Country life at its best
1:40pm Sunday 12th April 2009 in Leisure By Lynn Ashwell
The Black Swan Hotel
IT is time to change the R in recession to RELAX and the C in credit crunch to CHILL.
For the can’t-afford-to-go-abroad-this-year brigade, I have found a hidden gem that will get the taste buds tingling.
The hustle and bustle of life trailed away on a trip across the Pennines to North Yorkshire, for a stay at the old but elegant Black Swan Hotel in the heart of market town Helmsley, with some pampering thrown in.
The beauty of a short break to North Yorkshire is that it is less than a couple of hours drive away and the scenery is totally different to Lancashire.
There are the sweeping wolds, the dramatic North York Moors and the picture postcard market towns. The map names read like somewhere from Middle Earth with Fadmoor, Wass, Wombleton and Harome.
As the hotel was offering “girlie” breaks, I decided to catch up with a long-lost cousin who also needed some TLC.
Our overnight stay with dinner and breakfast, included treatments at the Verbena Spa round the corner at the sister hotel the Feversham Arms.
The Black Swan is just what you would imagine a country hotel in a market town to be, standing at the top of the village square.
Parts of it date back to Elizabethan times and it was once a coaching inn. It has all the prerequisites — snug rooms, antiques, tiny corridors, creaking and slanting floors. The rooms are all named after local areas and we were in the Ryedale Room — comfy beds, toiletries and lovely view over the market the next morning.
But no time to dally, it was off to the spa which is literally a stone’s throw away, past the delightful church.
The Verbena Spa opened last October. There is an outdoor heated pool — useful in summer, not so in March — and a hot tub.
Inside there are enormous squashy chairs enough to fit a family. There are books, magazines and iced tea or you can just have a snooze in this soothing oasis.
There is a steam room, a sauna, an aromatherapy room, foot spas and a shower area. All the treatments are Elemis.
I had a deep back massage to try and untie the knots. It was bliss. My cousin had a manicure and we both had a facial. The soft music, the gentle touch of my therapist and I could feel the tensions ebbing away.
We had to rouse ourselves to shower and dress for dinner — and weren’t we glad we did. A quick G&T in the bar and into the Rutland Restaurant.
The service was incredibly attentive. Those little touches, the chair held for you, the napkin draped over your lap — lovely.
The Black Swan was voted Yorkshire Life Best Hotel in 2008/9 and has three AA Rosettes. Chef Andrew Burton deserves every one.
My celeriac veloute with blue cheese bon bon on a bed of spinach was art on a plate and tasted divine. My cousin’s lamb was so soft it melted in the mouth. The puddings were to die for. The Black Forest was a twist on the gateau, deconstructed into four parts and it looked too good to eat.
Coffee and petit fours — hand made of course — in the lounge was extremely civilised.
And so to bed for a great night’s sleep.
Breakfast was local — Helmsley sausage, bacon, free range eggs and black pudding.
Then it was out into the fresh air and Helmsley. There are lots of small gift type shops, food shops, a small market with good local cheeses and nice jumpers. Helmsley is an ideal spot to visit the North Yorkshire area, Whitby and the seaside is only a short dive away. Historical sites such as Rivevaulx Abbey and Castle Howard are nearby and the sites of York are worth a visit.
I decided to call in at Kilburn, a few miles away, site of the historical White Horse which dominates the moor above the village. This is literally a one pub, no shop village but lays claim to one of the countries finest furniture companies — Robert Thompson’s. The name is famous as The Mouseman, as every item of furniture has a tiny mouse handcarved into it somewhere.
It was started in the 1900s by Robert Thompson, born in the village in 1876. There is a visitor centre, a showroom of furniture, and a viewing gallery above the workshop where the craftsmen turn chunks of wood into family heirlooms, by hand.
