Neil and Sarah-Jane Martin warmly welcome you to The Belfry, a converted Victorian School which we are decorating with a slight contemporary flair but keeping all the traditional features and adding a touch of opulence here and there.

The Belfry is ideally situated between Honiton, Taunton and Chard and only a short distance from the Jurassic Coast.  Exeter with the new Princesshay Shopping Centre and Airport is only 30 minutes away too. Although The Belfry has been run as a small hotel for some years, it was originally the Yarcombe village school and dates back to 1872 when it was commissioned by the family of Sir Francis Drake

We fell in love with The Belfry, Yarcombe, Honiton and all its antique shops and the surrounding area and are delighted to be here and to be able to offer you, the comfort and friendliness of a small Bed and Breakfast combined with the quality and level of service you would normally expect from a much larger hotel.

At The Belfry attention to detail is important to us whether in our guest rooms, the food we serve or those little extras that can make your stay even more enjoyable. The rooms are all individually decorated and en-suite with beautiful L'Occitane products from Provence for your enjoyment.

So if you have a special request, special dietary requirements or you are staying with us for a celebration, please let us know. Our aim is to make your stay a perfect one!  Whether you are staying with us for a weekend, a week's holiday, a house party with your friends or just for a night you'll find The Belfry a haven of relaxation and enjoyment.

Should you be a guest on business, we now provide a meeting facility in our guest lounge which seats six comfortably at a day rate of £25.00 from 10.00am-4.00pm or as required.  We can also provide a small conference facility for up to 16 delegates.  Teas, coffees and a light lunch may be provided.   We are a great alternative to a Premier Inn or Travel lodge with single rates for bed and breakfast between £52.50 and £60.00.

The Rooms

There are six guest bedrooms here at The Belfry, each with its own style, character and aspect. There are five double and one twin-bedded room.  One double and the twin on the ground floor and four doubles on the first floor. Each of the rooms is named after one of the great poets of the nineteenth century, all of whom were writing around the time that The Belfry was planned and built as the village school.

We like our guests to be relaxed and at peace in their room and so not only will you find the usual television (soon to be upgraded - see below) and tea/coffee facilities but there will be bottled mineral water and biscuits in the room (with the occasional home-made flapjack!).  You will find a CD player with CDs available to borrow on the landing. White waffle-weave bathrobes in the wardrobe for you to wrap up in and of course the complete works of the poet after whom your room was named may also be found in your room.

Our beds are made with spotless white 100% cotton sheets, pillowcases and duvet covers and our bathrooms have 100% cotton towels and face flannels (and the bath towels are the biggest on the market).  The curtains and bed throws are high-quality, as is the tea and coffee, herbals, hot-chocolate and malt drinks (these things are important!).  Fresh milk and juices for if you are thirsty are in the fridge under the stairs for you to help yourselves.

During Spring, we are aiming to work on the showers in some of the rooms by increasing the water pressure.  We are also continuing with decorating The Belfry with a slight contemporary flair but keeping all the traditional features and adding a touch of opulence here and there.  Additionally, we are installing flat screen TV's in all the rooms in early April. We will update the descriptions and images as soon as we can after changing the rooms but occasionally the furniture and layout of the room may differ from an image on the site.

Additionally, there is free wireless broadband internet access throughout the hotel.  Please just ask for the access code on arrival.

Food at The Belfry

We offer our resident and non-resident diners a menu of freshly prepared dishes using either locally sourced, best of British or fair-trade ingredients when available, of the best quality.

These days it is commonplace for even the most modest establishments to offer a large menu with a great range of starters, main courses and desserts. To achieve this one either needs a large kitchen staff or a bought-in supply of frozen or ready-made dishes. We just have not looked at the mountain of pre-prepared food you can buy, but rather we make everything where possible at The Belfry including all our stocks for sauces and ice creams.

Knowing what exactly goes into the food we provide is important to us and we pride ourselves in the food we deliver to you from scratch.  We strive to offer a menu of real food, cooked by us, here.  We don't have a big kitchen staff (there's only Sarah-Jane) and we won't resort to food cooked in a factory, so for that reason we ask our guests to order in advance from our menu and at breakfast, we cook to order so occasionally, it may just take that little longer.

We hope you will visit us and enjoy dining at The Belfry.

The Restaurant

At The Belfry we serve Modern British Food with a slight Gastro feel in the Belfry Restaurant, ideally situated for get togethers between Taunton, Honiton and Chard and on the East Devon, Somerset border.

Everything is made on the premises (we do cheat a bit with the bread at the moment) and the restaurant is rapidly gaining popularity with our local guest so seating just 12, it is advisable to reserve a table at the weekends.

Our dining room was once the infant's class of Yarcombe village school and not only that, but it doubled up as the refectory for the whole school.  The kitchen beyond the serving hatch once boasted an open fireplace and a 50 gallon cow boiler! Things are a bit more state-of-the-art on the other side of the hatch these days and the dining room itself has taken a step forward in time in recent years.

The days of floral prints and doilies have gone...maybe for a while...and we are trying to combine the traditional feel of the room with its wood burning stove in the fire place and lead light windows with a more contemporary design of simple tables, stylish leather dining chairs, dark slate table mats and crisp white linen.

On the walls there are pictures from Mark Denmon, a local Devon artist and we have brought with us our enormous dresser which we are indebted to our removal company, Dobsons for squeezing it through the doors of The Belfry. The dining room is wonderful when our guests chat among themselves and the atmosphere just takes over.

House parties are catered for, where groups of friends take over the restaurant and sometimes the hotel, with one big table in the middle of the dining room.  There is room to serve about 24 people for a party and a usual maximum of 12 to 14 there is enough room for comfort but still in a cosy atmosphere.