You're probably here because the Dreams Tenby mattress felt lovely when you lay on it in the shop, or because someone at Dreams steered you towards it, and now you'd like to know whether that soft top is worth paying for. The Tenby comes from Dream Team, the range Dreams sells under its own label, and its full name, the Dream Team Tenby 1000 Pocket Memory Pillow Top, reads like a parts list: a pillow top sewn over a layer of memory foam, with one layer of pocket springs underneath, 28cm (about 11 inches) deep and graded Firm. It's made for someone who needs a firm bed to keep them straight but wants to sink into the surface first. Several beds in the range share its spring count, and this is the one that wears a pillow top over it. At the end of October I spent time on one in a Dreams shop, on my back, on my front and curled up on my side, and my notes from that day begin with four words: soft top, firm underneath.
Lying down, I sank into the pillow top first and met the firm springs almost at once. On my back that pairing was comfortable, and front sleeping sat somewhere between the two. My side was another story. As a 61kg side sleeper I found it too firm, and I needed more give at the shoulder than that top could offer. The spring count matches the Dream Team Fowey 1000 Pocket Memory and the Dream Team Ludlow 1000 Pocket Memory (sold as the Romsey until Dreams renamed it) in every size, so what sets the Tenby apart is everything stitched on above the springs.
Average-weight back sleepers who like a soft surface are the people it suits, and for them it's a fair pick. The Fowey, a grade softer at Medium Firm, is the better bed for side sleepers. Nor would I put a hot sleeper on the Tenby, because the memory foam warmed up under me. It isn't the bed I'd choose, as a side sleeper, but a back sleeper who loves the feel can buy it with my blessing. If you know this bed as the Tenby Combination Pillow Top, it's the same mattress under its older name.
A true pillow top, sewn on for good
This is a pillow top in the proper sense: a soft, filled layer stitched onto the mattress, which you can't take off, with one face to sleep on, so you can't turn it over either. Underneath it the order runs polyester fibre, the memory foam, more fibre, the pocket springs and a last layer of fibre over the base fabric. The cover is a soft knit that Dreams treats with SmartSilver, a silver finish it sells on freshness. Traditional tufts are pulled right through to keep the fillings from wandering.
The foam itself is decent, and I could feel the tufts under me. Some owners notice them as well, one writing that "you can feel the buttons pressing into you". If you're the sort who feels every crease in a sheet, spend a good ten minutes on it in the showroom first, in your usual position.
Pillow tops aren't a build I'd usually steer anyone towards. I've seen the soft layer carry on softening as the months go by, and when the whole top is sewn on there's no flipping the mattress so the other face takes its turn, and no lifting the top off if it flattens. That's why the top is the part of the Tenby I'd weigh up. A box top, with its straight sides, keeps its shape better.
All that padding adds up. A double is 42kg and 28cm deep, which puts it at the deep end of what an ordinary fitted sheet covers, and owners write about needing deeper sheets, one going straight out to buy larger ones after delivery. Buy deep-pocket ones with the mattress and save yourself the trip.
The same springs as the Fowey, with the padding piled on top
The name promises 1000 springs, a figure only the king reaches, with 1,015. A double has 858, a small double 759, a single 561 and a super king 1,225. The Fowey and the Ludlow carry exactly those counts size for size, so the Tenby's extra depth, and the 17 to 19kg it weighs over them in a double, is all filling and pillow top.
To my mind 858 is on the light side for a double. Every one of them is a full pocket spring, though, with no sheet of minis padding the number. Pocket springs are the condition I set before I rate a Dream Team bed, and the Tenby meets it. For an average-weight back sleeper the support underneath is sound. What the Tenby adds over the Fowey is the top, so be sure the top is what you want.
Why the delivered Tenby feels harder than the display bed
Expect it to feel firmer at home than it did on the shop floor. It's the complaint owners raise most, and it has a familiar shape: they ran Dreams' Sleepmatch test or tried the shop's test bed, were pointed at a firm mattress, liked the Tenby on display, then found the delivered one much harder. I believe them, and the reason is simple. A display bed has had months of people sitting on its edge and stretching out on it, while yours turns up with every fibre still packed tight.
New beds start firmer and settle, and the Tenby does too. Several owners who struggled in the first week or two say it eased off over the following weeks, one writing "it does soften and now I've adjusted, I love this mattress". Give it a full month before you decide anything, because the first fortnight on a new mattress tells you very little. Still stiff every morning after a month? Then Dreams' 100-Night Comfort Guarantee is your way out: one exchange per order, for a different mattress and never your money back, with a collection charge to pay and a protector needed on the bed from day one.
Warm after a while, so not one for hot sleepers
The memory foam held some of my heat once I'd been lying still for a while. Overheating is what wakes me up, so I notice it sooner than most people, and I wouldn't put anyone who runs hot on this bed. The pillow top sits over the foam and doesn't change that. The silver-treated cover is there for freshness, and nothing about it cools you. Owners are split, with a few saying it sleeps cool and one finding it warmer than the bed it replaced, and on me it ran warm.
An electric blanket needs a sheet under it on this bed. Dreams' own staff say heat straight onto the mattress can overheat the fillings and void the warranty, and that an electric blanket can soften the fillings over time, memory foam above all.
Owners who wanted a firm bed love it
Plenty of owners are delighted with the Tenby, and they're mostly people who went looking for a firm bed and got one. They write about waking without the backache they used to have, couples say they both sleep better, and the description that keeps coming back is the one I wrote down: firm underneath with a soft layer on top. Some happy owners sleep on their side, though one of them added a topper for extra comfort, which tells you where the top runs out for a side sleeper.
After the firmness, what worries me most is the dip. A few owners report indentations or a hollow forming, some within weeks and one about fifteen months in, where the middle had gone uneven and one edge had started to sink. That's a pattern rather than a one-off, and it's why this is a bed for people who love the feel and nobody else. Some owners also find the sides give when they sit on the edge, which on a double eats into the space two people can use.
The guarantee runs for one year. Ask in the shop how deep a dip has to be before Dreams treats it as a fault, because that answer tells you far more than the length of the cover. You'll be offered a paid Bedcover plan at the till as well, and like most till add-ons it's one I'd skip. Put the Tenby on slats or a flat divan, since it isn't made for an adjustable base, and keep up the rotation Dreams asks for, as turning it head to toe is the only way to spread the wear across that top.
What to buy instead
Buy the Fowey if you sleep on your side. It has the same springs and memory foam, a box top where the Tenby has its pillow top, and a Medium Firm grade that gives a shoulder more room. It's warm after a while as well, so it won't rescue a hot sleeper.
If you want firm with a cushioned top that keeps its shape, step up to the Dream Team Gold Helmsdale 7600 Pocket Memory, which costs more than the Tenby. Nothing else in the range is as well made, I'd say: a deep, substantial build under a box top, and its wide edge held firm when I sat on it.
For a hot back sleeper my pick is the Dream Team Frome 4200 Pocket Wool, which has no memory foam in it, wool on both faces and a Firm grade. And if all you want is the Tenby's firm springs without the soft top, the Ludlow has the same count, though it's a thinner, plainer bed and to my mind a budget one rather than one for the long haul; the double-sided Dream Team Maidstone on the same spring unit is the better buy.
