Sophisticated Luxury Hen Weekend House Party: choice of 3 Properties

St. Swithins Cottage for the sophisticated and slightly more refined Hen Party from a sensational £60.00 per head per night for upto 21+ Hens - Ooh La La!

Fantastic your best friend is getting married and guess what she's dumped you right in it with the responsibility for the girls Hen Party.
Oh that's wonderful darling but secretly you are thinking oh no!!!!
The responsibility of it all; where to stay, what to do and how to arrange it all?
"Pas de probleme mesdames" Spoken in Scottish/French as your host, Dean Milroy, takes over the reins effortlessly. St. Swithins Cottage is so ideal for you and your girlfriends to have fun, relax, dance and share all those old memories.



Our quality, features, pricing flexibility and exclusivity to the Sophisticated Hen Party market make us shine where others may merely glow!

If you want something a little different for your Hen Party why not try our Absolutely Fabulous Glamping?

It is possible to combine staying in St. Swithins Cottage with a Glamping option in the grounds of St. Swithins Cottage. However please note that this option is priced at the same price as the cottage at £60.00 per head per night with a minimum of 2 nights and it is based on multiples of 5 persons only.


To quote one hen party organiser in October 2010 (click here for her actual TripAdvisor comment):


"A great place to stay for a hen party! Dean couldn't be more helpful. Henley not far away for a brilliant night out too!"

And to quote another "Trip Advisor" hen party organiser from February 2011.....

Being such a romantic enchanting house with such phenomenal reviews, as evidenced above, it is the perfect venue for your special weekend with all your very special girlfriends!



Recommended by Dean:

In the side bar to the right you will find a continuously growing range of products / services personally recommended by Dean which may be of benefit to you and your party at your chosen location.

For example you may wish to make use of the most fantastic range of Beauty & Pampering Services from the fabulous Shelby. These are available for you at any of our three locations.

Do's & Don'ts:

Well we would like to say that you can do everything and anything!

However we are catering to the "Sophisticated" lady and as such our properties are in sophisticated neighbourhoods with sophisticated neighbours!

So all we ask for is a bit of respect for both our properties and our very important neighbours. Please therefore agree anything out of the ordinary with your host beforehand especially if you are considering having some sort of "Butler in the Buff" as we have very strict rules on that.

Under no circumstances should that type of act be performed outside the four walls of the house!

Personalise your Hen Party:

Want to do something really special for your Hen? Make a magical and possibly lasting impression? Start the weekend off with something so unique you will talk about it for ages?

Well here at St. Swithins Cottage we can do just that! Take advantage of our Customised Playlist system to bowl your Hen over.

But we're not stopping there and neither should you. Now we are going that extra mile and are offering you your very own web page on our site dedicated and immortalised (for as long as you want) to your special Hen.

Have a look at what we did for Clara Bennett in May 2012. This page could have included text and pictures as well; but the most important aspect of this additional service is that it is entirely FREE!

This is what her Matron of Honour, Nicola, had to say of the whole weekend:

"Hi Dean,
Thank you so much for a lovely weekend! The cottage was amazing and I could have happily stayed there! Ha! All the girls have been commenting on what a fab weekend they had and I must say that all the extras you did with the video link and your website really added to Clara's memories!
I will be clicking on the below link now and commenting on what a great weekend we had. I'm going to leave the pics to Laura as she was the one with the camera!
Thanks again, we will definitely consider your Glamping for future events!
Best Wishes,
Nicola"

Arrival & Departure Times:

First of all don't worry about the times stated in my T's & C's page as that doesn't refer to you! No - that is for my midweek B&B customers only.

Gosh no girls! You are much better than that and as L'Oreal would say "Because you're worth it" we have developed your weekend around total flexibility.

We usually like to greet an advance party of 2 to 3 ladies first around 14:00 on the Friday; but that can be tailored to fit in with your requirements and can be as early as 12:00.

Our "Greeting" lasts around 45 minutes to an hour and during that time we take you round the property and explain how everything works so you are happy to be left on your own and then you, in turn, can teach the other members of your party as they arrive.

This is also a great opportunity for any internet food shop to be delivered as you cannot find a better way to be shown round the kitchen and as we all know according to Jona Lewie "You'll Always Find me in the Kitchen at Parties"! That's you and not me by the way.

On Sunday when you want to leave don't in any way think you have to be out by 10:00 am! Blimey you won't even have had enough time to find where I keep my paracetamol by that time let alone think about having to pack your bags - LOL.

No take your time and if you wish to leave by mid to late afternoon just agree it beforehand and it will all be fine.

Welcome Pack:

So you ask yourself what's included? Pretty much everything you can think of.

Arrival: well it has to be a glass of bubbly synonymous with the occasion and let's get this party started!

