Bed and breakfast availability
Ware b&b, guesthouse and hotel accommodation

Visit Ware and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

Ware, Hertfordshire, is where Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen in 1553, and where John Gilpin ended his famous ride in Cowper's poem.

Two rivers cross the town, the Lea and New River. Along the Lea towpath, which is lined with trees, are houses with picturesque gazebos. Running parallel with the river is the High Street, with a mixture of gabled and straight-fronted houses dating from the 16^th century. In West Street is the old town hall, a simple Regency building with a heavy unfluted Ionic column. In Bluecoat Yard is Bluecoat House, the town's former manor house, a l5^th-century timber-framed building which for nearly a century was the home of the famous Bluecoat School until it moved to Hertford in 1761. Opposite the house is a terrace of timber-framed cottages built in 1968 for nurses and children. The Corn Stores in Star Street include a l7^th-century quadrangle of storehouses, with open-timber lean-to roofs. Outer ladders give access to the upper floor.

Baldock Street has many timber-framed and gabled as well as red-brick houses, the best one of the earlier period being the Bull Inn with overhanging stories and first-floor oriel windows. At the north end of the street is Thunder Hall, a tall red-brick Jacobean house, with a central porch and gable. A gatehouse and cloisters were added in the 19th century. Canons Hotel, opposite, is of yellow brick and has a Greek Doric porch. Nearby are Canons Maltings, red-brick malt-houses of c. 1600, with a row of buttresses on one side and a three-light brick window on the other.

The famous Great Bed of Ware, mentioned in the plays of Shakespeare and others, came from the Saracen's Head Inn, but is now in The Victoria and Albert museum, London. The inn is now demolished.

The Priory, now council offices, has the remains of a house of Franciscan monks built in the 14^th century. It was refashioned after the Dissolution but still contains the old cloisters with three lancet lights and a four-centre arch.

Facing the bridges, across the river, is Amwell House, once the home of John Scott, the Quaker poet. It is a noble red-bricked building dating from about 1730. The Grotto, which was formerly in the gardens of the house, is now in Scott's Road. It is a delightful building with a confusion of passages and chambers lined with quartz, flint, bits of glass and shells. The biggest rooms are only about 12 ft by 6 ft.

The Church of St Mary is large and handsome although externally considerably restored. It lies in the centre of the town and is of flint, all embattled. The unusual feature of the church is the transepts which are carried to full nave height, with clerestories. The l4^th-century octagonal font is probably the most elaborate in the county, with quatrefoil panels on the stem and figures of the Virgin and saints on the large bowl. The pulpit, with raised panels, is 17^th-century. There are several attractive monuments, one with a row of books at the foot of the obelisk.

About 1 ¼ miles north east of the town is Fanhams Hall, a Queen Anne building with an interesting staircase and gallery 107 ft long.

Nearby airports: Stansted Airport

Nearby towns: Bishop's Stortford, Broxbourne, Harlow, Hatfield, Hertford, Hoddesdon, Stevenage, Waltham Abbey, Welwyn Garden City

Nearby villages: Bayford, Cole Green, Great Amwell, Great Parndon, Hertingfordbury, Hoddesdon, Little Amwell, Little Berkhampstead, Little Munden, Much Hadham, Panshanger, Roydon, Sacomb, Stanstead Abbots, Thundridge, Watton at Stone, Whempstead

Have you decided to visit Ware or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:

• a Ware bed and breakfast (a Ware B&B or Ware b and b)
• a Ware guesthouse
• a Ware hotel (or motel)
• a Ware self-catering establishment, or
• other Ware accommodation