The Duncombe Arms

Style

Tuck in(n)

Setting

Dinky Staffordshire Village

‘Pub grub’ scores a huge PR coup at the Duncombe Arms, the cosiest of historic Staffordshire inns, close to the Peak District. It lures in locals and bandwagon-jumpers, who want succulent farm-fresh meats, kitchen-garden vegetables and best-of-British cheese, with some finer twists (a grapefruit-spiked hollandaise there, some charred-lemon butter there, a raspberry soufflé with tarragon ice-cream to finish…). It’s an oenophile too, with an in-depth wine list and staff knowledge to match. But even if it’s a little haute under the collar, all countryside charms are there: woodsmoke-scented comfort, local ales on tap, warm greetings, refined-rustic rooms and the sweetest of cottages overlooking birdsong-soundtracked greenery.

Facilities

Quartos

10 rooms and two cottages (the Old Barn and Garden Cottage).

Checkout

10am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 4pm.

Mais detalhes

Rates include a hearty country breakfast: the full English (with haggis, black pudding and local sausages and bacon); eggs Benedict and friends; eggy bread with honey-glazed ham and jumbo porridge oats. The cottages have a minimum three-night stay.

Also

There’s one room with a roll-in shower in Walnut House, but the country terrain can be uneven in places, and the pub itself has historic wonky flooring in parts.

Acesso gratuito à Internet

Aceitamos animais de estimação

At the Hotel

Lounges, garden, board games, free WiFi. In rooms: TV, Roberts radio, Nespresso machine, kettle and teas, bottled water, bathrobes and slippers, and Bamford bath products. Guests can help themselves to bottles of milk from a fridge in the hallway.

Our Favourite Rooms

Walnut House is the modern addition to the pub with 10 rooms. These offer a refined take on the rustic surrounds, with nature-inspired names, botanical wallpapers, fresh flowers, and wood flooring and furnishings, each with a bespoke Farrow and Ball-ed colour scheme. The two family rooms are larger with a pull-out sofa and a bath tub; rooms upstairs have a slightly more alluring aspect of the Staffordshire countryside, although having a ground-floor patio to sit out on is rather lovely too. But the Duncombe Arms brings your cottagecore fantasies to life. Next to Walnut House is a skipping-stone path leading up to the 19th-century Old Barn, once part of the Calwich Estate, where the Duncombe family entertained Darwin, Rousseau and Handel (no biggie); you could easily imagine yourself in this dreamily beamed hideaway, writing at the desk, reading a book by the log-burner and hosting erudite gatherings using the kitchen and dining space. Or, there’s the Garden Cottage, on the owners’ spectacular Wootton Hall Estate – you’ll need a car for the five-minute drive there and back, but it’s worth it to snake up the long rhododendron-lined drive, past a babbling stream, valley of flowering trees, and farm enclosures; once there, you’re in your own world, one with a verdant view that goes on and on, with rabbits and pheasants darting furtively across as you take your sundowners.

Packing Tips

Wellies and waterproofs will come in handy for rambles in the national park. And, if you’d like to learn when biodynamic wines are at-their-best, manager James recommends downloading the When Wine app.

Also

Taken a shine to what’s hanging on your walls? Lots of pieces are from the Crane Kalman Gallery in Knightsbridge and is available to buy on request.

Crianças

The cottages are idyllic family hideaways, offering privacy and twin rooms (just watch smalls around the wood-burner, antiques and such). There’s a dedicated kids’ menu and the setting might be sleepy, but Alton Towers’ thrills are close by.

Galeria

Food & Drink

Top Table

It’s amazing how a countryside fire becomes a confessional – sit in one of the leather booths by the hearth and some local gossip might float your way, plus you’ll be all warm and toasty. In summer, sit on a garden chair facing the Dove Valley.

Dress code

Discard the muddier boots and wellies, but otherwise you can come very much as you are.

