Cantley House was built in 1880 and was once home to the Marquis of Ormonde: a Victorian country house on Milton Road in Wokingham with 50 acres of Berkshire countryside wrapped around it. It is independently owned, and you notice. The atmosphere manages to be grand and homely at once, full of small unexpected touches, and the people running it are happy for couples to treat the house as their own for the day rather than work through a fixed script.
The wedding building is the Briar Barn, a 17th-century barn that began life as the stables and has been restored with a light hand. Oak beams, exposed rafters and a working fireplace, a private bar of its own, a concealed dancefloor and a quiet courtyard outside for anyone who wants five minutes and some air. It seats up to 100 and holds 120 standing, which makes it a genuinely intimate room rather than an aircraft hangar with fairy lights strung across it.
The pleasure of the place is that the day moves through it. Ceremony, drinks and the wedding breakfast happen in different spaces, there are charming corners of the rambling gardens for an outdoor ceremony, and the barn is where everyone ends up after dark. Bedrooms on site mean guests stay the night, and both exclusive and non-exclusive hire are possible, so a smaller wedding isn’t priced out of a house like this.
The Briar Barn after dark
Converted barns of this age tend to reward a band rather than fight one. Timber and height give the sound somewhere to go, and the room is small enough that nobody is ever far from the music. At 120 standing it is a four or five-piece room, and a happy one: a big soul line-up with a horn section would be playing to the front two rows and apologising for the volume all night. The concealed dancefloor helps too, because the floor is part of the room rather than a tacked-on square beside the fire exit.
Given the age of the building, it is worth asking the venue whether a sound limiter is fitted. It isn’t usually spelled out anywhere, and knowing the answer in advance changes what the band brings with them.
50 acres helps more than you would think
Space is an underrated luxury on a wedding day, and 50 acres buys a great deal of it. Practically, it means a band can park close to the barn and carry gear a short distance on the flat, which is more than can be said for a town-centre hotel with a loading bay on a one-way street. Everything is in and set up long before your guests see any of it.
Evenings here run through to midnight, which gives a band room to build properly — two full sets with a break in the middle rather than one rushed hour. With rooms upstairs and countryside all around, the dancefloor tends to hold right to the end instead of leaking away to waiting taxis from eleven.
Bands available in Berkshire and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in Berkshire.
- Berkshire Wedding Bands
- Events Bands in Berkshire
- Tribute Acts in Berkshire
- Berkshire Wedding DJs
- Corporate Entertainment in Berkshire
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.