The Pig at Bridge Place

Once a music venue that hosted Led Zeppelin, this Grade I listed Jacobean mansion in ‘beautiful rolling countryside’ has been made over with a whole lotta love as the sixth of Robin Hutson’s rare-breed country house hotels (see index). Château-chic interiors are designed by Judy Hutson, with ‘lashings of wood panelling’ and a bar in deep burgundy, with ornate ceiling. Bedrooms, in the main house and annexes, range from very snug to a duplex suite in the old stable block, with views in four directions, a sitting room with log-burner, a bathroom with roll-top bath and monsoon shower. ‘Our spacious room had moss-green panelling, a comfortable sofa, a wood floor and a bath in an alcove,’ relates a Guide insider. Hop pickers’ huts have ‘a Little House on the Prairie feel’. In the greenhouse restaurant with its open kitchen, menus are big on produce from kitchen garden and glasshouse. Typical dishes might include foraged wild garlic risotto, Rye Bay brown crab, ‘delicious aged sirloin from Ireland’, one of the few products sourced from more than 25 miles away. The ethos is friendly: ‘Everyone, even a gardener, greets you as you pass.’