good news was we got a free ticket included with our Group On, so off we set.
What a fantastic day, we signed up for one of their new "Basement Tours" which took us around the servants quarters, fascinating hearing about the hierarchy under the stairs, amazed to find out how much they got paid, it was so interesting and even Lauren kept saying "this is amazing!".

Inside the Canberra

The gardens were beautiful and were laid out with games and we had a few rounds of boules. We ended up in the adventure playground, which Lauren loved - she made a friend and they rode on the little train together. We had to bribe her away with an ice cream and it was a weary party that headed back to the hotel. As we had a voucher to make dinner £14.99 rather than I think £24 we made sure we got in for the carvery. We had chicken paté for starter which was lovely. The dinner was roast turkey and beef, with Yorkshire puddings and a good choice of vegetables, cauliflower cheese, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, roasties, everything you would expect. The Yorkshire puddings were disappointing, so often now you get show pieces that are big and high, but crunchy and bitter, not puddingy at all. For desert it was a chocolate fudge cake, not my favourite but Lauren loved it. A nice meal and OK at £14.99, full price would really have been over priced. Instead of having another early night we headed off to the general area of Belvoir Castle as we'd heard that a firework competition was taking place. After a lot of trouble finding a spot and then Lauren getting scared of the dark and the bangs we really did see and hear a spectacle, some amazing fireworks, so glad we went, although I was very grumpy when I was trying to find a safe place to stop (as I'm sure Tony would tell you)!!

Young fan!!

Sunday started once more with a buffet breakfast, in the dining room this time and checking out. Sunday was the day we finally went to Newark Air Museum. Another fascinating day, Tony and Lauren got to sit in a Canberra cock pit, Lauren had trouble so Tony really shouldn't have tried and there was a moment when I thought only a can opener would get him out. The main attraction for us was of course the static Vulcan and for the superb price of 50p each we actually got to sit in the cockpit, where a man called David told us all about his time in the bombers seat. I went up a rickety ladder to get there - unheard of - only done once before to see the lighthouse at the Lizard but in both cases well worth it!
All in all we had an excellent weekend, I would go to the hotel again, I'm not sure if I would recommend it as you have to accept it for what it is and I would not eat or drink there again, definitely go off and find a cheaper pub in one of the surrounding villages instead.