Kitchen: every piece of crockery & cutlery you can imagine, microwave, Aga, dishwasher, tea, coffee, bread, milk, sugar, jams, cereals, juice cordials, etc.

House: all the bed linen, towels for all, logs for fire, dressing gowns (5) in bedrooms, make-up face wipes in bathrooms, music and movies throughout.

Internet Shopping Deliveries:
As we are surrounded by Sainsbury's (recommended as they provide single hour based delivery slots), Tesco & Waitrose this is both a good and easy idea. Best to pre-book a delivery time slot whilst Dean is still on site with at least one of the Hens in attendance as he knows what goes where and it is an excellent way to acclimatize one or more of your party to the workings of the kitchen where we have two fridges - so plenty of space.

General Shopping:
Even in our twee wee village we have a Butcher, Baker & Convenience Store where all the essentials including more booze can easily be purchased and they are but a few hundred yards from our front door!

So what do you need to bring? Just bring your slippers, your favourite PJ's and a nice warm snugly to wrap yourself up in whilst you chat in the lounge supping your wine and watching a romantic movie. Maybe you even want a specific movie or you want pictures of the bride as a wee girl to be played with some specific music? To your host Monsieur Le Milroy this is yet another "morceau de gateau" which as you all know means in the most shocking of French "a piece of cake"!

Party Pricing:

Please visit our section on larger parties where all your Party Pricing questions will be explained.

Affiliate Program:

As a result of unprecedented demand for large Hen Party groups we have commenced an Affiliate Program whereby we acquire the use of additional appropriate properties to add to our property portfolio.

So ladies don't despair if you can't find dates to suit with St. Swithins Cottage as we endeavour to match your demand with hand picked gems of both properties and owners who compliment our, already, winning formula!

Our first partner to join the program is Ashridge Farmhouse, which was formerly commissioned as a Royal Hunting lodge within Windsor Great Park for Queen Elizabeth I back in 1575 and is only 3 miles away from St. Swithins Cottage, as the perfect option to fit all your accommodation needs!

Five Key Features of St. Swithins Cottage:

Here are the Five Key Features that make St. Swithins Cottage the perfect choice for your Hen Party.

• Sleeping - It has five double bedrooms with one of those having an additional single bed already in situ. Then there is a double sofa bed in the main lounge and an additional 8 single mattresses so sleeping 21 in the house alone is possible!
  
  Due to the fact that our more "Hen Party" clientele are both more sophisticated and more often than not mature it is quite likely that a baby or two may need to accompany a mummy Hen? But don't worry about having to carry around masses of baby kit as we have two of these lovely cots available for your use. You bring the bedding and we supply the cot at only £5.00 per night!
  
  

• Space - On the ground floor you have 4 main areas where the girls can congregrate viz. the kitchen with it's lovely warm Aga Rayburn and Aga Companion cookers; the snug with it's lovely gas fired coal effect burning stove; the dining room with tables and chairs for 16 and finally the main lounge with easily enough seating for 12 and loads of space for the all important dancing!

• In- house Entertainment - On the entertainment side of things well you are spoilt for choice. Both the snug and the main lounge are linked to the in-house media network so loads of music and movies are available for you to enjoy. A particular favourite is Mama Mia put that on in the lounge and blast the sound up with the surround sound system and girl that WILL start the party! It's also easy to add your own video or music to the system for something dedicated to your group.
  
  Ladies please, please, please try to make the most of this fantastic Customised Playlist system. It is so easy and so impressive for your Hen to receive a personalised message from all of you her most dear chicks!

• Eating & Dancing - We are surrounded by fabulous restaurants just look at our section on Eating Out. However the best solution in terms of fun, logistical ease and value for money is quite simply to chose one of our Local Pubs which are very close.
  
  Hey and don't forget breakfast - just around the corner an excellent "All Day Breakfast" is provided for by our Village Bakery. They offer Tea or coffee, sausage, bacon, egg, beans and toast at a very affordable £7.00. If you are a large party please phone up in advance on 01189 341941 (ideally well in advance but at least by 15:00 the day before) to make a booking and please note that a deposit may be required.
  
  Please don't think that you have to stay in the lovely quiet village of Hurst all the time. Quite the contrary as you are surrounded by the more up-market night spots of Henley-on-Thames, Windsor & Ascot and like everything at St. Swithins Cottage we have taken the hassle out of getting you and your party to and from your venue with our very own tailored Transport service.
  
  

• Activities - What you plan to do will almost certainly be affected by the time of year and the weather but being so close to Henley-on-Thames and Windsor allows for a lot of fun day activities.
  
  Even if you do nothing else, please just click this group of hens' testimonial immediately to the left to see what customers are saying of their stay at St. Swithins Cottage in their own handwriting and from our own actual guest book as seen on the table in the picture to the top left of our opening "Home" page.
  
