Wortley Hall — Attraction in Barnsley

I just had my wedding there. The venue is amazing, beautiful views, gardens and lots of different rooms. All clean and the staff friendly. The food was amazing. Everyone got what they ordered in accordance with their dietary requirements. They let us have a bouncy castle which the kids loved.

However several things put a damper on the day and there wasn't even an apology.

As the bride, I didn't get a bed. I'm sure we will find it funny one day. A room with beds is included in the booking. Instead of the bridal room we choose a room with a double bed with a side room with two singles for our children, so we could be with our children. When I went to put my exhausted children to bed, we found a bed had been removed from when we were shown it. I put them in the double and my partner took the single. So after doing the late night clear up, I figured I'd just not sleep and watch TV, but the TV didn't work and no signal or WiFi on my phone. So I slept at the base of my kid's bed, getting kicked until morning ON MY WEDDING NIGHT!!! Maybe I was unrealistic expecting rose petals arranged in a heart shape and a congratulations card on the bed.

My cake wasn't eaten or cut up - I stayed up making the night before - best cake I've ever made, a 5 tier wedding cake, which they said they would cut up so the guests could eat, but they didn't and I only noticed at midnight and shared with the few guests that were still partying. The other cake got eaten, and I asked for some to be saved for the person that made it and they forgot.

I wanted outdoor vows. In my culture they only count when said outside. My partner doesn't fully respect my culture and it was only by the final details meeting he agreed to it. However after asking many times for the notes of the meeting and never getting them, we found out the day before they had forgotten about the outside request and said nothing can be done. I offered to move all the chairs and they said no.

They insisted we have their DJ, and insisted it be at 7:30. The DJ didn't know how to get people on the dancefloor and out of the first 6 songs only 2 were from the playlist. With the unsuitable music being played by a DJ half the guests went home or to bed. Things picked up when the band came on, who were great, but by that point a lot had left. People, including my mum have said they'd have stayed for the band but the bad loud music wasn't fun so they went.

They wouldn't let us have speeches between courses, and there was huge gaps, which makes sense when catering for so many. Guests didn't like being just sat in a very loud room, many left the room between meal courses. I feel strongly we should have been allowed to schedule things how we wanted.

Communication through it all was mixed. From having to ask serval times for a copy of the contract, asking many time and not getting the notes to the final details meeting, not being given the full list of food options when we booked the meal tastings. I had to ask 6 times for the template for a table plan. When I called they behaved like no one had ever wanted to know how many tables and how many can go on them.

The wedding favours, a pile of 100 books vanished. The coordinator said they were next to the DJ, but no one else saw them and we did look.

Booked coffee and cake and they forgot, we had to buy cake that morning!

So in summary, amazing venue, clean, nice staff, great food, but disorganised admin. I think because there seems to be just one very lovely wedding coordinator doing it all. There should be one person coordinating on the day and one dealing with the admin and responding to people doing the booking. Everything I was asking for should have been automatically sent. Like everyone we are busy people and I needed to get everything sorted before school holidays and instead wasted so much time chaising information. Some better admin we could have had the wedding of our dreams, instead I am left feeling disappointed and exhausted.

We emailed the main issues and I haven't had an apology about...

After searching the net and facebook - I see others have similar issues with this manager! Take note and don’t waste your time on this place

