Travel Advisory

Whilst Emma Jane was talking to folks yesterday about some work stuff, I idly browsed the web on my phone – finding a feature in The Independent on: “English inns: Six of the best from Sussex to Yorkshire”.

Now the idea of a girl being flogged from one county to the next rather appealed – “you’ll tied to the the whipping post in the county towns from Sussex to Yorkshire.” But the article had still further inspiration, for its first recommendation was for:

The Bell at Ticehurst, East Sussex

An orchard once stood on the site of this East Sussex pub, which might explain the silver birch trees sprouting from the floorboards of the bedrooms.

Oh goodness. My interest sparked, my mind wandered. “Wouldn’t it be lovely to book a few days away,” I thought.

Now, many years ago, I wrote one of my favourite of my stories – “Sanctuary Lost” – whilst staying in Wroxall Abbey, during the final stages of its conversion from school to hotel. I reminisced, and uncovered a TripAdvisor review that seemed to echo the premise of my plot, with a girl returning to her former educational establishment:

“Not a great school and an even worse hotel!”

I went to school at Wroxall when it was an all girls boarding school. So it’s safe to say I know the place like the back of my hand. I was so excited to go back and see what had become of the old place…

But, oh, there are so many better options. My interest piqued, I duly typed in: “hotel girls school”. The Independent (on a roll, it seems) presented its six recommendations for School House Hotels last month, of which by far the best from a kinky-historical perspective in the UK appears to be in Cornwall:

The Old School Hotel, Port Isaac, Cornwall

Situated in pretty Port Isaac, the building is Grade II-listed and was first converted from a school to a hotel in the 1980s. Each of the 13 rooms has been named after a subject on the school curriculum. Guests can ponder Religious Studies in a single room; spend double French in a double; or master Biology in a king size.

But by far my favourite, as I continued to browse, was the Great John Street hotel in Manchester – less perhaps for its bedrooms (although rooms that contain “many original features of the Old School House” do appeal) than for its conference facilities.

I work in said city a fair amount, and I now soooo want to find an excuse to host a workshop in the Headmaster’s Office, or the Classrooms (“”rooms with character that can be booked during the day or evening… offering space with no distractions situated on the ground floor of the old school house”). At the very least, I think I know where I’m going to be staying next time I’m in the city!