The Dovecot, Bulford

News

An Inspector Calls

In 2006 the Visit Britain inspector stayed with us incognito and checked us out.  The quality standards have been raised considerably under the new regime so we were delighted to gain sufficient ‘Brownie Points’ to be awarded Four Stars plus a Silver Award for providing extra comfort and hospitality. The grading was reconfirmed by the inspector in mid-2007.

Kitchen Nightmares

Not content with this, to prepare ourselves for the 2007 season, we completed a total kitchen refurbishment. This entailed the usual saga of collapsed ceiling, floods, three weeks without hot water and a house full of brick dust – and that was before the kitchen refit even started! However, the end result not only looks stunning but is also much better designed and equipped to help us serve up breakfast for our guests. On the strength of this we expanded our choice of offerings, and our exciting new breakfast menu should be just the thing to whet your appetite! Our commitment to homemade and local produce remains high, and we received the Wiltshire Good Breakfast Award again this year, one of less than 20 B & Bs and hotels in the county to receive this accolade.

So, what else was new for 2007:

• Fishing - Anglers are welcome as there is a recently opened coarse fishing lake within an easy walk down Watergate Lane. There are also several fly-fishing lakes close by.
• Day Tours - We have extended our series of car tours of the area to encourage guests to venture further than Stonehenge. Each incorporates a particularly attractive line of country, a couple of places of interest and a really good pub for lunch. Of course, this requires a lot of research on our part but we have enjoyed that bit - especially the pubs! We also have a number of suggestions for walking excursions, but still including a pub lunch (naturally!), for those of you who would prefer a car-free day.

Wiltshire Breakfast

We have been given the Wiltshire Breakfast Award again in 2007 in recognition of the fact that we source most of the ingredients that we use to create our magnificent breakfasts from local suppliers.

Ours is the only establishment in the Salisbury area, and one of only a small number in the whole of Wiltshire, that have this award. The  Visit Wiltshire website has details of where you can be assured of good breakfasts using locally sourced ingredients.

Wireless network

In April 2005 we installed a wireless internet connection (WiFi), so that you can check your email or surf the Web while you are here. We do not charge guests for access to the wireless network.

Geothermal heating

In January 2005, we installed an environmentally friendly geo-thermal heating system to provide hot water and central heating for our bedrooms. This Swedish system was provided by Ice Energy Heat Pumps Ltd .

The system has now been installed for over almost three years and we are delighted with its reliability and cost savings.

For more information about this exciting installation, read the article that was published by South West Tourism in the monthly WestLife newsletter.

We had to have a picture of doves somewhere.