Henlow Grange (Henlow Grange)

Member Name: lily7star

Product:	Henlow Grange
Date:	10/07/00 (2337 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: nice setting, attractive old building

Disadvantages: when we were there the facilities needed a total overhaul

Another ageing op gets the *Renewal* treatment...perhaps I need to visit this place again just to update more fully....

I wish! The first visit was as the result of coming runner up in SHE magazine's "Juggler of the Year" competition. Believe it or not, I'm not part of a circus act, although it felt like it sometimes. This was the kind of competition which belongs firmly in the mid 90's where you were actually *rewarded* for juggling so many responsibilities that the winning health farm break was probably all that was keeping you (me, in fact!) from complete breakdown! The fact that the competition winner got a much longer health farm break as well as £1000 of clothes and a trip to the Caribbean is a source of no bitterness to me(!) I figure if she was doing more than I was at the time, she must have deserved it!

The name Henlow Grange is a familiar one in Health Farm circles. I had already been to Springs Hydro when I visited Henlow Grange, and had high expectations.

Henlow Grange is set in rolling Bedfordshire countryside. It is set within an old manor house (hence the name)and looks very impressive when your car rolls up the driveway to the front entrance with its Georgian pillars.

Had I come to this place before Springs, it's possible that I would have been more impressed with the *inside* of the building than I was, although I heard recently that they were renovating it, so it may be that it is totally different again now. When we visited, however, Henlow Grange, being one of the more elderly health farms, was showing its age.

The bedroom - we were in the old house, there is a newer part built on - was lovely. Furnished in a very traditional style in keeping with the building, it was comfortable if a little on the small side.

Pretty much all the facilities however were ageing. Perhaps someone else can write an opinion as to whether they have improved much recently? If they are much
as they were, I'd definitely recommend going to a newer health farm elsewhere.

There are a lot of signed photos around the walls depicting Henlow Grange's more famous showbiz visitors (wonder if mine will be up there after that appearance on "Playing for Time"!!) but I imagine that most of these came when the place was new and groundbreaking in what it was doing.

The food also was disappointing after Springs. Everything looked and tasted as if it was low fat, and all alcohol and caffeine was banned. Again, things can change with a new chef, so this may have improved.

The gardens are lovely to walk in, very relaxing, and you can borrow a boat to row down the river in the grounds for a little way, a pleasant way to spend the afternoon if the weather's nice.

The treatments we had here were good, and there was a wide and varied choice. The beauty therapists were pleasant and seemed well-trained and efficient.

It *was* a relaxing and pleasant way to spend a weekend, but all in all it felt much more like we were at a "health farm" with all the regime that that conjures up, than at a relaxing spa.

If you are considering a visit here I wouldn't want to deter you, but if you are used to modern facilities and think this is an important part of the experience, then check out with someone who has been there recently, or with Henlow Grange themselves as to when and how the facilities have been upgraded.

Better still, do what I did and *win* yourself a visit. Just be careful how you do it!

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