Just as we were revelling in the gloriously long days of a reasonably sunny summer (forget August, that's the new autumn), we joined forces with one of Oxfordshire's finest country house hotels: Eynsham Hall.

Plonked enviably in 3,000 acres of west Oxfordshire countryside, Eynsham Hall is a wedding venue as well as a meeting and conference venue, while beautifully fulfilling the idyll of Cotswold leisure breaks. 

Recently out the other side of a £2.5M refurbishment, the history of the place is heartwarming too. The estate was established in the 1700s by a gent of great wealth who wanted somewhere spectacular to entertain his chums. The Georgian home he built was replaced in the early 1900s by the ancestors of the current owners. Today, the hall's Elizabethan style architecture and Jacobean interiors of oak panelling and plasterwork ceilings are married with sympathetic yet eclectic design touches. 

As such it's a rather stately yet decidedly unstuffy. You'll have to be quick to secure one of the 34 Main Hall rooms that are as resplendent as your imagination may allow you to believe. But the contemporary design edge spreads into the Lodge rooms and even the conference suites. 

As Downton Abbey style wedding venues go, they're pretty close. For company off-sites and away days, teams will be refreshed by the edgy design and the no-slump lunches prepared by head chef Simon Bradley. Oh and then there's afternoon tea - you'll forget who won the jam-or-cream-first debate while you gaze in wonder at the creations teetering on the display.

Must be time for a glass of bubbles. If only to wash down those scones.