The Bishop's Palace, Wells

The Bishop's Palace has been home to the Bishops of Bath and Wells for more than 800 years. Bishop Jocelin began it in the early thirteenth century on land south of the cathedral, and his successors added the chapel and Great Hall in the late 1200s, then the crenellated walls, gatehouse, drawbridge and moat in the fourteenth century. It is a Grade I listed building, run today by The Palace Trust, a charity, with 14 acres of RHS partner gardens inside the walls.

For a private evening the room is the Undercroft, Jocelin's original vaulted ground floor. Guests cross the drawbridge, take drinks in the Entrance Hall or on the terrace, and sit down beneath the stone vaults at long wooden banqueting tables lit by candles. The Palace hires it for celebration dinners from six in the evening until half past eleven, and its own wedding copy describes the same room cleared after dinner for a band or a DJ and dancing.

This is a heritage house that opens its principal room after the visitors leave, rather than a hotel with a function suite. The moat, the ruined Great Hall and the view of the cathedral towers from the lawns do most of the work before anyone reaches the table.