Latest News

Click here to view an article / review by Charlotte Moore from Marie Claire online.

Wiltshire’s Bowood builds on last year’s success in the 2011/12 Awards and now goes on to represent the region at the national ‘Enjoy England Awards for Excellence’.

Securing Gold in the ‘Business Tourism’ category and Bronze as ‘Large Hotel of the Year’, Bowood Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort (near Calne, Wiltshire. www.bowood-hotel.co.uk) was one of just two Wiltshire winners - and four ‘double’ triumphs - at the South West Tourism Excellence Awards 2012/13 held on Friday night (8 February 2013) at Cornwall’s Eden Project. 

The 2012/13 Awards winners were drawn from as far west as Scilly and east as Wiltshire, south as Devon & Cornwall and as far north as the Cotswolds, being judged across best hotel, event, attraction, activity, holiday park and self catering holidays categories as well as for customer service, access, sustainable tourism and business tourism. Amongst the winners were Business Development Manager, Frances Charman and Head of Sales & Marketing, Hayley Potter who collected the pair of awards on behalf of Bowood. 

This is the second consecutive year that the 43-bedroom Bowood Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort gained Bronze in the ‘Large Hotel of Year’ category which was open to ‘Hotels, Town House Hotels, Country House Hotels and Metro Hotels with over 35 bedrooms and a current quality assessment from a recognised independent body’. 

The 2012/2013 Awards are the first time, though, that Bowood was named a winner in the ‘Business Tourism Award’ category. Out of those judged as “..quality tourism businesses that are aimed at the corporate sector or weddings market, for example event and exhibition venues, convention hotels, conference and banqueting venues’’ it was Bowood Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort that gained Gold. 

The South West Tourism Excellence Awards are the official tourism awards for the region, offering entry to businesses in Somerset, Dorset, Bath, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Bristol and the Isles of Scilly as well as linking closely with the award schemes in Cornwall and Devon.  They also form the regional heat of the national VisitEngland awards to which Bowood Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort  will now progress, flying the flag once more for Wiltshire. 

From a total 300 entries considered for the Awards (with all entrants undergoing a rigorous short-listing process and 164 going on to be visited by a team of over 30 judges and mystery shoppers), Bowood was the only Wiltshire hotel included in this year’s list of winners. 

Bowood Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort was officially opened by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall in May 2009.  Located in the western corner of Capability Brown’s 2,000 acre Grade I Listed Great Park, Bowood Hotel adopts a distinctively English country house tone yet with contemporary twists. Its ‘country-chic’ interiors, designed by Lady Lansdowne, bring modern translations to classic pieces while also drawing upon Bowood’s impressive heritage, reflecting themes found within Bowood House (home to the Lansdowne family since 1754) and across the estate. 

Alongside Bowood’s 18-hole championship golf course - and a mile and a golf buggy ride away from Bowood House  - the three-story hotel features 37 bedrooms and six suites, the Shelburne Restaurant & Bar and two lounges (The Library and the Morning Room). With its own dedicated entrance, the spa offers a 15x6 metre infinity swimming pool, hot pool, crystal steam room, rock sauna, aromatherapy showers, four treatment rooms, gym and spa bar. The neighbouring 12,000 square foot Kerry Suite in turn has superb facilities for conferences, meetings, product launches, banqueting events, private celebrations, civil wedding ceremonies and receptions. 

The Chair of Judges, Alistair Handyside, commented: “Once again, leading tourism businesses in the South West have excelled themselves in maintaining a strong tradition of innovation and quality.” 

“It was a tremendous honour to gain Bronze in the ‘Large Hotel of the Year’ category last year,” comments Bowood’s owner, Lord Lansdowne. “To repeat this a year later and also gain the Gold for ‘Business Tourism’ certainly highlights Bowood Hotel, Spa and Golf Resort’s consistency of performance and on-going endeavours to build upon success. At the same time, the Gold and Bronze wins at this year’s South West Tourism Awards also reveal Bowood’s appeal for the leisure guest and the corporate client equally. 

