A passenger ferry has crossed the River Stour at Wick since about 1815, and Captain’s Club Hotel & Spa stands at its Christchurch landing on Wick Lane. The hotel is far younger, a long building of white render and glass with motor boats moored along the quay below its terrace. Couples marry here indoors, in one of three suites with floor to ceiling windows on the river, eat from a kitchen that holds two AA Rosettes, and sleep upstairs in rooms that look over the moorings.
The ferryman’s crossing
The ferry began as a job for one man. It was set up to give work to a farm labourer named Marshall after a kick from a horse left him unfit for the fields, and for well over a century the boat was punted across. Outboard engines were fitted in 1947 and halved the time of a crossing, and apart from a short break in 1957 the service has carried on since. The landing appears on the first Ordnance Survey 25 inch maps of 1864 and 1886, and Dorset’s historic environment record suggests that the crossing itself may be of considerable antiquity.
Bournemouth Boating Services, a family business based upstream at Tuckton, still carries passengers across at Wick, and from April to October its river boats link Tuckton Tea Gardens, Wick Ferry, Christchurch Quay and Mudeford Sandbank at the mouth of the harbour.
On the far bank, Wick takes its name from the Old English for a dairy farm and has been part of Bournemouth since 1901. The earliest known record of the name Bournemouth involves its manor: in 1406 a fish eighteen feet long, washed up at “La Bournemowthe”, was cut up at Wick, and four portions went to Christchurch Priory as tithe. Beside the village, Wick Fields are ancient grassland, grazed by a herd of Galloway cattle and protected as part of the Hengistbury Head nature reserve.
From holiday camp to riverside hotel
Before the hotel, this ground belonged to the Wick Ferry holiday camp. It was running by 1950, when the manager’s wife ran the camp restaurant and their son’s birthday parties were held in its dining room; a photograph of his fourth, in 1954, shows the table laid out on a patio where Captain’s Club stands today. Pontins later took the camp over and made it the first of its camps to be entirely self catering. It was sold in 1995 and later demolished.
Captain’s Club marks twenty years on the site in 2026. Its design is nautical, and the names follow the theme: the double and twin rooms are Staterooms, the bar is the Quay Bar, two of the event rooms are the Port and Starboard Suites, and the wedding packages are Pearl, Coral and Oyster.
Three rooms on the river
Weddings take place in the three event suites, all newly renovated. The Waterside Suite is the largest, taking up to 110 guests for a wedding with a wedding breakfast, and it has its own bar; for a reception the hotel takes up to 120. Its tables are laid with white linen and limewash Chiavari chairs, and the day begins there with English Oak sparkling wine. The Starboard Suite takes up to 80 guests, or 70 seated for a wedding breakfast, and has its own entrance and a private outdoor terrace for drinks and photographs. The Port Suite, the smallest, holds 40, has its own bar and opens onto the riverside terrace; it is used for ceremonies and smaller receptions.
Captain’s Club is licensed for civil ceremonies, and every ceremony is held indoors. There are no gardens or grounds, so the terrace on the quay serves for drinks, meals and photographs rather than vows. On every package the registrar’s fee is extra and arranged by the couple, and the hotel recommends the register office in Bournemouth.
Pearl, Coral and Oyster
Weddings are sold as packages rather than as room hire, and the prices include VAT. Pearl, at £2,870 for up to 20 guests, is the smallest. The ceremony takes place in the Club Suite, guests have four canapés and two glasses of Midas Prosecco each, and the couple spend the night in that same suite, with a full English breakfast the next morning and use of the spa.
Coral is a daytime wedding for up to 50, from £3,990 for 30 guests. It gives the couple the Waterside Suite to themselves for the ceremony, with a blue carpet arrival, a toastmaster and one drink each for the reception, then a full afternoon tea in place of a wedding breakfast, with rosé prosecco for the toasts. A three course meal can replace the tea, priced on request.
Oyster is the full day, from £12,895 for 40 guests and rising in steps to 100. It adds two drinks and four canapés a head, a menu and wine tasting for the couple beforehand, a three course wedding breakfast with half a bottle of the club wine per person, evening food of stone baked pizza, a hog roast or a hot buffet, a DJ from 7pm until midnight, and ten bedrooms for the wedding night: a junior suite, six doubles and three two bedroom suites. On Coral and Oyster a wedding coordinator helps the couple plan, and an operations manager runs the day itself.
A two rosette kitchen
All of the wedding food comes from the hotel’s own kitchen, and outside caterers are not used. The Club Restaurant holds two AA Rosettes under head chef Mo Sabbir and looks over the Stour, and in the warmer months lunch and dinner can be taken on the riverside terrace.
Drinks are taken in the Quay Bar, recently refurbished, with its curved counter, a fireplace and windows on the river, and in the Club Lounge, which has armchairs by the fire and serves pre dinner drinks and light lunches. For guests who stay the night, breakfast the next morning is served at window tables a few metres from the moored boats.
Staying above the moorings
There are 29 bedrooms: 17 double and twin rooms and 12 suites of two or three bedrooms. The room types run from the Staterooms and a double adapted for wheelchair users to Junior Suites and the larger suites, which are open plan, with a lounge and a kitchenette. The Three Bedroom Suite sleeps six in two doubles and a twin. Most rooms look over the river or the marina.
The CC Spa is compact. It has four treatment rooms using ESPA for face and body and CND for nails, a hydrotherapy pool with a Jacuzzi and a resistance jet for guests aged 16 and over, a sauna, poolside loungers and a private sun terrace. The pool is kept for hotel residents and spa day guests, so a wedding party staying the night can use it the next morning.
The harbour beyond the quay
Captain’s Club sits at the western end of the quay and open ground known locally as the Quomps, with Christchurch Priory at the far end. The Christchurch Regatta, held every year since 1909 around the second week of August, brings rowing races to the Stour and a funfair to the town quay. The Priory was begun in 1094 by Ranulf Flambard, then Dean of Twynham, and the town, first named Twynham for its place between two rivers, came to be called Christchurch after it.
The Avon joins the Stour beside the Priory, and both run into Christchurch Harbour, a shallow harbour with a double high water on each tide. It reaches the sea through a narrow channel known locally as the Run, between Mudeford Quay and Mudeford Spit, with Hengistbury Head along its southern side. For guests staying on, kayaks and paddleboards can be hired beside the hotel, the river ferry runs down to Mudeford Sandbank in season, and the Boat Club runs skippered charters along the coast for hotel guests.
Bournemouth Airport is four miles away, about 15 minutes by car, and Southampton Airport is 24 miles. Christchurch station, on the South Western Railway line, is under a mile away. The hotel has 40 parking spaces, two of them accessible bays, with electric vehicle charging; residents park free and day guests pay the car park tariff. For another wedding on this stretch of the coast, read our Edit on Highcliffe Castle, browse Dorset wedding venues or open the United Kingdom Wedding Atlas.
Afternoon tea or the full day
The choice that shapes a wedding at Captain’s Club is how long the day runs. Coral keeps it to the daylight hours: vows in the Waterside Suite and afternoon tea for up to 50, with the river at the windows from the first toast to the last cup. Oyster carries the same room on through a three course dinner and a DJ until midnight, with ten bedrooms held upstairs so the wedding party wakes above the moorings. Read the Captain’s Club Hotel & Spa profile and check your date.
