There has been a building on this spot at Ipsley since the Domesday survey of 1086, when Lady Godiva’s son held the manor, and the Old Rectory House you see today is the result of a very English sort of layering. The original Elizabethan house was thoroughly modernised in 1812 by the great-grandson of Sir Christopher Wren, who lived here for more than forty years and gave the front a calm Georgian face. Grade II listed, it stands between the line of the Roman Icknield Street along one boundary and the old monastic carp lakes at the back — not bad for a house on the edge of Redditch.
The grounds are the quiet triumph. English oaks, Portuguese laurels and a weeping ash were planted here more than 200 years ago, and the family who took the place on in 2017 have worked with them rather than around them, adding the Orangery for dining and turning the old front croquet lawn into a Festival Field with a Nordic tipi and stretch tent for up to 150. Indoors there’s the Lavender Barn, all oak beams and vaulted ceiling, looking out over the patio gardens, plus smaller rooms such as the Fig Room for the parts of the day that want walls around them. The boutique bedrooms — refreshed with William Morris papers, Pooky lighting and a good deal of charm — keep the inner circle on site.
You can marry in the house or outside in the private gardens, both of which are licensed, and the kitchen leans modern British and seasonal, though dry hire with your own caterer is an option too. Weddings are exclusive use, which is rather the point: the house, the barn, the field and the trees are yours for the day.
Where the band plays
Most couples give the evening either to the Orangery or to the tipi, and the two make quite different nights. The Orangery is glass and garden views, warm and contained, and flatters a band with a bit of finesse; the tipi is the full festival option, with a dancefloor under canvas and the field around it. Numbers help you choose — 20 to 80 sit down to the wedding breakfast and as many as 150 come for the evening — so you want the room that fills rather than swallows the crowd you’ll actually have.
How the evening runs
The ceremony and drinks tend to move between house and garden, dinner settles in the Orangery or the barn, and things loosen up entirely once a barbecue, a street-food van or the pizza oven takes over from the wedding breakfast. Evenings here run to around midnight, and the trick with a two-part site like this is deciding early where the dancing lives, so the band sets up once and the crowd comes to them rather than drifting between two half-full rooms. Because the house has neighbours rather than open country around it, it is worth asking about the finish time for live music and any noise arrangements when you book.
Bands available in Worcestershire and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in Worcestershire.
- Worcestershire Wedding Bands
- Worcestershire Events Bands
- Tribute Acts in Worcestershire
- Wedding DJs in Worcestershire
- Corporate Entertainment in Worcestershire
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.