Grade II listed 1565 coaching inn with a walled garden and licensed Summer House in Burford, Oxfordshire
The Bay Tree Hotel is a Grade II listed Cotswold coaching inn on Sheep Street in Burford, taken exclusively for a wedding from 2pm check-in until check-out the next morning.
The Bay Tree Hotel has stood on Sheep Street in Burford since 1565, when it was Tanfield House, the home of Sir Lawrence Tanfield. Now a Grade II listed coaching inn in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, it keeps its low doorways, flagstone floors, panelled rooms and lit fires. A wedding takes the whole hotel from two o'clock check-in until check-out the next morning, with the front door closed to the public.
Three rooms and the Summer House in the walled garden are licensed for civil ceremonies. The Summer House takes up to 90 guests, the Conservatory up to 60 and the Hawthorne Room up to 12. The Bay Tree Restaurant seats about 80 and holds 2 AA Rosettes, with British and modern British menus cooked by the hotel's own kitchen. All 21 bedrooms are included, among them the Oak Room and Tanfield Room suites. London Heathrow is about 63 miles away, an hour and ten minutes by car.
The Bay Tree Hotel
Images courtesy of The Bay Tree Hotel
The house on Sheep Street began as Tanfield House, the home of Sir Lawrence Tanfield, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. Honey-coloured, gabled and hung with creeper, it became a coaching inn with low doorways, thick walls, flagstone floors and a galleried staircase.
From two o'clock check-in until check-out the next morning the front door is closed to the public. Lounges with an inglenook and stone fireplaces, the bar, the restaurant, the Conservatory, the walled garden and all 21 bedrooms belong to the wedding party.
Three rooms and the Summer House hold civil licences, so an outdoor ceremony here is a legal marriage. The Summer House takes up to 90 with a red carpet laid across the lawn, while the Conservatory seats 60 beneath hanging blossom and festoon lights.
The hotel's own kitchen cooks British and modern British menus, and the Bay Tree Restaurant holds 2 AA Rosettes awarded in November 2022. The hotel carries four AA stars and an AA Breakfast Award.
A Grade II listed Cotswold coaching inn on Sheep Street, formerly Tanfield House.
The HouseExclusive use from 14:00 until check-out the next morning, the front door shut to the public.
The Arrangement
Three rooms hold civil licences, and so does the Summer House in the garden, for up to 90 outdoors.
The CeremonyThe Bay Tree Restaurant, British and modern British, cooked in-house and seating about 80.
The Table
The larger of the two suites, with a carved four-poster bed and a roll-top bath standing in the room. Beams, panelling and the quiet of a building that has been putting people up since 1565.
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The second suite, set under exposed beams and named for Sir Lawrence Tanfield, whose house this was before it was an inn. The room the couple usually take.
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Classic and Superior Garden Rooms whose doors open straight onto the walled garden, so the first thing on the morning after the wedding is the lawn rather than a corridor.
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Cosy Doubles, Classic and Superior Doubles and Twins and Deluxe Doubles, most of them named rather than numbered: Asthall, Swinbrook, Leafield, Fitzhammon, Lenthall, Rowan, Beech, Wisdom, Cedar.
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The whole hotel from 2pm check-in until check-out the next morning, with the front door closed to the public.
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Burford calls itself the gateway to the Cotswolds and has a better claim than most. Sheep Street runs off a high street that drops to the river Windrush, and The Bay Tree stands halfway along it behind a creeper and a hanging sign. Oxford is about 20 miles east and London Heathrow about 63 miles, an hour and ten by car. Once guests arrive nobody needs a car again: the pubs, the antique shops and the walk down to the river are all on foot.
The Bay Tree Hotel, Sheep Street, Burford, Oxfordshire OX18 4LW, England
Shipton (Great Western Railway) is the nearest station, about 4.4 miles from the venue in a straight line.
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The building and the arrangement. It has stood on Sheep Street since 1565, when it was Tanfield House, the home of Sir Lawrence Tanfield, and it is Grade II listed. From 2pm the doors close to the public, so a wedding feels like a private house party rather than an event around a trading hotel.
The licensed Summer House in the garden takes up to 90 for a ceremony, the Conservatory up to 60 and the Hawthorne Room up to 12. The Bay Tree Restaurant seats about 80 for a wedding breakfast and the Conservatory seats 40.
Guests arrive into the courtyard, the ceremony is held in the Conservatory or at the Summer House, and drinks follow on the garden terrace. Dinner runs along candlelit tables in the Conservatory or the panelled Restaurant, and the evening ends in the bar with a fire lit.
The rooms were made for warmth, with an inglenook in the panelled sitting room, a great stone fireplace in the lounge and a fire in the bar. Flagstone floors take candlelight well, and short afternoons lead into long dinners.
It is walled and larger than the frontage suggests. Stone steps rise from the lawn to the terrace and Conservatory, deckchairs sit beneath a mature tree, and a further area behind the planting is called the secret garden. The licensed Summer House stands within it.
British and modern British cooking from the hotel's own kitchen. The Bay Tree Restaurant holds 2 AA Rosettes, raised from one in November 2022, and the hotel also holds an AA Breakfast Award.
There are 21, running from Cosy Doubles through Classic and Superior Doubles and Twins to Garden Rooms, Deluxe Doubles and two suites, the Tanfield Room and the Oak Room. Most carry names rather than numbers, among them Asthall, Swinbrook, Leafield, Rowan, Beech and Cedar.
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