Rivervale Barn

About the venue

Purpose-built green oak wedding barn at Mill Farm, Yateley, opened in 2009 by John and Moyra Illsley and hired to one couple at a time. Ceremonies for 150 indoors or 100 in a woodland spinney, dinner for 150 and 200 in the evening. Guests stay in a 10-bedroom lodge and the couple in a mill cottage.

Rivervale Barn began with a family wedding. In 2003 John and Moyra Illsley's son Paul held his reception at Mill Farm in Yateley, and the idea of a purpose-built venue followed. Five years of planning and building produced a 9,000 square foot green oak barn, which opened for weddings in 2009. The Illsleys, who moved to the farm in 1982, still own it.

Records of the site go back to 1351, when it was Yateley Corn Mill. The last surviving part of the mill is a building over 450 years old, now the Cornstore Cottage, where couples spend their wedding night. On the day its soft furnishings are changed to match the couple's colour scheme, and a continental breakfast is laid out the next morning.

The barn is hired for one wedding at a time and keeps everything under one roof. The Ceremony Barn, with its exposed frame, is licensed for 150. The Dining Barn seats 150 for the meal, and a separate dance floor with its own bar takes the evening up to 200. Outside, The Spinney is a woodland ceremony space for 100 seated, with more standing. A courtyard with a central fountain is used for drinks, and photographers tend to head for the red bridge and the heart seat.

All food is cooked in house from an à la carte menu rather than set packages, with wood-fired pizzas or barbecues in the evening. The kitchen also offers a menu free of all 14 regulated allergens. Rivervale Lodge sleeps 20 adults in 10 en-suite rooms with a breakfast room. Sandhurst station is three minutes away by taxi, and Fleet, on the fast line from Waterloo, about ten.

Purpose-built green oak barn, opened 2009

Family-owned, one wedding at a time

Ceremony Barn licensed for 150

Woodland ceremonies for 100 in The Spinney

150 for dinner, 200 in the evening

À la carte menus and an allergen-free menu

Rivervale Lodge: 10 rooms for 20 adults

Cornstore Cottage for the couple