No Ordinary Hotel

I’m very lucky to get to sing at some really beautiful places.  Coombe Abbey Hotel in Warwickshire is one of them.

I’ve sung there many times, sometimes as a wedding singer, but I’ve also performed at their New Year’s Eve party and Valentine dinners.  It’s on the outskirts of Coventry and is owned by a company called No Ordinary Hotel.

The history is fascinating.  Originally a Cistercian abbey founded in 1150 it became a private house following the Dissolution of the Monastries by Henry VIII.  Over the centuries two families, the Harringtons and the Cravens, reshaped Coombe.  The Cravens in particular made a lot of changes.  They added an East Wing in a French-chateau style and had Capability Brown rework the gardens beyond the West Terrace.

 

When the Craven family left Coombe Abbey  in 1923 the place fell into disrepair and many fixtures and fittings were sold off.  There’s a lovely story about Fred Astaire buying the spiral staircase from the West Wing.  Highly implausible of course, but it fits in so nicely with the vintage songs that I sing in my act that part of me wants to believe it’s true!

The hotel itself opened in 1995 and is now a popular venue in Warwickshire for weddings and conferences.  It has a host of beautiful function rooms, most of which are licensed for civil wedding ceremonies and civil partnerships and every single bedroom is uniqely furnished.  Ifyou’re looking for somehwere special to hold your Warwickshire wedding then Coombe Abbey might just be the place.  Oh, and don’t forget me if you need a wedding singer too!