Montgomery Manor

Montgomery Manor is a Grade II listed manor house in English Bicknor, on the edge of the Forest of Dean and above a loop of the River Wye. Built in the sixteenth century by the Wyralls, a family of foresters and landowners, and extended through the eighteenth, it was home to the palaeontologist Dorothea Bate in the late 1800s. The owners named it after their son Monty and have restored it with a lot of care – and a sense of humour.

The house is taken on an exclusive-use basis and sleeps up to 18 in eight bedrooms: six kings, a super king four-poster and a bunk room with two singles and two bunks. The master bedroom is en suite, with two further bathrooms and a downstairs WC. Bedrooms are papered in House of Hackney and William Morris, painted in deep reds and soft blues, and furnished room by room, so no two are alike. A spiral staircase winds up a seventeenth-century tower.

Downstairs, the oak panelled dining room seats sixteen around one long table, with a working open fire and a medieval carving salvaged from the fire at nearby Clearwell Castle. There are two lounges, each with its own fire: the evening lounge has two big velvet sofas, karaoke, a cupboard of toys and board games, and French windows out to the hot tub and fire pit, while the quieter morning lounge has a baby grand piano, a log burner and original shutters on tall sash windows. The farmhouse kitchen has a four-oven Aga set into a great medieval stone hearth, beams and a checkerboard floor.

Beneath the house is a four-hundred-year-old vaulted cellar, fitted out as a bar and a sound-insulated club room with a sound system, mirrorball and karaoke. It is seasonal, costs an extra £500 and must be booked in advance; DJ equipment, bar staff and catering can be added.

Outside there are more than two acres of grounds. Behind the house a walled lawn runs up to an old stone wall, with a vine-covered arbour and a greenhouse, and it is fully enclosed with gates at either end – useful for children and dogs. The wood-fired hot tub seats ten and there is a fire pit for evenings. There is parking for up to twelve cars.

Up to two dogs are included, with more on request. Private chefs and catering can be arranged for any stay. Wi-Fi is 1Gb broadband. Check-in is from 3pm and check-out by 12 noon. The minimum stay is two nights, or three to five nights at Christmas and New Year, when the house is dressed with two Christmas trees and decorations throughout.

The Wye Valley is on the doorstep, with riverside walks from the house. Symonds Yat Rock, Puzzlewood, Goodrich Castle, the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail and canoeing on the Wye are all close by, and the Saracens Head at Symonds Yat and The Ostrich at Newland are good pubs nearby.

Coleford and Monmouth are the nearest towns. Gloucester station is about 35 minutes by road, with direct trains to London Paddington in 1 hour 40. London is about 2 hours 15 by car, Bristol about 1 hour 10 and Cardiff about an hour.