Stourport-on-Severn - The Wharf

Mart Ln, Stourport-on-Severn DY13 9EN 

My father and stepmother lived in Kidderminster, and I must have stayed at hotels in the area at least thirty times in the last twenty years. I wish I had found the Wharf sooner, for they’re both now no longer with us, and I may not be travelling to the area as often in future.

It’s difficult to classify The Wharf. It’s not a hotel. It’s not a BnB (they don’t do breakfast); it’s not really a pub, although they do have a bar. They market themselves as an events venue, and have live music on at weekends, and they have a few rooms upstairs that they let out on a room-only basis. And, I have to say, the combination works.

Lack of meals isn’t much of a problem, there is a good cafe nearby (in Bridge Street) that opens at 7.30am for breakfast, and a couple of pubs / bistros that offer evening meals in the High Street. Indeed, the location is very convenient, only yards from the canal basin and the River Severn, close to the funfair, and an easy walking distance to all the shops.

We stayed in the ‘bridal suite’ - not that we were just married, or even at all married. For the price - around £285 for three nights - it was very good value; a spacious room, with kitchenette in one corner, featuring a microwave, fridge and sink, as well as the usual kettle and tea/coffee making stuff you’d expect. The room was in the roof, with restricted height at the edges, which might be a problem for some, and the bed was on a dais in one corner, up against the wall on one side. (This might limit some of the edventures that a newlywed couple might want to get up to…?). The only window in the room was a velux over the sink, which some might struggle to operate - fortunately I have three at home so know how they work.

The TV was to one side of the bed, a downside if you like to watch TV in bed, but there was a sofa well positioned to watch it. It could have benefited from a coffee table, I moved a drawer unit so that we had something to put our coffee on when watching TV.

The TV signal wasn’t brilliant, not all digital channels were available all of the time. 

The ensuite bathroom was just that - no shower. Some might consider that quite a drawback. Hot water was a-plenty and the water pressure was good at all times. 

One missing item was a full length mirror; the room is the sort of place people might prepare for an evening out, or even an evening at an event downstairs. You need a mirror to check you look as you should for such events. 

There were enough power points although they weren’t well placed; there weren’t any either side of the bed from which you might charge your phone overnight. Indeed, bedside reading lights were a bit of a problem, there was one on one side of the bed (beside the wall), the other was missing. There were no bedside cabinets.

Entrance to, and exit from, tour room was via quite steep stairs; this accommodation wouldn’t suit someone who struggled with stairs. Surprisingly, there was little noise audible in our room from the music in the hall downstairs in the evening; indeed, we were allowed to go into the hall when the singers were on, and that really made our stay. 

The proprietress was very friendly and welcoming. She wasn't servicing rooms ‘because of Covid’, but she was around every day during our stay, and she made sure we had plenty of towels and sundries to last through our stay. The bin was overflowing when we left, but otherwise the lack of servicing wasn’t a problem.

We mentioned our experience at the Wharf to the taxi driver who took us back to Kidderminster station when we left, and she said that there had been many positive experiences of The Wharf. I’m happy to add mine to the list.

Harwich - The Fryatt Hotel

 

Harwich - The Fryatt Hotel & Bar

65, Garland Road, Parkeston, Harwich, Essex CO12 4PA

I’ve probably been to Parkeston more times than I’ve been anywhere on a leisure trip. This may seem strange, but my grandparents lived there, and I still visit the area to tend graves there and at Wix, a few miles away. I’ve known the village since the sixties, the ups and the downs, and I remember the Fryatt Hotel when it was The Garland Hotel, and the local welfare park was a bit farther along the road, with swings and slides to entertain under-twelves like me.

Much of Parkeston was built by the railway company, including some housing and community buildings; those parts farther from the railway, including Garland Road, were built by private developers. But that was almost 140 years ago, and I’m afraid the area hasn’t entirely aged well. Other parts of Harwich - around the old town, or Dovercourt, near the beach - might be attractive to tourists; Parkeston isn’t, it's an industrial area really, with a few residential streets laid out in the days when workers had to live close to their work. With a Premier Store over the road, the Fryatt Hotel is ideally situated for contractors, and it is no doubt that that market brings in much of its business, with there being a perennial need for contract workers around the port, much of which is only half a mile away.

First impressions of the Fryatt Hotel aren’t what they should be; piles of cigarette ends litter the street outside the entrance door. I’m not against pub goers having a cigarette, but a wall-mounted ashtray could be provided, and emptied by the cleaners, and patrons ‘encouraged’ to use it with appropriate words from behind the bar.

There’s no reception as such, just the bar, a somewhat spartan, public bar at that. There is a small snug to one side, but the overriding atmosphere is not one of peace and relaxation.

We stayed in a ground floor room to the back of the building, in what was once the ‘Hamilton Room’ (named after the one time Chairman of the Great Eastern Railway). In quite recent times this area was a restaurant, indeed an Indian restaurant, and a damn good one at that. It's not so well suited to accommodation, having few windows, and not being terribly warm. Heating in our room was provided by an electric radiator, and an electric towel rail in the ensuite; there was a lobby between our room and the ensuite which was unheated, which, at the time of year we stayed, did cause something of a shock when venturing between room and ensuite and being not fully dressed.

There was a bath in the ensuite, with a reasonable shower over, but no grab rail to hold on to when getting in or out. Towels were supplied but not refreshed in our stay - in fact the room was not serviced at all in the three nights we were there, a mountain of rubbish accumulating around our bin for the cleaner to deal with after we checked out. The ensuite was a decent size, but the room itself seemed to have been built down to size, to fit a dressing table/desk, double bed, and bedside cabinets; our suitcase fitted in the cold lobby by the ensuite, but we only had a small bag with us. Travellers with bulky luggage would have not had enough space.

There was no wardrobe in our room, just a hanging rail in that cold lobby between room and ensuite, and no full length mirror; nor was there anything like a dressing table in the bedroom. It was a good job neither of us wanted to do make-up or similar. In fact even if we had had a mirror it wouldn’t have been much use because the lighting in the room was dreadful, I was tempted to buy a stronger light bulb because the one fitted in the room would, in the old days, have been rated no more than about 40 watts.

Breakfast was in the bar area, a self-service buffet of cereals, juice, tea or coffee, yoghurt, fruit, toast and preserves, and croissants. There was no hot option; Morrisons supermarket, ten minutes walk away, does have a cafe if a good breakfast is important, but for the price we paid, around £175 for three nights, a continental was more than adequate.

Being honest, if I were to looking for somewhere to stay around Harwich, the Fryatt would not be top of my list; even nearby there is a Premier Inn, and a planning application has been submitted for a sixty bed Travelodge close by too, and both might be preferred to the Fryatt even if they were a little more expensive; indeed, when that Travelodge opens, I think the Fryatt may struggle to fill all of its rooms. Perhaps they should turn that ground floor area back into a restaurant.