“My greatest of thanks and congratulations go out to General Manager, Charles Morgan and every member of the team at Bowood Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort whose tireless hard work and professionalism have led to these proud achievements,” adds Lord Lansdowne. “It’s certainly a wonderful and promising start to 2013!”

DEVIZES youngster Connor Askey is gearing up to chase national glory at the home of golf later this month when he competes in the Grand Final of the Wee Wonders Open Golf Championships at St Andrews.

The 10-year-old Southbroom Junior School pupil, who was last season’s junior club champion at Bowood, won his regional qualifier in the boys 9-10 category with a round of 32 at Broome Manor, Swindon, in July and will now go for the national title in Scotland on August 25-26.

Connor, who first began swinging a club at the age of five, will shoot three rounds of nine holes on St Andrews’ Balgove course and the youngster thinks that keeping a calm head will give him the best chance of a wonderful performance.

“I’m really excited about it and every time someone mentions it, I get butterflies in my stomach,” said the youngster, who was born in Rochester, New York.

“St Andrews s going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity and I’ve never been anywhere like that.

 “If I stay calm, I’ll do well – if I hit a bad shot, I’ve got to not get upset and carry on playing my best.”

Askey lists Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods as his favourite golfers and dad Steve thinks that his son has a great chance of impressing at next week’s Grand Final.

“I was lucky enough to play in a championship at St Andrews once and Connor said ‘Dad, I want to play there too one day’ – now he’s going to be doing that,” he said.

“He hits very well for his age but there is some other real talent out there too when you look around.

“But if he learns not to let his head go down when he makes a mistake, then I think he’s got as good a chance as anyone.”

This is Wiltshire SportBy Dan Barnes

Smithy for England
Bowood member Jordan Smith’s recent run of form has culminated in a full international call up. Jordan has been selected to represent England the upcoming Home Internationals being held at Glasgow Gailes from 15^th-17^th August.

He will play along side some of the finest amateurs in the country when he earns his first full cap after a string of fine results including not least, victory in the English Amateur Stroke play.  This gave Jordantop billing and the number one seed in the match play event where he narrowly lost his semi final on the 19^th hole to eventual winner Harry Ellis.

A recent spell in which he finished 14^th in The Brabazon, 20^th in the South of England Amateur and 2^nd in the Chiberta Grand Prix inFrance, has seen his handicap reduce to +3. 

Jordan becomes the first player from Bowood to represent his country at the highest level and is hopeful the Home Internationals will be the first of many international caps en route to his ultimate goal of Walker Cup selection for the 2013 matches. 

Reflecting on his form and subsequent call up Jordan said “I have started to perform consistently and my recent run of results is largely down to improvements in my putting with my coach Simon Shanks”  “I am very proud of my achievements and am looking forward to the chance of representing my country for the first time”

All of us at Bowood would like to wishJordanthe best of luck on his international debut and his progress for the rest of the season. 

Journalist John Stepek from Money Week Magazine came to stay at Bowood in June.  Read the article in the latest issue of Money Week to find out what he had to say about us.

Click Here to read the article

A great write up in Todays Golfer - click here to read the full review

Exciting times here at Bowood, we have just entered the South West Tourism Awards again for 2012/13.  We won Bronze in last years large Hotel of the Year so fingers crossed for this year!

Watch this space and we will keep you posted!

A while ago we posted that we had been nominated for the good spa guide awards 2012... well you can now vote!

Click Here to vote for us.

On 11th May 2012 Bowood had a visit from a few life-size tv stars and was graced by the presence of Nick Park, creator of Wallace and Gromit.They were taking part (even if not all playing) in the Wallace and Gromit’s Children’s Foundations’ first ever charity golf day, organised in association with Constellation Media.

The charity raised a total of £10,952.27 and with the sun shining most of the day, some of the players even suffered a little sunburn!

We have pleasure in announcing that Bowood have just been presented a Certificate of Excellence Award from Tripadvisor!

This award is due to our guests consistently awarding us with high ratings and our 4.5 rating is seen as an exceptional achievement.