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Rose Award Ceremony 2023
Visit England Rose Award Ceremony -2023
The hot, bright, long days of early September last year seem a very long time ago, especially on this cold January afternoon as I look towards the river watching horizontal, freezing rain surging across the fields, hopefully, the last throws of storm Isha.
Remembering the 4th and 5th of September at the impressive Great Fosters Hotel, Egham with its well laid out formal gardens, moat and wild areas around the lake, lift the spirits with expectations of the warm weather to come and the prospect of planting troughs of flowers for the cottage and sowing some unusual vegetable seeds I received as a Christmas present.
It was a lovely surprise to receive a Rose Award from Visit England for recognition for excellent service. My husband was unable to attend the ceremony so one of my daughters and a granddaughter came with me, we decided to travel the day before the ceremony as the drive from Northumberland to Windsor is a rather long one!
Arriving late afternoon, we were shown to our rooms in the main building of Great Fosters Hotel.
It was so hot we sat by the moat and enjoyed a leisurely drink, then a walk around the grounds before a lovely meal in their atmospheric estate grill restaurant.
The award Ceremony day
The day of the award ceremony was also very hot so we abandoned our well chosen, formal long sleeved outfits for sleeveless summer dresses. At twelve noon we made our way to a reception area, everyone was greeted with a drink and time to meet our hosts and check out the table plan before moving into the historic Tithe Barn.
Round tables seating up to ten people were beautifully set out, on each table centre was a colourful floral arrangement. A Visit England representative hosted each table and we took turns to introduce ourselves.
The chairman of Visit England gave a short speech of welcome, congratulated everyone and expressed optimism for the future of holiday accommodation after the dark stagnation of COVID.
The speech was followed by a delicious afternoon tea.
Between each course, awards were presented to each category of accommodation providers – hotels, bed and breakfasts and self catering. Our names and Derwent View cottage were called. We climbed onto a small stage to be presented with our framed award, a professional photographer took our photograph. Everyone who received an award had their photo taken and at the end of the afternoon, a final group photo was taken outside in the courtyard.
Conversation flowed effortlessly during the meal, we met some lovely interesting people, all very focused in offering the best experience for their guests. The whole event itself was well organised and very enjoyable. For us, the award was totally unexpected but we are absolutely thrilled to receive it.
Our dream was to make a countryside getaway that we would want to stay at and we were so happy that this award shows we have done just that. The North East region has so many wonderful attractions and memorable experiences, often too many to visit in one week. We love that so many of our guests return many times.
Memories are lovely to recall, we are now looking forward to this new year when we will be welcoming both new and returning guests to our little cottage, looking out of the window the sun is now shining, roll on the warmer weather.
For more information about the Rose Award Winners, please see the Visit England Website announcement and press release at : https://www.visitbritain.org/visitengland-announces-winners-2023-rose-award
To explore the hotel where the award ceremony was held visit; https://alexanderhotels.co.uk/great-fosters/
To book your stay at our award winning cottage, please visit our booking page at; https://derwentviewcottage.com/book-your-stay/
Derwent View COttage
Set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the North Pennines, this one bedroom self catering holiday cottage has stunning views of rolling countryside whilst being in easy reach of major local attractions.
