The approach does a good deal of the work at Grittleton House. You turn off a quiet lane on the edge of the Cotswolds a few miles from Chippenham, follow a long tree-lined drive, and a great gothic Victorian manor appears at the end of it. The house is listed, it has been in the care of the same family for more than half a century, and they are fond of saying it was built to host a good party. Standing in the hall, with the sweeping double staircase curling up on either side of you, it is difficult to argue.
There are 3 principal rooms and no obligation to pick only one. The Red Gallery is the richer and warmer of the pair of galleries, the Yellow Gallery lighter and more garden-facing, and each will seat around 102 guests on round tables or up to 126 on long ones. Grandest of all is the Victorian Orangery, which dines up to 196 with the terrace and the formal gardens glowing away beyond the glass. Outside, more than 30 acres of grounds run out from the house, and there is a sunken Italian garden that makes a lovely setting for a summer ceremony. If you would rather marry in church, St Mary the Virgin stands 65 steps from the door through a private gate.
Everything is cooked in the house by its own chefs, so there are no outside caterers to manage, and only one wedding takes place here in a day. When the dancing is done nobody has far to go: 10 bedrooms in the main house sleep up to 26, and 20 more rustic rooms in the converted Victorian stables take another 40 or so, which means breakfast the next morning with exactly the people you want to see. Couples who don’t want it over in an afternoon can take the place for 3 days instead, cream tea on arrival and all.
Where the band plays
The Orangery is the room most bands end up in, and it suits them — a tall Victorian glasshouse with a proper stretch of floor and the lit gardens just outside the windows. Because the house is listed, sound is held to 90 decibels, which reads as a restriction on paper and rarely feels like one in the room; it is still a full-blooded evening, and any experienced band will simply build their set-up around it. Mention it when you book so whoever you hire brings the right rig and balances the drums accordingly.
How the evening runs
Having several rooms gives the day an easy drift: you marry in one, eat in another, and then everyone spills through to wherever the music is while the tables are quietly cleared behind you. Evenings here run to midnight, so a band starting after the speeches has time for 2 generous sets and a last song the whole room knows. Load-in is painless, with parking on site and the drive running right up to the house, and since equipment has to be away at the end of the night it is worth settling that timing early so nobody is wheeling flight cases past guests who have gone up to bed.
Bands available in Wiltshire and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in Wiltshire.
- Wedding Bands in Wiltshire
- Events Bands in Wiltshire
- Wiltshire Tribute Acts
- Wiltshire Wedding DJs
- Wiltshire Corporate Entertainment
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.