The Dial House

This is a beautiful and eclectic B and B in the middle of town, in a lovely restored building, with a bakery downstairs. What could be better? Parking in the town square is free overnight, and there is a pub opposite. Highly recommended and we will be looking forward to our next stay.

We stayed in the Orient Room, which is far smaller than we expected. On the upside it is unusually decorated and charming to a point. The bathroom is well fitted out and works well in all respects other than gurgling plumbing and a complete lack of ventilation. The room itself is small, hot, and airless. The solution is to open the windows facing the pub across the road, but on a Sunday night this closes early and the area is quiet. The bed is a double, standard size, and fine other than pillows without any substance. The heating controls (at least thats what I think they are) glow very brightly all night and we could not find how to turn them off. Neither of us could sleep with what is a quite bright light directly in your eyes, and at 1.30am constructed a "Giant Jenga" of pillows and clothes to reach the height of this control to blank it off. With the windows open you can clearly hear the hour struck at 1am, 2am, and 3am, I managed to miss 4am, 5am, 6am through fatigue, but luckily awakened with a start at 6.15am by the Bakers van. This brings fresh, good bread to "Bread Source" downstairs, and has a double function of having a side door that can be slammed really loudly as a precursor to the main door (directly underneath) being slammed as well. To finish the job, some walking about in heavy boots and some back doors on the van due for their rigidity test. Now wide awake despite so little sleep I attempted to close the shutters and windows to get more sleep but sadly not. The "breakfast" is a "Drink, Savoury, Sweet, and a piece of fruit". Taken aback by sentimental, sepia flashbacks of childhood school dinners I indulged in the croissant (after all, I heard it delivered that very morning), the quiche, a coffee, and an orange (well, green and orange), all of which motivated me to go in search of a Melon Bag from McDonalds that very day. All in all, marks for trying, delightful village, quaint building, excellently decorated but the overall impression of this posh B&B (not a Hotel) is "not to be repeated", and certainly not for the advertised £160. No-one there to report this to, by the way, as it is most definately not a Hotel.

Beautiful venue in a stunning setting ,just like stepping back in time to an unspoilt village square. Room was beyond perfect , complete with record player . Spacious , clean absolutely perfect. The addition of the laid back bar was a welcome surprise for pre and after dinner drinks where the staff went above and beyond . The source bakery for breakfast was also outstanding . Can’t wait to return