The Riverside at Aymestrey sits in the picturesque River Lugg valley and was our home for a couple of nights. With the constant rain, the river bank that runs alongside the old inn was fit to bursting, which all felt very DH Lawrence and added to my romantic pastoral fantasy quite nicely – and reassuringly, general manager George Parkes, didn’t seem overly concerned. Under the stewardship of George, chef patron Andy Link has turned this 16th-century inn into a sustainably run hotel and an award-winning restaurant. Everything served to us was ‘seed to table’ and had been grown and reared in the county, from the White Heron cassis in my Herefordshire Royale to the Chase GB used to pickle our salmon. We feasted on duck from Weobley (which is, incidentally, was a main location for Hamnet), Hereford beef and fresh produce from the local area and their own kitchen garden. All washed down with Sixteen Ridges wine and finished off with possibly the best sticky toffee pudding I’ve ever had, it was faultless.
Every element of The Riverside has been carefully thought through. My partner and I were greeted at our cabin by a Welly rack, golf umbrella and dog paraphernalia, all of which was suitably ‘anti-city’ and very much enjoyed the Wild Escapes eco spa experience, which includes a sauna, cold plunge and hot tub, set at the top of a track behind the cabins. The path to the spa is even gritted with recycled crushed glass straight from the pub (it’s as soft as sand, I promise), further demonstrating the hotel’s sustainable ethos. There’s a small holding, too, with chickens, bees and, from March, pigs roam the old amphitheatre in the grounds. I sat in the hot tub as the rain poured down, the mist moved across the valley and geese flew across the sky – it might not be for everyone, but for me, it was idyllic.
Nicely steamed and refreshed, it was onwards to the aforementioned Weobley, where the street scenes outside Shakespeare’s family home were shot for Hamnet. With its black and white Tudor buildings lining the small, quiet high street, you can see why the film’s location editors thought: ‘this will do nicely’. Outside the 13th-century village church – another location, used for the brief candlelit wedding scene – we saw a noticeboard advertising When Hamnet Came To Weobley, an exhibition at the local library from 3pm on Thursdays. It was Thursday and about 2.45pm, so off we went.
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