The Old Swan & Minster Mill

With the Cotswolds right next door we decided it was time to visit a beautiful hotel to soak up some spa treats as well as a little history.

MINSTER Lovell beside the River Windrush. Yes, even the name is beautiful, and the actual place lives up to the anticipation it creates. You could be miles from anywhere, deep in the best of the British countryside.

And yet this historic village is actual just a couple of miles from Witney, around 15 minutes from Oxford and handy even for Bicester Shopping if you really must. And for a little village to have two jewels in the crown beyond the picturesque old Cotswold cottages is a delightful bonus.

For this is where you find the Old Swan & Minster Mill, a stay cation or weekend break ‘must do’, sitting in 65 acres of gardens. Just over a year ago it became part of the Andrew Brown sword hotel collection (all set in breath-taking countryside or historic cities) so you know to expect excellent food and service.

But this one has it all because, as well as having 600 years or so of history itself, the country house hotel is just a few minutes walk through the ‘chocolate box’ village from the extraordinary ruins of Minster Lovell Hall, a former 15th century manor house.