This one is in tiny Batcombe in the Mendip Hills, and owned by art collector Max Wigram. It feels appropriate that Margot Henderson is returning to a pub, three decades after her time at The Eagle: the OG gastropub where she met Fergus and kicked off the narrative that led to era-defining restaurants including Rochelle Canteen and St John. Tom Parker BowlesĪddress: The Boot, Barnsley, Cirencester GL7 5EF Price: Double rooms from £200 Breakfast means a short walk to Barnsley House and horticulture legend Rosemary Verey’s lyrical garden. Bedrooms date from the pub’s previous incarnation but are shipshape and warm. Everything ticks along under the watchful eye of young Henry Leschallas, a disarming presence who will usher over aperitifs by the fire and point you to the cheddar soufflé and beef wellington. Most surprising is the Second World War bomb blanket, woven from thick rope, which took six men to mount on the wall. A harp-playing ship’s figurehead greets drinkers at the bar iron tool moulds slot together like a Futurist artwork. Instead, walls are lined with leather and new owner, interiors company Timothy Oulton, has assembled a cabinet of curiosities from its warehouse. The fearsome skull above the fireplace – that of a hippo of a venerable age – seems to have scared antlers, hunting prints and other country clichés away from this pub, which belongs to Barnsley House hotel down the road and has just been reborn. Tom Parker BowlesĪddress: Bath Rd, Speen, Newbury RG14 1QY Price: From £125 per night Donnington Castle is just a stone’s throw away. Bedrooms are spread around the main building and former stables, each coming with a decanter of sloe gin and some with copper tubs. The prawn cocktail with shaved fennel flies out like the frontrunner in the 3.10. There are nooks and crannies that befit a 17thcentury coaching inn, but also a spacious raftered barn for dining, with a menu that elevates pub classics: chicken-and-ham pie, truffle mash, chestnut mushroom gnocchi. Here’s a pub that embraces the area’s traditions but has a bit of fun a little Fife Arms-y rural deluxe: those tweeds and tartans, boldprint wallpapers, antlers for lampshades and chandeliers, log burners every which way. Tom Parker BowlesĪddress: High St, Lower Oddington, Moreton-in-Marsh GL56 0UR Price: Doubles from £225įor the full experience, and some Hunter S Thompson-style people-watching, it’s best to come to the Hare & Hounds on a race day when the bar is packed with visitors before they head off to Newbury Racecourse, taking care not to tread in one of the many dog bowls. Chef Alan Gleeson has a lot of fun plucking broad beans, artichokes and Gloucester Old Spot for his menus the bar is still ruddy-cheeked enough to just about imagine a hobnailed farmer wandering in for a pint, shaking his head at the price of heritage tomatoes. Most covetable? The ground-floor Den, with stencilled leaves leading to a private garden, and the family-friendly Hunting Lodge for its additional twin beds. Designwise, Lady B hasn’t suddenly gone all Bauhaus: there are crisp ginghams, floral prints, vintage green bottles and milking stools in the bedrooms, which are all pleasingly set higgledy-piggledy up stairs and around corners. But this is Carole Bamford’s sequel to The Wild Rabbit down the road, part of her evergrowing Daylesford empire (yes, she’s also been busy opening The Club by Bamford), and so while it may be a little quaint, it’s also lovingly honed and deeply sustainable. With all the private members’ clubs popping up like porcini in the Cotswolds, a mere pub with rooms is starting to look decidedly quaint.
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