Flitwick Manor

The tran­quil­ity and sheer eleg­ance of Flitwick Manor belie its con­veni­ent loc­a­tion, just a few miles from the busy M1 motor­way near Woburn in Hert­ford­shire. This is a clas­sic Geor­gian coun­try house set in rolling gar­dens and wooded park­land. The loc­al­ity dates back to Saxon times when it was called ‘Fleotwic’ – literally, ‘dwell­ing on the river’.  The house was, at one time, owned by King Charles 1 and used as a hunt­ing lodge. A priest’s hole with its secret tun­nel to the church­yard, is a test­a­ment to the tur­bu­lence of the Civil War. The hotel’s rich his­tory and period archi­tec­ture con­trast well with all the com­forts of a mod­ern hostelry, epi­tom­ised by a helipad within the grounds.

Flitwick Manor first became a hotel just post World War II, join­ing the Men­zies col­lec­tion in 1996. In 2003 it was awar­ded a place on the AA’s list of top 200 hotels in the coun­try. The 18 indi­vidu­ally designed guestrooms are named after prom­in­ent his­tor­ical char­ac­ters (Charles I among them, nat­ur­ally!) and fur­nished with fine antiques and period pieces. The hotel’s fea­ture room even offers its own sauna and a ‘kiss­ing’ bath.

A high­light of your stay here is sure to be din­ner in the hotel’s AA rosette à la carte res­taur­ant. Head chef, Oliver Jack­son, com­bines the best of Brit­ish and con­tin­ental cuisine with care, under­stand­ing and skill, cre­at­ing a monthly chan­ging menu with the emphasis on Brit­ish ingredi­ents, loc­ally sourced.  The proven­ance of all the fresh ingredi­ents is a mat­ter of record. He can tell you the farm your pork came from and herbs are sourced from Blyth­burgh in Suf­folk or, indeed, from the hotel’s own herb garden.

Café du Monde’s ‘Ser­vice en Chambre’ bed­room refresh­ment ser­vice is used in all the guest rooms. It offers fresh cafetière cof­fee, spe­ci­al­ity and herbal tea bags, coupled with a range of sol­uble products such as instant cof­fee and hot chocol­ate, all is eleg­antly presen­ted in a rich, leather flip-top box, embossed with gold let­ter­ing. Included with the sys­tem is a pol­ished stain­less steel kettle, two branded por­cel­ain mugs and a selec­tion of ancil­lar­ies. Ser­vice en Chambre is just one in a range of cof­fee sys­tems sup­plied by Café du Monde that also includes espresso, bean-to-cup and fil­ter cof­fee meth­ods.
Gen­eral Man­ager, Shaun Batty, describes Ser­vice en Chambre as a break­through in bed­room bever­age ser­vice: “It offers guests the choice of ground or sol­uble cof­fee and the qual­ity of the present­a­tion per­fectly com­ple­ments the style and décor of our indi­vidu­ally fur­nished rooms. Add to that the reg­u­lar­ity of deliv­ery and friend­li­ness of their per­son­nel and I’d say that Café du Monde offer a fault­less service.”

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