Bradley House in Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire, a lovely house that has been owned by the Dukes of Somerset since it was built 300 years ago and which is available as a venue for country house weddings, celebrations and corporate events, has just launched The Coach House as a party venue.

The Coach House is an adapted old coach house and Victorian stables sited in a cobbled courtyard next to the house. It has a dining room that will seat 60 people, a room for music and dancing, a bar and the Victorian stables that are used as a quiet area for “chilling out”.

Attached to The Coach House is a marquee that can be used where the number eating exceeds 60 people. It comes in three sizes – to seat up to 90, up to 150 and up to 180 people. In its standard format it comes with wood flooring, lining, lighting and heating.

At the same time they are launching a new “one day event” offer that allows people the use of the ground floor of the main house for a civil wedding, a corporate presentation or whatever, followed by a drinks reception. If they wish they can then use The Coach House, with or without a marquee, to entertain their guests and to “party”.

David Mattia, who together with his wife Kim, owns and runs Bradley House Events, told me ‘up until now Bradley House has specialised in three day events where (for example) the bride stays in the house with her family and close friends (it sleeps up to 24) and gets married on the middle day either in the house or in the church that is right next door’.

He said ‘now that we have The Coach House we can also offer a one day event which will suit a lot of people, in particular those that live locally. In the past we have done very little local business so we are really pleased to be able to make an offer that should suit local people very well’.

The main house could be called “a small Stately Home” in that it is certainly Stately but it is not huge and therefore is not at all intimidating. In fact it is best described as a warm and welcoming family home; albeit a large one.

David told me ‘staying in Bradley House is not at all like staying in an hotel in fact it is almost the opposite – it is somewhere to relax and enjoy entertaining family and friends; which after all was a major reason why houses like this were built in the first place. Almost everyone who stays here says that they are delighted at how “friendly” the house feels and how easy it is to relax and enjoy themselves’.

David has firm ideas on how a venue like Bradley House should be run. He said ‘what we offer is great flexibility; a range of choices that enables our clients to arrange their event as they wish it to be. We work with a number of “partners” who we introduce to our clients – caterers, a wine importer (we do not charge corkage), entertainers, florists, in fact everyone that our clients may need to make their event a success. In this way they get a choice and that enables them to get what they want within their budget’.

What is clear is that David and Kim are passionate about the house, the business they run in it and the clients they attract.

To find out more about Bradley House and The Coach House visit www.bradleyhouse.org

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 9th, 2010 at 6:29 pm and is filed under Wedding and Reception Venues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.