  In addition both Google Reviews and TripAdvisor Reviews are also available for you to peruse.
  
  As we have 4 acres of land here at St. Swithins Cottage please feel free to ask about using it for any special uses and/or games.
  
  Outside in the past there has been an "It's a Knockout" competition, a school sports day, an Alice in Wonderland tea party, Sumo (big suits) wrestling, bucking bronco, gladiator podium fighting to name a few. So let your imagination run wild and see if you can develop something entirely different!
  
  Inside we have the services of Darren "The Dazzler" cocktail waiter and pampering from Monica & Shelby. That's on top of the fabulous media system with movies like Dirty Dancing and Mama Mia and the ability to play loads of music for as long as you want. It's that system, as mentioned above, that allows the Customised Playlist via Flikr to personalise your Hen Party specifically for your very own special Hen!
  
  Various Hen Parties have enjoyed fantastic unique games but the best has to be dressing up with toilet paper. This picture to the left shows the girls having such fun and is being used in Brides Magazine. It costs virtually nothing and can give you hours of fun.
  
  As 2011 draws to a close we are developing a whole new range activities for 2012.
  
  Each of the four local pubs will have its own page detailing how to walk there and what their specialiteis are. Village pubs are fantastic places full of fantastic characters which makes the countryside so special. I should know as seemingly I am one of them!
  
  We are in the process of purchasing a large pizza oven, akin to that of Jamie Oliver's. It is a proper wood burning unit and it will be housed in St. Swithins Barn on a steel trolley with castors so that it can easily be brought outside weather permitting.
  
  The concept here is that you can use it to make your very own pizzas and then feast on them banquet style either in or outside the barn on pub like bench tables.
  
  There is also a local stable where we hope to offer group horse riding experiences.
  
  Walking is real fun here with so much to do and see. We are just over a mile away from the very gorgeous Stanlake Vineyard please see our other sections with lovely walks there Pictures from a walk to the vineyard in 2005 and the Famous Falabella Horse walk to the vineyard. They can organise special tailored events for groups to include a glass of their own bubbly on arrival followed by a tour of the vineyard and possibly a look in the winery dependent on whether or not they are processing grapes at harvest time as the winery can get very slippery and messy with bits of grape everywhere.
  
  Tutored wine tasting is another favourite event utilising at least six of the estate wines. Here along with a glass of wine there is freshly baked bread, platters of artisan cheese (the chilie cheese is to die for), locally made chutney plus their own specially made chocolates (made for them by Rumseys Chocolatier of Great Missenden). Typically this is for groups of around 20 people and if it is a hen party they present the bride with a gift wrapped bottle of their pink (Blush) wine at the end.
  
  We have a great relationship with Polly & Neil (07919 - 110456) of River Thames Charters which is a very local company offering the ultimate experience in boat hire & chartering on the Upper River Thames onboard their gorgeous motor yacht "Sea Saga".
  
  Just close your eyes for a moment and imagine you and your lovely girlfriends dressed up to the nines enjoying the sophisticated scenery of Henley on a beautiful 1960's classic cruiser. There they all are, those so called "well-to-do" strolling not up and down Park Avenue but by those famous ancient banks of the river Thames whilst you and your girls, looking quite the part, are being eyed with conspicuous envy, by those selfsame well-to-doers, as you simply and elegantly glide through the water! As Boots would say "Bring on the girls"!
  
  With her spacious foredeck, she is the ideal motor yacht for your hen party. Inside the boat, there is a spacious seating area, fully equipped galley, 2 bedrooms and a washroom.
  
  "Sea Saga" Has a capacity of 12 but if your party is bigger then additional cruisers of similar ilk and size can be hired at the same rates.
  
  They can provide full catering services even picnicking somewhere along the banks of the Thames which is a great option if your party necessitates more than one motor yacht.
  
  However they are just as happy for you to bring your own food and booze (with NO corkage) if your budget necessitates?
  
  So what you waiting for ladies; jump aboard and let's get this party swinging! Oh la la!
  Another option is the absolutely gorgeous Nirvana Spa and by staying at St. Swithins Cottage you are entitled to a 10% discount on all treatments. Please see more on Nirvana Spa at the bottom of our section on Local Attractions. If this is something you would like to consider doing you must speak to your host Dean Milroy ASAP as only limited space is provided for Day Spa users as this is mainly a private members club.
  
  Pertinent links for Hen Parties & Weddings:
  
  River Thames Charters - Treat yourself to something very "Posh" on the Thames.....
  
  Lost Vegas! - Wedding and / or Hen Party Casino hire specialists.....
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Travel related search engine by St. Swithins Cottage