Nights In The Past: About Us

Nights In The Past
The Web’s Premiere Guide to Historic Hotels and Accommodation in the UK, France, Italy and Western Europe

~ About Nights In The Past ~

Who’s behind the site? Nights In The Past is based in Cornwall, UK, and maintained by a small team whose interests and experience include history, broadcasting, journalism and web development. The “office” is also a home.

The site launched during Easter 2007.

How do you reserve a room or book online? Nights In The Past is pleased to be affiliated with a number of recognised booking services and hotel groups. Wherever applicable, we provide a button or text link to one or more of these.

Isn’t Nights In The Past just another travel site? The internet is full of lowest-common-denominator hospitality websites. We aren’t one of those. Our unique selling point is simple: our primary focus is on accommodation linked to historic figures or events - and period accommodation following that. Moreover, this means that we can leave the facility, tariff and booking aspect to those who know how to do it best - we don’t bite off more than we can chew.

Moreover, history sells. Our research of those hotels and inns with individual websites shows that around 60% provide a brief history of the property on the website home page, with 30% even devoting a specific page to the subject.

Further, a Tourism Network survey of 2002 found that by far the most popular activity on UK holiday trips was visiting heritage sites. Nights In The Past is based upon that same interest in British (and European) heritage.

Are you commercial or not for profit? Nights In The Past is largely a labour-of-love and we don’t charge a fee for the inclusion of hotels or inns. Instead, our affiliation with secure booking engines means that we receive a small commission if a visitor to the site ultimately goes on to book a room online.

It is important to stress, however, that because Nights In The Past is only a small-scale site with a finite number of hotels, the scope for generating income is extremely limited.

I’m the manager/owner of a hotel and would like to be featured on Nights In The Past. What do I do? First, any hotel or inn should meet certain criteria. These can be found at the bottom of this page. Should this be the case then please let us know via email

Can I trust the historic information provided? Yes. All factual information has been previously documented and is in the public domain (i.e. no facts have been fabricated). Nights In The Past can therefore not be held responsible should any information be refuted or disputed at any time henceforth. We cannot be held responsible for factual inaccuracies derived from independent sources.

I’d like to get in touch but can’t find a telephone number or address. Because the site is maintained from a private home, we prefer not to provide such information in the first instance. However, please email us and we’ll be happy to supply such contact information on a one-to-one basis.

Eligibility for inclusion on Nights In The Past

The concept and long-term success of Nights In The Past is wholly dependent upon adhering to a simple principle such that the site’s “exclusivity” is maintained. As such, any hotel, inn or other form of accommodation must satisfy one of the following criteria:

1. Have played host to, or been owned by, a nationally or internationally recognised figure whose historic relevance is no later than the end of World War II.

2. Have been the site of a nationally recognised historic event.

3. In the case of “Period Hotel” listings, that the property be significantly older than an assumed national average. For instance, late Victorian hotels within the UK are considered too recent for inclusion.

Notes for those using Nights In The Past to find accommodation

1. This website is for your personal and non-commercial use. While we hope you will find our service useful and are free to print information contained herein for your own use, you agree not to modify, distribute, reproduce, publish, license or create derivative works.

2. While Nights In The Past makes every effort to provide accurate and up-to-date information, we cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the hotel information or the room rates shown. As a result, we cannot be held responsible for any loss, costs or damages incurred as a result of using this service. Nights In the Past gives no confirmation or guarantee of the description or standard of featured hotels, inns or other accommodation properties. The individual hotel, inn or other accommodation property’s standard terms and conditions apply. Please confirm all details with the accommodation business or service at the time of booking.

For further information, please email us.

We sincerely hope you enjoy the site.

So what do we mean by ‘Historic’?

We define a historic hotel, or inn, as somewhere connected to a readily recognised figure or event from the past. In the case of England, Scotland and Wales, these might be famous authors such as Charles Dickens, monarchs like Richard III, national heroes such as Winston Churchill, or just the downright infamous – Dick Turpin, for instance.

Remember, remember the fifth of November. Guido Fawkes may only have been part of a conspiracy rather than its outright leader, but there’s no doubting his place in British history. So, if you’re visiting York, why not stay where the gunpowder plotter is reputed to have been born: the Guy Fawkes Hotel. Or spend a night at the inn in which he was said to have frequented in the run up to the failed assassination attempt: The Hadley Bowling Green Inn, Worcestershire.

Historical bookwormery? Then the number of hotels and inns connected to famous authors is almost too extensive to mention. On almost every page you’re sure to find somewhere special to stay with a link to some of the greatest names in English literature. Jane Austen, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Charlotte Bronte, John Keats, Oscar Wilde, Robert Southey, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Louis Stevenson, and William Shakespeare to name but a few.

Fascinated by The Tudors? You can follow in the footsteps of many of England’s most famous monarchs with Nights In The Past. We feature many places connected with Henry VIII (Littlecote House in Berkshire, for example) and Elizabeth I - for time travelling back the Elizabethan era you might like to spend a night at The Maid’s Head in Norwich or Boringdon Hall in Devon. And there are also a fair few associated with Mary Queen of Scots, too – Melville Castle and Borthwick Castle near Edinburgh are two fine examples.

Those interested in the English Civil War will find plenty of hotels and inns connected to the period throughout the site. How about the Saracen’s Head in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, where Charles I was finally taken prisoner in 1646? Or maybe where his son, the future Charles II, sought refuge from parliamentarian troops: the Old Hall in Staffordshire and Abbot’s House in Dorset, among them. And there are many places that Oliver Cromwell rested on his travels, too.

So what do we mean by ‘Period’?

Most old buildings offering accommodation don’t necessarily have a link to a recognisable historic icon. But this doesn’t mean that they don’t have stories to tell. Most importantly, providing their architectural fabric has been protected and they provide the visitor with a sense of ‘stepping back in time’, we like to feature them.

They can be traditional country inns of England, Scottish castles, Welsh country houses, Italian palazzos, French chateaux, German gasthofs or Spanish paradores. They can be medieval, Tudor, Jacobean, or from any period up to the mid 1800‘s.

But most of all they need to be romantic places to stay, in every sense of the word.

Nights In The Past is a guide to historic and period hotels and accommodation throughout the UK, France, Italy, and Western Europe, including Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Portugal and Germany. We focus primarily upon those hotels and inns with connections to famous historic figures and events, from the medieval period to World War II. Our aim is to provide information to those seeking historic places to stay be it for weekend breaks, heritage tours, romantic getaways, honeymoons or even business travel. Thank you for visiting.