Wanted to give a detailed review of this place as it was my first-ever England trip and first hotel there. As earlier review said, beautiful grounds, real English-garden style, very old, interesting history, but for a first timer from America, you need to be aware of the following, especially the first item. The mgt acknowledged that the place was in a cellphone "blank spot" and were trying to remedy it, but no target date for that. The place had just come under new mgt (Sept 2017) and were appreciative of feedback like the below. None of this would be as bad for someone with a rental car, but I didn't rent a car as I didn't want to deal with the left-side driving my first time there, and was at the mercy of cabs. Anyway, if you LIKE remote and don't mind non-enabled cellphone while you're there, it's a great getaway. The whole area feels like it's back in time a couple hundred years...or more.
- no cell phone service in this area, confirmed by worker there, cabbie couldn't ring me up till he got two miles or so back towards town. Place is remote enough from nearest town (East Grinstead) that pizza guys there won't deliver..had to go fetch one myself.
- no clocks in room
- no wifi network info in the info-book in rooms, you have to look and guess (I found the right one, didn't need a pw, others did), wifi speed was decent, better than Heathrow airport (which was intolerably slow, gave up)
- someone maybe or maybe not available at front desk on weekends (no one answered either of the "for assistance" numbers posted at 1pm Sat) when I got there, key & sign-in sheet was laid out on counter
- no way for outsiders to call a room directly, has to go through front desk and be manually transferred, so if there's no one at desk they you can't get a call in, and with no cell phone service...you get it
- fire bell in room went off 10pm from cigarette/smoke detector in great hall / party next door, maybe that's good
- no ice machines, or none that I was told about
- restaurant is only open for scheduled things, like Sunday breakfast / brunch event
- no bathtubs, corner showers only
- clean, but rooms small, doors tight/close together (this was an old manor house, typical European sort of style)
- beds are sort of low-height/low-budget type, not like the big/tall puffy things you get in the corporate hotels, more like a BnB read more
