The Walnut Tree Inn

Stayed here for one night a a tripe room with the family. Looking for a rural quiet location for one night as stop over on the way to Oxford. Oxford only 50 mins away and we had a an early start. The hotel is very nice, the triple room is traditional but clean (could have done with another chair) and the bar and restaurant area is excellent. The food was very good in the restaurant, service was excellent but if I am being critical the wine needed more cooling. So why the poor review. Well just after falling asleep the railway work started. The hotel is right opposite a railway maintenance depot. Well I have never seen so many working vans, yellow flashing lights, generators humming lighting the area, reversing sirens going, shouting, maintenance train humming and metal clanging. It was literally an army of workers descended overnight to fix the railway from this depot. Shutting the windows on a hot night made no effect this was going to be a long night and it was. My family commented to each other on arrival about the train noise but thought that's not so bad with passing trains. But the army of maintenance workers descending on this place and working all through the night was just another level. The hotel staff in the morning said they normally get advance notice of planned work at the depot but they must have been ahead of schedule....... If your staying here, ask if there is planned railway maintenance work, it might be better with a room at the back but this level of noise was unbelievable. This is a lovely hotel but such a shame this railway depot work.

We stayed one night for a family event in the afternoon as as we live two hours away we decided to stay a night . The staff are sll friendly, helpful and considerate. The room was pleasant, nice bathroom the breakfast was lovely. Value for money and would recommend it .

The positives - Lovely, friendly staff. A small but comfortable room. Spotlessly clean. The food is great, as is the beer and breakfast was delicious (perfect scrambled eggs). The not-so-positives - The location is out of the hotels control but it's not mentioned anywhere where booking about the extremely loud trains thundering past all night, every 15 minutes or so on the East Coast mainline. Unfortunately, this resulted in zero sleep. Also could do with blackout curtains in the room. If staying ask for a room away from the train tracks (if there is one) or take earplugs.

This is a little gem! We stayed one night after visiting Bletchley Park. We absolutely loved our stay, our room was modern, clean and fresh, it over looked a small car park and the shower was incredible! All the staff were friendly and welcoming. We booked in for dinner had a reservation in the bar, very nicely decorated a real traditional country pub feel. We had the burgers were fantastic! We went for a nice evening stroll along the canal and then returned, we were only going to have one drink in the bar and then go to the room with a bottle of wine. However the bar got a really good atmosphere with friendly people and the bar staff kept the drinks flowing! There was a live band who were very good and got people up dancing. We brought the wine home!! We went up to bed before the band ended and we honestly couldn't hear a thing in the room, contrary to how loud they were downstairs, do don't be put off by the bands on a Saturday! Breakfast was lovely and fresh too! We would definitely stay again and recommend on to friends and family.

My wife and I booked this place as a one night stay including breakfast using an Activity Superstore voucher. I had no issues booking over the phone and was asked to bring the voucher with me when checking in, however when arriving to check in, there were no staff manning the reception. After waiting for a good few minutes, I walked into the restaurant to find a member of staff, who came over to reception but struggled to check us in using the system. We received no welcome, smile or friendly verbal exchange from this person, and found they were still having issues when a colleague of hers was called over to help to which there was no communication and instead joked and laughed to each other in front of us which we found to be quite poor service. Thankfully, another colleague came over to help and checked us in, despite him saying my name was booked as 'Alex Underwright' instead of 'Alexander Wright' which has never happened in my life haha! We weren't told where our room was, so we walked up the stairs and tried to find it ourselves which was fortunately not difficult at all. The key was a bit fiddly being an old-fashioned lock which also needed to be locked from the inside, but the room itself was a nice temperature and looked quite fresh. The decor around the whole hotel was quite nice and well-kept. We had a restaurant reservation booked for when we arrived, so we made our way down to the room signposted as 'Restaurant', however upon entering the room we were met with a lot of staring people next to a buffet and no staff which was awkward. We were told later on that the normal restaurant room was closed on Fridays but there was no staff around to tell us this. The waitress was the same person who I found to check us in who wasn't interested in talking to us any more than the bare minimum and oddly provided us with 5 menus for the 2 of us. After almost half an hour of sat waiting, the waitress came over again and asked if the rest of our party would be joining us to which I mentioned it was just my wife and I celebrating our anniversary. She responded by saying we'd booked a table for 5 which I hadn't mentioned at all when booking! After this strange mix-up, the orders came within good time and all the food was of great quality and seemed to be locally-sourced, particularly the beef and bacon for the Walnut Tree Burger. The prices were pretty good value too and the service from the older male barman who checked us in was much better and more welcoming. We asked for a bottle of still water to take to our room after the meal and he let us have a free chilled bottle of tap water instead to save money which was a nice touch. The bed was comfy, however there was an uncovered window at the end of our room next to the bathroom so light quickly filled the room by 6:30AM and woke me up early. The train noises being located next to a fast-moving line thankfully weren't bad enough to wake us up before that despite being quietly audible from our room

Had a private room booked for a friend's birthday, food and staff at this point were spot on, included in our package was to have reserved tables in the live music area, upon arriving these seats had been taken by "locals" aka cockroaches that refused to move even when shown the reserved table note, staff didnt help and sided with the locals, this ruined the evening and created a hostile environment. All spirit and mixer drinks were over priced and served with flat coke from 2 litre bottles, reminiscent of a skegness holiday park.

We really enjoyed our stopover stay here before Christmas on our way up North. Our evening meal was delicious. The room was a bit basic but comfortable. The staff were obviously very busy (due to a large Christmas party in their function room) but they were still calm and attentive. There was a pretty good live band in their bar whom we enjoyed (but they were too loud for us - our earplugs were useful). Breakfast was tasty too. We had a good, quiet nights sleep.

We had a family party this weekend and we really enjoyed our stay! Staff were all really friendly, our family room was spacious and really clean and our breakfast was good quality and came quickly. Definitely recommend this hotel 😊

Myself family & friends had a family gathering at the Walnut tree after my mothers funeral (20 of us in total) . The area set aside for us was perfect , exactly the right size for a small gathering . ,there were flowers on the tables and the room was clean and inviting . unlimited tea & coffee was available. I had opted for the high tea which consisted of sandwiches, scones & cakes but due the time being lunch time I had asked for crisps & sausage rolls as well. The chorizo sausage rolls did not disappoint, simply delicious . I asked for two bottles of wine a pinot & a house red. £21.00 & £20.00 respectively! a bit steep !! The staff were unobtrusive but available if needed , lovely food & my family all approved if the choice of venue .