Those organising events in venues with some history will want to know about Clevedon Hall, a beautifully preserved 150 year-old Victorian mansion, located 13 miles south west of Bristol centre and by the seafront at the time-warped Victorian seaside town of Clevedon.

Opened in 2010 for weddings and corporate events after a £3 million refurbishment the Hall offers an English country house feel and, from last November, 25 individual bedrooms in the style of the era. On a recent press visit our very spacious one included a large four poster bed, period furniture, a Victorian roll-top bath. a huge walk in shower stall, large bottles of expensive toiletries and a selection of more than fifty classic books by the likes of Shaw, Dickens, Scott, Stevenson, Somerset-Maughan, Dumas, Hugo, Turgenev and Dostoyevsky, enough for a year’s relaxed reading and the perfect intellectual diversion for corporate high-fliers and newly-weds. One quirky item that might also appeal is the high-tech Japanese heated toilet seat that moves to different positions and delivers a cooling and cleansing spray.

For events there are six main areas available for twelve to 150 delagates. The impressive Great Hall can seat 150 theatre-style and 100 cabaret, prices on application. The chandeliered Dame Rosa Burden seats 70 theatre-style and 35 cabaret for £200/125 for a day/half-day. The Grand Library, with lots more real books, seats 140/100 for £300/175 for the day/half-day, and St Brandons seats 50/30 for £110/60 for the day/half-day. For smaller groups the Conrad Finzel – named after the sugar baron for whom the Hall was built – seats 20 boardroom style for £200/125 for the day/half-day, and The Snug which seats 12 for £135/75 for the day/half-day.

Outside are well-kept grounds with roaming deer and a photogenic lake area with, reputedly, a grumpy heron. Visitors can also step outside the drive onto the Clevedon seafront where they can hear the seagulls, smell the seaweed, inhale the ozone, enjoy the views across the Bristol Channel to Wales and promenade through the ornamental gardens to the Victorian bandstand and the Victorian Pleasure Pier, described by Sir John Betjeman as “the most beautiful in England”.

Note. Viewing highly recommended. Review of food in next issue.

Tel 01275 778 142 Web: clevedonhall.co.uk