Finding a bed among the plainer mattresses at Dreams that you'd sleep on every night, not just put in the spare room, is harder than it should be, and the Dream Team Tadley 800 Pocket Memory Mattress is my answer. The Dreams Tadley is a Dream Team bed, Dreams' own make from its West Midlands factory: a thin layer of memory foam over one full sheet of pocket springs, at a price that usually gets you one or the other. It sits near the bottom of the range, and if you knew it as the Campbell, this is the bed Dreams sells as its upgrade.
On a Dreams shop floor in October I tried it three ways, side, back and front, and of the simpler Dream Teams it was the best. On my side the foam gave quickly at the shoulder and the springs were close underneath, and after a while the foam held some heat. It was still comfortable on my back and side, and the knitted cover feels a cut above the price. The Dream Team Burford 800 and the Dream Team Brookfield 800 carry the same spring count size for size. The Tadley is the one of the three with memory foam on top, and the only one you can't turn over.
Side sleepers who want a proper nightly bed with springs and memory foam in it should buy it, and so should combination sleepers, because the foam is too thin to hold you in one place when you roll over. Skip it if you wake up hot, if you share a double and like to sleep near the edge, or if you weigh over eighteen stone, which is Dreams' maximum per sleeper.
Sold as Medium, and the one that arrives is firmer
On Dreams' own scale it's a Medium, one step softer than the middle of seven. The mattress delivered to your door is a different story. Since Dreams refreshed it, the complaint unhappy owners make most is a bed harder than the one they tried in the shop, while owners of the earlier version grumbled the other way, that it slept too soft for a Medium.
Two things are at work. The refreshed bed lies firmer than the old version did, and a display bed gets lain on by every shopper who passes, so it's worn in, and yours arrives where that one started. One owner summed it up: "Firmer than it felt in the shop, but still comfy after a few weeks." Our other tester, a heavier combination sleeper who tried it before my visit, also found it firmer than its label. I go with the owners on this, so expect a notch firmer than Medium on the first night and give it the month Dreams asks for before you judge it.
Light side sleepers should take that most seriously, because a mattress that lies firm won't let a slim shoulder sink far enough. If you're under about nine stone, lie on the floor model in your usual position for a full ten minutes, and remember the one at home starts firmer. A shop visit is better at telling you what you don't want than what you do, and here it's worth the trip.
Twenty millimetres of memory foam, so the springs do most of the work
The memory foam is 20mm, about three quarters of an inch, with a sheet of I-Fibre polyester above it, and that's why my shoulder found the springs so soon. A comfort layer that's thin for the price is something I always call out, and 20mm is thin. On a bed this low in the range I forgive it, because what sits under the foam is a full layer of pocket springs, and the foam is memory foam you can feel, rather than a token sheet.
The trade is warmth. Memory foam keeps your heat whatever the cover is called, and that's what I felt after a while on the shop floor. Owners say the same, one of them someone who normally runs cold, and Dreams' own staff tell buyers it can make some people hot. If you already push the duvet off at night, buy the Brookfield, which swaps the foam for wool.
The good side of foam over pocket springs is how little of a partner's tossing and turning reaches you. Owners like that one of them can roll over without the other getting jiggled about, and there's none of the twang you get from an old sprung bed. For a couple, that is the Tadley's best trick.
The edges sink when you sit on them
The border is the Tadley's weak spot. Dreams doesn't give it a reinforced edge and the sides aren't padded. When our other tester sat on it, the edge dipped further than the Burford's did, and owners notice it lying down too: one wrote that the bed "feels much smaller than my old mattress because the sides sag down".
A saggy edge turns a double into a small double, which is why it's the first thing I check on anything with springs in it. Two adults should buy the king, where losing a strip down each side still leaves you room. Dreams itself warns against sitting on the edge of its mattresses for long, because it strains the frame round the springs, so sit on a chair to get dressed.
The 800 is the king's count, and a double has 667
That 800 comes from the king size, which carries 806. The Dreams Tadley double has 667, the small double 580 and the single 435, and only the king and the super king, at 930, reach the number in the name. So whether you're looking at the Tadley D or the Tadley K, compare springs size for size when you put it beside another bed.
To my mind a thousand pocket springs in a double is already a little light, so 667 is a modest count. It's an honest one, though: one full layer of individually wrapped springs, with every spring in the count a full-height one. Pocket springs are the reason I rate Dream Team beds at all, and this one has them all the way across.
One sleeping side, so you rotate it and never flip it
The Tadley is single-sided. Given the choice I'd take a bed with two sleeping faces every time, since they split the wear between them. One owner flipped it out of habit and only then found out. Rotate it head to foot each week for its first three months, and after that monthly is plenty. Being regular as clockwork, with the same times every day, I'd give the rotation its own fixed day of the week. A double weighs 29kg, with handles on the sides that owners find a real help.
It's delivered flat, so you can sleep on it the night it arrives. At 22cm deep, ordinary fitted sheets go on with room to spare, and the depth doesn't worry me, because it's foam, fibre and a full spring unit rather than padding. Keep it on slats or a solid base, since it won't go on an adjustable bed, and keep the slat gaps nearer 7cm than the 8cm Dreams allows.
Two owner complaints I weigh more heavily than the firmness: a chemical smell that a few found still there after a week or two of open windows, and body impressions forming early for some, one of them a slim woman who said weight wasn't the problem. Neither would stop me buying it, but air the room well for the first few days and check your slats before you blame a dip on the mattress.
The comfort guarantee is an exchange, so read it first
Still finding it too firm once the month is up? Dreams' 100-Night Comfort Guarantee gives you one swap for a different mattress. There's a charge for the collection and redelivery, you can't start the swap before the month is out, and if you pick something cheaper the difference comes back as Dreams vouchers, never cash. You also need a protector on it from the first night or the swap is off. Protectors aren't my favourite thing, since they cover up the part of the bed you paid for, but on this mattress I'd use one.
The mattress's own guarantee is short, and the till will offer you extended cover on top. Say no. Rotating on time and a sound base under it do more for a mattress than any policy.
Buy it on sale, which is most of the time
Dreams moves the Tadley's price up and down all year, from a sale price to the full ticket and back again, and owners have watched it drop a week after they paid. The full ticket comes and goes. Judge the sale price on its own, and at the sale price this is the best build I found on the lower rungs of Dream Team: pocket springs, real memory foam and a cover nicer than the ticket on it suggests. If you ever catch it at full ticket, wait for the next drop.
What to buy instead
If the memory foam is the part you don't want, buy the Dream Team Burford 800 Pocket Sprung Mattress. It has the same spring count, the same Medium grade and the same 22cm depth, and it turns over so both faces share the wear. It's plainer to lie on, a basic bed doing the best it can, and the Tadley is the nicer one to sleep on, but for a first flat, a student room or a rental it does the job.
For a hot sleeper I'd pick the Dream Team Brookfield 800 Pocket Wool Mattress instead. A double has exactly the Tadley's 667 springs, with British wool on both faces where the foam would be, and you can turn it. Back and front sleepers who want firm can have the Tadley's layers at a firmer grade in the Dream Team Romsey 1000 Pocket Memory Mattress.
If you want more bed than the Tadley, the Dream Team Gold Prescot Combination Mattress is the step up I'd buy. It keeps the Tadley's Medium grade and its memory foam, then adds 8cm of depth and thousands more springs, some of them a layer of micro springs I wouldn't pay for on their own. Buy it for the depth and the heavier build, and buy it on sale too.
