The Lion

Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, is home to Waddesdon Manor (once of the Rothschilds). It is a pleasant village with its only drawback being the A41 which runs (or rather zooms) right through it. Of course, a plus point of having this road is that Aylesbury is just 5 miles away, Bicester Discount designer centre (Where Princess Kate was seen Baby clothes shopping a couple of weeks ago) is a 20 minute drive and London is about 45minutes away minutes away, you are also close to Oxford and Milton Keynes. So, with this being a spot that is so central for so many places you would think the hotel chains would be flocking here. Not so, there are 3 pubs, 2 of which offer accommodation – The Five Arrows (which looked like it was part of the Waddesdon Estate) and our choice – The Lion, situated in the centre of the village. We pulled in to their vast car park at the rear and made our way to the reception, 3 members of staff acknowledged our presence but none of them deigned to check us in, they all seemed to be working in the bar, I could feel my wife getting annoyed at this bad service and we waited what appeared to be ages (but in actuality was less than 10 minutes) and then a Gentleman checked us in and showed us to our room (no.5) and even helped bring our luggage up from the car – the supposed wait was forgotten. The room was a delight, comfy bed, small TV in corner, a small sofa in front of the Bay window (which overlooked the front of the Pub), the room led into a small dressing room with its wardrobe and dressing table and this in turn led to the large bathroom (no Bath just a shower), not bad for £95 for the two of us. We flicked through the Parish magazine, that had been placed in the room with other Hotel literature, and discovered that The Lion had been run for about 10 years by Annette,Peter and family and sadly Peter had passed away earlier this year. The room was pretty clean and tidy, if this had been Channel Four's Four in a Bed we would comment that there was dust on top of the pictures and mirror but what normal person checks these things and how does it affect your stay? Downstairs was a friendly pub with a dining room, as we were at a function that evening we had a nose at the diners as we passed through and were impressed by the quality and quantity of the meals, unfortunately I cant comment on the Flavour but if breakfast was anything to go by the Dinners would have been pretty good. It seems such a shame that I have to mention the drawback to staying here – yes, its that road again, we could hear every vehicle that roared through the village (despite its 30MPH limit, and the lorries were very noisy. This was a weekend so what it must be like weekdays I know not. But eventually we got used to it and made sure it did not spoil our stay. If ever I have to be nearby again, this is where I will stay.