02The story

01

THE PIG-at Combe sits in East Devon’s Otter Valley, a honey-coloured country pile with the hills in front of it and three walled kitchen gardens behind. The gardens are not decorative. They write the menu, and what they cannot supply is found within 25 miles, the fish landed about eight miles away.

The restaurant occupies a panelled room looking out over the valley and takes the morning’s picking as its starting point. The Folly, in the former orangery, does wood-fired flatbreads and a glass in the garden when the weather allows. Bedrooms run from the main house and the stable yard, where The Horsebox has kept its stable partitions, out to cottages and the Stream Wagons beside the brook. The whole place runs on the assumption that nobody is in a hurry.

02

The Otter Valley, unhurried

East Devon is gentler country than the moors to the west, and Combe sits in the middle of it with the coast about eight miles off. A cliff walk fills a morning, the wetlands along the River Axe fill another, and the grounds fill everything else. It suits a weekend with one plan in it. Dinner is the fixed point, and the rest of the day falls in around the walk back to the table.

03

The Horsebox and the Attic

Rooms here are chosen for character rather than category. The Horsebox, in the stable yard, has kept the original stable partitions and set a four-poster and a freestanding bath between them. The Attic takes the top of the main house with beams and a separate sitting room. Cottages hand over the independence of a front door, and the Stream Wagons, for adults only, sit down by the water. Every one of them is different, and deliberately so.

04

25 miles, and no further

The three walled gardens set the terms for the kitchen, and what they cannot grow is sourced within a 25-mile radius. The panelled dining room looks out across the Devon hills and rewrites its list according to what was cut that morning. The Folly, in the old orangery, keeps things simpler with a wood-fired oven and a garden to sit in. Two Potting Shed treatment rooms among the beds complete a hotel with almost no interest in leaving its own grounds.

03Highlights

What sets it apart.

The signature moment

Six in the evening, and the short journey from the walled gardens to the panelled dining room passes whatever was cut that afternoon. The Devon hills go soft in the window. The Folly’s oven is still warm out in the garden. Dinner takes as long as it takes.

01Otter Valley setting in Devon
02Three walled kitchen gardens
03Menu sourced within 25 miles
04Wood-fired cooking at The Folly
05The Horsebox and Stream Wagons

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.