Weddings for up to 80 guests at the ceremony and wedding breakfast, evening receptions for 110, and management retreats or meetings for 6 to 40 people can be booked at Storrs Hall, a Grade II* listed Georgian mansion on the shore of Windermere near Bowness-on-Windermere in Cumbria. The hotel is rated AA four star and stands in 17 acres of private grounds that run down to the lake.
Seminars and company events
The events team organizes management retreats, incentive days, team building and executive conferences. Depending on the layout, the meeting rooms take between 6 and 40 people. The Conference Room comes with a projector, a screen and flip charts, and day delegate packages are available. For a board meeting or a small leadership group, the house can combine work sessions with time in the grounds and dinner in the restaurant. Private dining is offered for company dinners and family celebrations.
Weddings and receptions
Storrs Hall hosts one wedding per day, so the couple has the house and grounds to themselves. Two licensed spaces serve for ceremonies: the Drawing Room indoors, with views over the lake, and the Garden Pavilion on the West lawn. They take up to 80 guests. The South lawn slopes down to the water and has room for a marquee. The wedding breakfast seats up to 80, and up to 110 guests can attend the evening reception. Couples book the registrar directly. Elopements and proposals are also arranged.
Rooms and capacities
Meeting rooms take 6 to 40 people according to layout. The Drawing Room and the Garden Pavilion host ceremonies for up to 80. The South lawn can take a marquee for a larger setting by the lake.
Accommodation
For exclusive use, the main house offers 28 bedrooms that sleep 58 guests. The Boathouse and six Lakeside Hot Tub Suites can be added. Room types range from Classic and Superior rooms to Deluxe rooms with a lake view.
Catering
Meals come from the hotel kitchen. The Lake Edge Restaurant serves dinner, The Bistro offers a lighter menu, and afternoon tea and Sunday lunch are served in the public rooms. The bar has mahogany and stained glass work brought from Blackpool Tower.
History and setting
Sir John Legard built the house in 1797 as a lakeside home, with a boathouse and the Temple of Heroes on the shore. The London wine merchant David Pike Watts bought it in 1804 and received Wordsworth, Southey and Coleridge. The painter John Constable visited in 1806. The next owner, John Bolton, was a Liverpool merchant whose fortune came from the slave trade. In 1890 the architect Joseph Pattinson converted the house into a hotel for Benjamin Townson. Children from an evacuated school lived here in 1940. North British Hotels bought it in 1943, and the Hindle family took over in 1997 and renovated it.
Getting there
The hotel lies just south of Bowness-on-Windermere, on the eastern shore of the lake. Windermere station, at the end of the branch line from Oxenholme on the West Coast Main Line, is the nearest rail stop. Manchester Airport is the nearest large airport.
