Oddhouse Farm lies on Colston Bassett Lane near Owthorpe, up on the rim of the Vale of Belvoir where Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire run into one another, and the view from the courtyard goes on for miles. It is a working agricultural farm with real history behind it, and rather than knocking anything down the owners have restored a courtyard of pretty brick farm buildings and set a contemporary Dutch barn alongside them. The result is a site that feels both properly rural and thoroughly comfortable, roughly 20 minutes from Nottingham and about the same from Grantham, Newark and Bingham.
Ceremonies happen in the Granary, a historic threshing barn where timeworn brick and stone have been left to speak for themselves and then furnished to a standard that would not embarrass a smart hotel — oak cross-back chairs, an antique desk for signing the register, ambient uplighting, a dried flower arch and a choice of a long or a short aisle. It seats 85 and is licensed for civil ceremonies and vow renewals, with celebrant-led and humanist ceremonies equally at home there.
The Dutch Barn takes over for the rest of the day. It seats 85 on round tables or 120 on long refectory benches, has a mezzanine looking out over the countryside, and opens up to comfortably over a hundred for the evening. There’s a fully staffed in-house bar with a proper range of beers, wines and premium spirits, while the food comes from a small list of associate catering teams who know the site well. Accommodation is on the farm too, in the Hen House and in Rosa the shepherd’s hut, with a gypsy caravan for the couple over the celebration. Best of all, Oddhouse hosts only one wedding a week and hands you the site for three days, so there is time to set up slowly, enjoy the day and clear up without a scramble.
Where the band plays
The Dutch Barn is the natural home for a band — a big, clean, modern volume with the height to let a drum kit breathe and none of the low beams that make barn gigs a nuisance to rig. The dancefloor sits within the room rather than being tucked away, and the venue is licensed for live music and DJs alike. There’s an in-house sound system with Bluetooth for background music during the meal and microphones for the speeches, so an acoustic duo or a single guitarist can work happily in the Granary or the courtyard earlier in the day while the main rig waits next door.
How the evening runs
The bar calls last orders shortly before closing and guests head off at midnight, which gives the evening a tidy, well-judged shape: the band’s final set lands with the room full and the dancefloor busy, rather than playing out to a handful of stragglers. There’s parking on site, the courtyard makes load-in straightforward, and the access is good enough that a band arriving in the late afternoon can be set up and soundchecked without disturbing the wedding breakfast.
Bands available in Nottinghamshire and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in Nottinghamshire.
- Wedding Bands in Nottinghamshire
- Events Bands in Nottinghamshire
- Nottinghamshire Tribute Acts
- Nottinghamshire Wedding DJs
- Nottinghamshire Corporate Entertainment
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.