Spectacular grandeur of a stately home break at Weston Park

Sitting on the border of Staffordshire and Shropshire, this grand 17th century listed stately home and its world renowned Capability Brown landscape, is the perfect escape.

While it transports you into a different world that feels a million miles away from your own, it’s a retreat that’s in easy reach of your doorstep too.

This stunning Weston-under-Lizard venue runs dine and stay events at Christmas, which are incredibly popular, but it had not revived its other seasonal dine and stay events post Covid.

Until now that is. They are now firmly back on the country estate’s calendar and my husband and I were honoured to be invited as guests to enjoy the sumptuous delights of its inaugural “A Taste of Weston” relaunch event. And what a packed, memorable weekend it was. There was tea and cake in the atmospheric library on arrival and early evening gin tasting in the beautiful, vaulted cellar bar, before a champagne reception and a delicious five-course dinner in the grand dining room.

A wonderful overnight stay was then followed in the morning by a cooked breakfast, guided tour of the beautiful Walled Garden, where much of the produce for our delectable evening meal was sourced, as well as a cookery demonstration from the chef herself.

But first let’s step back in time to where it all began.Listed in the Domesday Book, Weston Park, which is set in 1,000 acres of parkland, has much to boast about.

The former ancestral home of the Earl of Bridgeford’s family for generations, it’s played host to royalty and presidents and features the beautiful and impressive Capability Brown Pleasure Grounds. The house is Grade I Listed, with Grade II listed features within its grounds, and has a world-renowned art collection, including rare works, tapestries, furniture and antiques.

And what I find incredibly wonderful, is that all these historical antiquities are on full view to guests throughout the house creating an exquisite atmosphere of a bygone era.

From the very start of our stay we were made to feel at home and very welcome.

Service was great and the food superb. The Cellar Bar, which was newly refurbished in 2020,is a great addition to a dine and stay event. After the gin tasting session we stayed for drinks from the bar before getting dressed for dinner.

Our five course meal featured a mouth-watering starter of white asparagus, salmon, confit egg yolk with watercress followed by a delectable blood orange sorbet.

For our main course we were treated to a perfectly-pink and melt-in-the-mouth rack of lamb accompanied by pressed shoulder, Jersey royals, artichoke, broad beans and peas.

Our delicious desert of rhubarb and custard tart with rhubarb sorbet was pre-empted with the best cheese course I’ve ever had the pleasure of savouring. It included Newport smoked cheese beignet, Wrekin White scone, Wrekin Blue cheese mousse and fig compote.

The paintings in this grand dining room have that amazing aspect of seemingly looking down on you from wherever you sit, as though they are guests joining you for dinner (they remind me a little of the artwork in Harry Potter, which made me smile).

Drinks in the library – which, as an English graduate, I have to say is my favourite room of

the house - was a must to allow our very full stomachs to settle before heading to bed.

Our home for the night was one of their luxury bedrooms called Brewood, an en-suite room that saw us greeted to a beautiful view of the carriage ring at the front of the house as well as the grounds beyond, and boasted a very comfortable bed.

Well rested, we were treated to pastries, fruit and a full English breakfast, once more in the fabulous and very grand dining room, before walking it off on our garden tour. Over all too quickly, we had a fabulous weekend, from start to finish, and nothing could be faulted. We both left feeling relaxed and rested, longing to return again soon.

Despite all its grandeur, Weston is in no way pretentious. Gifted to the nation in 1986 by the current Earl of Bradford, it is now owned by the Weston Park Foundation – an independent charitable trust – with the aim of conserving and displaying Weston and its contents for the public benefit and for generations to come.

If you’d like to follow in Justine’s footsteps and sample a taste of being treated like lord and lady of the manor for a weekend, Weston Park’s next dine and stay event will be A Taste of Weston – Autumn Flavours on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th October, priced £435 a couple.

Weston also runs a programme of Christmas Dine and Stay Events in December. For more please visit https://weston-park.com/whats-on/ or email enquiries@weston-park.com