Elmore Court

Elmore Court sits in a bend of the River Severn outside Gloucester, and the Guise family have held the land since the thirteenth century. The house dates to around 1580 and is a mix of Elizabethan and Victorian building, most of it altered over the centuries to entertain. Anselm Guise inherited it in 2007, reopened it as a house for hire in 2013, and has let it whole ever since: when you book, the house, the gardens and all 16 bedrooms are yours.

The party lives in The Gillyflower, a hall built beside the house from rammed earth and estate timber, with a meadow roof and wide windows onto the fields. It was designed so that music could be played at any volume: the walls are soundproofed, there is a club-grade sound system, and Bruce Munro's Lightshower installation hangs from the ceiling. It takes gatherings from around 60 guests up to parties of 200 or more, and a DJ set runs there without troubling anyone.

In the house, the Hall is the set piece, lit through heraldic stained glass, with the Drawing Room adjoining it, the Dining Room and its ancestral portraits, and the Morning Room on the east side above the gardens. The kitchen cooks from the estate's own gardens, the bar is run however the host prefers, and outside caterers are allowed. Elmore sells birthdays, launches, corporate gatherings and small concerts as well as weddings, each quoted to the brief.