A Trip To Northampton

After a pretty manic week I couldn’t wait to hop on a train for an hour and arrive at Rushton Hall in Northampton for little hotel break. That morning I taught one of my Repeat Pattern Classes (have a look at the link if you want to join my next one) and then had to rush off to St Pancras to catch my train. In typical fashion I was so worried that Simon and I would miss our train but the whole journey was smooth and easy. After arriving at Kettering and a short taxi ride later we arrived at the impressive Rushton Hall, a 15th century stately home.

Simon and I really lucked out with the weather and after a little look around our calm and peaceful room we ventured out into the grounds to make the most of the beautifully sunny weather.

Like I mentioned, our bedroom felt extremely peaceful. We arrived at around four when the birds were singing and the sun was beginning to slowly set into the evening. I particularly loved the old windows which looked out onto the river and the gardens. The old checkerboard panes made for some very pretty shadows in the room, which was mainly decorated in cream tones and touches of burnt orange.

Our bathroom had a large clawfoot bath, which sadly I didn’t try out, and a modern walk in shower. I fell in love with the wooden parquet flooring in the bathroom, I just love wooden floorboards.

During our little stroll around the gardens and courtyard we realised how impressive and ornate the architecture of the hotel is. One small part of the building actually pre-dates the doomsday book, meaning it was built during the 10th Century. Sir William Tresham Bought Rushton in 1438, he actually bought the village Known as Rushton St Peter which included several cottages and the church of St Peter. He then started to build his new family home, a grand house that was to become Rushton Hall.

After a glass of wine in one of the many drawing rooms I popped up to our room for a quick shower to get ready for dinner. I don’t know about you but I get most excited about the eating part when I’m staying in a hotel. Our dinner was excellent and we sampled some of the locally grown and produced ingredients from the area. It was one of the best meals that I have eaten in a hotel, the food was incredibly tasty without being fussy.

After dinner we headed up to our room and watched a completely ridiculous action movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme in it before falling asleep. The next day, after enjoying breakfast in our room we sampled the spa facilities which were housed in a lovely old building that looked a little like a coach house. It’s so nice to be able to wake up and pop along to a pool for a swim. To end the day we enjoyed afternoon tea in the ginormous hall, the fireplace was larger than our flat! Feeling suitably stuffed full of sandwiches and macarons we sadly left Rushton to board our train back to London.

It was lovely to have the experience of exploring Northampton a little. It’s an area of the UK that I had never been to before and one that seems to have a lot of history and beautiful stately homes on offer. Thank you so much to the team at Rushton Hall for letting Simon and I stay at your beautiful hotel.