Fabulous local pubs to pamper to your every request

St. Swithins Cottage customers benefit from special relationship with local pubs!

We have spoken to our local hostelries to produce a range of dining offerings to fit the needs of customers to both St. Swithins Cottage and its affiliated properties.

The vast majority of our cumstomers come in the form of either Sophisticated Hen Party users or Absolutely Fabulous Glamping users and it is to these groups that we have tailored our dining offerings.

First and foremost we have negotiated an absolutely fabulous deal at both The Castle Inn and at The Elephant & Castle whereby as long as your party is a minimum of ten persons for dining you get one a free bottle of either house red, white or rosé wine with your meal. Thereafter you get another free bottle for every additional five people eating. Just be sure to mention that you are St. Swithins Cottage customers when booking regardless of the fact that you may, actually, be staying at a totally different property.

For the benefit of our customers who have, maybe, walked to either of these hostelries we have also left a supply of pink torches at each pub just in case you decide to walk back to where you are staying.

The Castle Inn

The Castle Inn is a Free House under the, very capabale, front of house stewardship of Inga (01189 340034). It is both gorgeous and the perfect venue for that Sophisticated diner! Their head chef Matt Brown will titillate your taste buds with a mouth watering selection of his finest creations in equally sumptuous surroundings.

It is a gorgoeus tavern dating back almost a 1,000 years and it has two perfect private dining facilities for your group.

Firstly you have The Snug on the ground floor adjacent to The Powder Room which can seat party groups of around 18 persons and really is a lovely little personal room perfect for the hen with her chicks.

Then upstairs you have the much larger White Party Room where groups of 25 plus can be easily accommodated.

In addition to these opulent facilities they have a wonderful secluded beer garden to the rear for maybe a lunch time celebration or rest after a walk perhaps? However we really see The Castle Inn's role in terms of our "dining offerings" to fitting the needs of groups requiring that Sophisticated evening dining experience.



The Elephant & Castle

The Elephant & Castle was once home to a world champion bar billiards team and is a Greene King house. It is run by a fun & down to earth couple Wayne & Pennie (01189 340886 or 07900 604658).

Now if you want to let your hair down then this is the place to do it! Wayne & Pennie are, quite simply, the most accommodating and imaginative couple around - at least Pennie is and Wayne is well sort of imagine Wayne's World and you will be on the right track. Anyway we have had Hen party groups there enjoying an 80's disco, a pub quizz, Aunt Sally lessons, dancing into the wee small hours and many more intriguing and unique events.



Effectively there are two sides to the pub and they, generally, accommodate our groups in their Garden Bar area where 25 plus Hens can enjoy an exclusive dining experience. This also is the where Wayne lets his long dreadlocks of luxurious hair down and really offers you a great place to boogie on down to the wee small hours.

They offer superb value for money home cooked food which is ideal for the more budget wary group. Pennie doesn't believe she is a chef rather she likens herself to a simple "cook", similar to the likes of your old school dinner lady, but boy is she wrong. Many a dish that comes from her fair hands would whet any man's appetite and they offer such fabulous value for money. A special favourite of mine is her "Spisy Meet Bolls" wow they taste ecstatic. As you can imagine her cooking far surpasses her spelling - well we're all a bit yocal out here!

With good beer, Sports TV, and regular live music the "Elly", as it is colloquially known, is a cracking fun pub with loads of local characters. In the Public Bar area they are also very dog friendly and the dogs are often more entertaining than the locals!

They even have an absolutely fabulous kids area incorporating a magical play house for children with a fully enclosed yellow curly wurly slide and a bouncy castle both of which, as you can see from the videos that follow, have been well used by Hens to Managing Directors alike who have stayed at St. Swithins Cottage.