Well, I just can’t even begin to describe how poor my experience has been. As in previous reviews, I would give zero rating if I could! Please also note that I have wrote tens of reviews for other hotels, all over the world and never once left a bad review. I do not complain, but this is one experience that I just thought would never happen to me. The manager of this establishment is dire! Trying to get any details to report him to the board of members is impossible. It seems that he has overall ownership of this place and does exactly as he wishes. I booked a Christmas party at Wortley Hall, I am getting married in December and booked the Christmas lunch as my mini reception. There are only 18 people, we do not want a fuss, we do not want a ‘proper reception’ but we do want to know we have something booked. I let the staff at Wortley know the reason for my booking, there was no issue with this. May I add at this point that all staff I have come across apart from the Manager Johnathan are all great and I can’t complain about them individually. However when I went to pay the remiander of what I owed and asked for corkage costs for a magnum, I was told that there are there bottles of champagne to a magnum and this would be charged at £55 per bottle. That’s right £165 to pour a magnum! Anyway, I challenged this with the manager, (as had initially being told it was £10 a bottle corkage) who at first appeared nice. He insisted he would get back to me the following day, he did not. Since then I have left at least fifteen messages for him, no reply from any. I therefore E Mailed him about this, I received a reply saying he wants to cancel my booking! No reason why, Just he wants to cancel it. Every E Mail I now sent is ignored, if I am lucky I receive a reply saying that he wants to refund my deposit. Other than that he does not reply at all. I have asked for the complaints procedure, he ignores this, I have asked for a manager higher than him to look at this, it appears he is the highest of the high! I do not know why my contract has been cancelled. I was spending £400 on food, would have easily spent another £400 on drinks and also had six rooms booked. This is apparently not for profit. So why they will just lose over £1,000.00 is beyond me. I guess when ego comes into it, then to some people that is the most important. I am now left ten weeks before my wedding with no venue, my guests coming from Cambridge have nowhere to stay and I am appalled that this individual can ruin someone’s day like this and give no reason. If you look back on all the negative feedback left, you can see that the manager will say that he will deal with it, contact him... don’t bother. He does not appear to be interested in complaints. Very defensive on any negative feedback. I would avoid at all costs. Anyone looking to book any speacial occasion here should be very careful, paying a deposit will not stop this man from cancelling your booking. Look back at last years Christmas reviews and book at your own risk. It is so sad that staff at Wortley appear to be so nice, but obviously led by someone that does not have Wortley Hall’s or the customers Interests at heart, I am so glad that I am not a shareholder with him in charge. If there is anyone reading this involved with Wortley, I would be happy to share the corespondece that I have had, all the mails that I have sent and the majority ignored, only replies to cancel my booking! Ps. I am awaiting some fancy reply, stating he will look into this, yet I have been ignored so long, perhaps he is still responding to all the other negative feedback. It is no good being full of apologies for the world to see on the internet, yet on an individual basis giving diabolical...

Welcome to the 40-watt hotel. Where you can check out anytime you like, but you can't find the door to ever leave.

So last weekend I stayed in Wortley Hall hotel the night before a wedding. Unfortunately though the group were in great spirits there were a large number of things that just made this place unbearable.

Firstly the decor: The hotel section especially is in dire need of a full redecoration. Peeling wallpaper, smelly communal spaces and tatty carpets were found throughout. In fact the only place which seemed to have been looked after was our room, however despite the competently hung wallpaper there were still a few crucially lacking features, most importantly a safe (which we were told there would be for the wedding rings, meaning keeping them in someone else's room overnight). The bathroom was a bizarre mess, simultaneously clean and dirty. The cheap lino stuck to our feet getting out of the laughably small showers with it's semi-functional door. It is only fair to say that the house-keeping had done a good job and everything was as immaculate as they could make it, so it's not laziness, just dilapidation and incompetence.

Secondly the house-staff: While one of the bar staff and the breakfast staff were very nice and pleasant they struggle to make up for the remaining staff. Upon arrival we were just stared at blankly during check-in (not even a hello), during our evening in the bar the staff were slow and rude, one girl especially had a habit of announcing the prices while thrusting her hand over the bar and not making eye contact. "Five Ninety!" thrust and look away bored.

Thirdly the smell: I can't comprehend exactly what is going on here but throughout the night we encountered a large variety of very unwelcome smells in the hotel. From a faint whiff of bowel movement in the corridors, to a mixture of urine and bleach in the bar, to a rather unfortunate vomit odour in one of the breakfast rooms. I can't tell if this is a product of recent nights of the long encrusted truth of what happens at your average Wortley Hall bash, but it was unpleasant to say the least.

Lastly, the fixtures and fittings: This all culminates in the most bizarre feedback I could ever give to a hotel. The overwhelming impression that the entire building was appointed for the dwarves from Lord of the Rings. "What kind of a comment is that!?" I hear you ask. Well what else am I to think when all the mirrors are at a height of 4'6" and all the light bulbs are so dim I think they actually produced darkness? This decision to make all the rooms the Gimli suite may we be deliberate ("It was deliberate!") but that doesn't make it any less a bad idea. Also, I though I did know Dwarves were natural sprinters, I didn't know that they didn't like condiments with their breakfasts. Not a jot of brown sauce, a dollop of ketchup, or heaven forbid a little piccalilli was on offer. Better get some beanjuice while you're up!

The most saving of graces here are the grounds. Lovely, well kept and well described. I would only add this, go see them before someone sets up a bouncy castle or a sumo ring in them, which appears to be a daily occurrence...