02The story

01

The Newt is a garden first. Some 30 acres of formal planting, with orchards and ancient woodland beyond them, fill an estate near Bruton, and the hotel sits inside all of it in two halves of quite different character.

Hadspen House supplies the Georgian version, the gardens beginning below its windows. The Farmyard takes the other route: a sheltered combe hemmed by cyder mills, barns and grain stores. Bikes and buggies run between the two. Three kitchens divide the eating between them, and the spa answers with warm water, a hammam and a salt infusion chamber. Cyder is everywhere, and rightly so.

02

A hotel of two halves

Hadspen House puts guests at the centre of the estate, in Georgian rooms that look straight out over the planting. The Farmyard, a short ride away in its own combe, is built from the working buildings of the farm and keeps a quieter, more agricultural mood. Both share the same facilities, so the decision is about the view from the bed rather than what is included. Bicycles and buggies make the journey between them part of the day.

03

30 acres to get lost in

The gardens are the estate’s real business: formal terraces, a working kitchen garden, orchards planted for cyder and the Parabola, the walled garden the café looks over. Ancient woodland runs beyond them, with forest bathing and croquet marking the two ends of the available spectrum. Days assemble themselves out of walking, looking and stopping for something to eat, and two nights rarely cover the ground.

04

Cyder, and the kitchen garden

The Botanical Rooms take the seasonal, evolving route, Farmyard Kitchen the sharing one, and the Garden Café serves lunch with the kitchen garden and the Parabola in front of it. Cyder is made on the estate and appears without being asked for, including a chilled bottle in the room on arrival. The spa follows the same unhurried logic: an indoor-outdoor pool, a salt infusion chamber, sauna, steam room, hammam and treatment rooms.

03Highlights

What sets it apart.

The signature moment

Late morning, and the buggy runs up from the Farmyard as the kitchen garden is being cut for the café. Lunch is taken above the Parabola. Afterwards, the indoor-outdoor pool: warm water, cold Somerset air and the estate carrying on quietly beyond the glass.

01Hadspen House and the Farmyard
0230 acres of formal gardens
03Seasonal menus at The Botanical Rooms
04Cyder made on the estate
05Indoor-outdoor spa pool

04Mr & Mrs Smith

Here, as a preferred guest.

01
Breakfast for two, every morning
Breakfast for two each morning, at the hotel’s own table: the first privilege of the day and the one most worth taking slowly.Breakfast served however the house prefers, and cooked from the estate where there is one.
02
A hotel credit to spend
A credit held in your name at the hotel, to spend as the stay suggests: a table, a treatment, an evening at the bar.A credit for dinner from the estate, the spa or the bar before it.
03
A room above your booking
An upgrade to the category above, so the room you return to each evening outranks the one on the confirmation.A room above the one reserved, at houses where every room is an individual.
04
An earlier arrival
Check-in before the house’s usual hour: the overnight flight lands, the car draws up and the first day begins in your room.The room ready for a Friday lunchtime, so the weekend has three afternoons instead of two.
05
A later departure
Check-out after the house’s usual hour, so the last morning is spent as the first was: at the table, by the pool or simply in the room.Sunday kept until after a last walk through the grounds and one more coffee.
06
Known before you arrive
VIP recognition as a guest of the house: your preferences and the occasion known to the hotel before the door is opened for you.The hosts know the occasion, and the name on the booking, before the gravel announces you.
07
Offers for preferred guests
The offers a programme keeps for its own preferred guests, extended to a Dip Needle booking and shown beside the rate for your dates.Smith’s preferred offers for your dates, kept distinct from the Extra in your proposal.