Where You Stay
The Petwood Hotel - an unusual name but with an historic and interesting connection as well as being an atmospheric and relaxing place to stay deep in the county of Lincolnshire.
The house was built at the start of the 1900s for Lady Weigall on a site she chose in the area of her favourite "pet wood". In 1933 the Petwood first opened as a hotel, with Peggy and John Flury as the hoteliers.
The beer was good, WAAFs in white coats served your meals and you slept in a bed with sheets, remote from battle. You lived like a normal human being and it fortified that deceitful little thought 'it can't happen to me'. Among the waiters, white linen and conversation, the war shrank." - Paul Brickhill, The Dambusters,1951
During the Second World War the hotel was requisitioned by the RAF and in 1943 it became the officers mess for 617 Squadron - the famous 'Dambusters'. The squadron's officers moved to the Petwood after the raid and it was here that they prepared for the the sinking of the Tirptiz.
To accommodate them, wartime internal modifications to the hotel took place. And some of the bedrooms were converted to take up to six beds!!
Today the Squadron Bar is dedicated to this famous group of men and is where the Runways to War tour holds its introductory night briefing and dinner. The walls are packed with memorabilia giving visitors plenty to browse as they sip their drinks.
There are pictures of the RAF top brass who met here for lunches and evening dances, including Dams raid legend Guy Gibson, pictured on the left having a drink at the Petwood just two weeks before he died in 1944.
For more details about this wonderful hotel, watch the promotional video on the right and visit its website
