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About

The story so far:

When you stay at Cambridge House, you’re staying in a former WWII officer’s mess. The first dwelling was a seventeen century cottage which was extended in 1914 to become the house as we see it today. During WWII, it was requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence to be the officer’s mess for Reeth Battle School which was the training centre for The Reconnaissance Corps, the people who went behind enemy lines. 

The commanding officer, Major John Parry, lived at Cambridge House along with his pack of beagles which he brought up from Kent by train to London, across London by taxi and finally by train from Kings Cross to Darlington having purchased a train ticket for each beagle! This was during a world war! The beagles lived in the corner of the much larger garden and became a familiar sight on the hills around Reeth.  

After the war the house was owned by a series of families until it was sold in the late 1990s to the previous owners who undertook extensive renovation to restore the character and features removed during the 1950s ‘modernisation’. In 2004 Cambridge House, fully restored, welcomed its first guests as a country guest house. We moved to Cambridge House in 2013.

Since 2013, we’ve made improvements to enhance your stay which has been recognised by Visit England awarding us the top status of 5* Gold; Visit England ROSE Award for customer service and Welcome to Yorkshire ‘Best Guest Accommodation of 2018’. Following guest reviews, Cambridge House has been included in the prestigous 'The Good Hotel Guide' since 2018 and in 2022 was awarded the Cesar for The Best B&B in the U.K. followed by The Best B&B for Walkers in 2023. 

Meet the team

Robert and Sheila work as a team to ensure you have a great stay whether you’re here to walk, cycle or just relax.

Prior to Cambridge House, we tried our hand at running a B&B on our small holding in North Staffordshire in the Churnet Valley and after deciding that we wanted a lifestyle change, we abandoned our careers in engineering and construction and science education, to return to ‘God’s own country’. 

Meet the team
Meet the team

Both of us were ‘born and bred’ in Yorkshire, but while Robert spent all his childhood in Barnsley, Sheila lived in South Lincolnshire for a time before returning to Yorkshire. Having met while in our respective sixth forms, we both left Yorkshire to go to university, Robert to Loughborough where he studied Design & Manufacture, and Sheila to Nottingham University where she studied Animal Science. After graduation, Sheila spent a couple of years in Dorset working for R.H.M. Agriculture then the Beecham Group while Robert joined Michelin in Stoke-on-Trent. North Staffordshire became our home for the next 31 years and is where we raised our three children. We now have four grandchildren, soon to be six!

The other team players are Dora, our elderly yellow Labrador with a food obsession and Sheila's running buddy, Peggy our mixture rescue dog who was abandoned on Christmas Eve at nine weeks old and is very ‘needy’. As team members, they know when we’re working and have to wait for ’walkies’ but they do enjoy any tasty titbits!

Meet the team

15 Reasons to stay

  1. Visit England ‘We’re Good to Go’ and AA Covid Confident.
  2. Stunning south facing views across Swaledale from all rooms.
  3. Extremely comfy beds.
  4. Award winning breakfasts with homemade Gold Medal winning World Marmalade Festival marmalades.
  5. Luxury linen, towels and bathrobes.
  6. Free Wi-Fi throughout.
  7. Free, off-road, gated parking.
  8. Exclusive, luxury Noble Isle toiletries.
  9. Homemade treats and little extras including tea and cake on arrival.
  10. Boot store with drying facilities.
  11. Cycle cleaning and secure cycle storage.
  12. Walk or cycle from the door, leave your car and explore.
  13. Conservatory and guest lounge with log burner
  14. Eco-friendly.
  15. Pretty cottage garden seating area with stunning views.