Hotel Restaurant

The pub has a warren of mostly flagstone-floored and beamed dining rooms, all with snug touches, such as glowing fireplaces, strings of lights, soft leather booths, furry blankets, Persian rugs, and intriguing things hanging on the walls – say, obituaries of notable figures, a family tree and coat of arms, old racing photos and artwork from Crane Kalman gallery. And there’s a summery glass extension with a retractable roof. The Duncombe Arms was a destination restaurant before it was a hotel – earning a nod from Michelin – and top-notch food is still its MO. Dunwood Farm supplies the high-quality meats, hunters help with game in season, some vegetables and fruits are harvested from the Wootton Estate, and a herb garden is being cultivated so guests can see chefs picking seasonings for later. The food is as firmly rooted to the ground – little faffery, just solidly good ingredients, such as creamy chicken-liver parfait with bittersweet dabs of blood-orange gel; a bite of pinked lamb that tastes like spring, with a brick of pommes Anna and very wild garlic; or Dover sole slick with charred-lemon butter and dotted with brown shrimp. And choosing between a best-of-British cheeseboard or dessert is nigh-on impossible, with the likes of a Paris-brest piped with hazelnut cream and gooseberry jam, dark chocolate delice with a bright sour-cherry sorbet, and garlicky yarg or salt-crystal-pocked Somerset cheddar at stake. Book before arrival, and even further ahead for the multi-course seasonal wine dinners.

Hotel Bar

The Duncombe Arm’s staff (especially general manager James) are very passionate about your pick of poison. The bar counter welcomes you as you enter and there are a handful of cushioned stools to pull up – but you’ll likely sit at one of the many tables or take your pint of locally made Duncombe ale outside to admire Staffordshire’s verdure. Also on tap are picks from local breweries, including Banks’s, the Rural Brewing Co, Marston’s, and Revisionist Brewing. But grape goes against the grain here, with a fabulous cellarful of uncommon, biodynamic and just very drinkable wines starring in a 200-strong list. We liked the by-the-glass Jean Biecher Pinot Blanc, the Italian Bulgarini Lugana, and several from Bordeaux. And there’s good spirits of all kinds including 28 gins and a wide selection of international whiskies.

Last Orders

Breakfast is from 8am to 9.30am (8.30am to 10am on weekends), lunch from noon to 2.30pm (3pm on Sundays), dinner from 6pm to 8.30pm (7.30pm on Sundays). The bar closes at 10pm.

Planes

The closest international hub is the East Midlands Airport, an hour’s drive away, which has direct links to major cities in the UK and a fair few in Europe. Birmingham and Manchester Airports have a wider reach and are both about a 90-minute drive away, and Luton is the closest serving London.

Trains

East Midlands Railway stop Uttoxeter is the closest train station, about a 15-minute drive away. To reach it from London St Pancras International, Liverpool Lime Street or Sheffield, change at Derby.

Automobiles

If you’re visiting to experience the Duncombe’s skillful cookery, with your only onward travel the waddle off to bed, then book a local taxi and don’t worry about driving. But, if you want to explore – even not much – further afield, a car will be very useful. There’s parking onsite (and at the Wootton Estate if you’re staying in the Garden Cottage), and the hotel has chargers for electric vehicles.

Worth Getting Out of Bed For

Teeny Staffordshire (edging in on Derbyshire) village Ellastone has a claim to fame: George Eliot modelled the setting for her novel Adam Bede on it, and local enthusiast Ed Barker arranges literary walks to various scenes from it (largely focused on Calwich Abbey). Otherwise, aside from the odd movie night and a clarinettist who moved into the old town hall and gives performances from their garage, you’ll find the Ellaston-ians in the Duncombe Arms. But, giants lay just beyond this sleepy hamlet – the Peak District National Park is a short drive north, one of England’s most green and pleasant stretches (all 500-odd square-metres of it), with deer-roamed heather-strewn moors, craggy tors, ancient woods, neolithic stone circles, and mountains and edges to conquer, plus some National Trust treasures: Winster Market House, Hardwick Hall, Kedleston Hall and the regal Lyme Park estate. The sprawling grounds and enormous mansion of Chatsworth House are within easy reach too. And, Duncombe’s owners have their own swathe of countryside you can tour for a small fee and at set times (after all, it is their home too); the Wootton Hall Estate is a ridiculously picturesque collection of a stream, forest, gardens (including a kitchen garden) and farmland (home to chickens, a cow and Sydney the sheep, who you’ll recognise from the painting on the pub’s dessert menu). Entry is £5 (or with the lunch menu at the pub), and you can visit over a few months a year during spring and autumn, between 10am and 4.30pm, Monday to Friday (you'll get a map too). Alton Towers may be monumental in a different way…but it’s top of its game for thrills and chills, and any kids you’re bringing along will welcome the break from rambling and antique houses. Meets at Uttoxeter Racecourse, motorcycle track days at Darley Moor Sports Centre, or watersports at Carsington Reserve will also get your adrenaline going. But if it’s the birdsong-pierced peace you came for, bike or fish by the Dove River (said to have inspired Handel’s Water Music), take a gentle day of antique-hunting in market town Ashbourne, then play a board game by the fire when you’re back in the Duncombe’s warm embrace.

Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt

This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .