The hotel where a change is as good as a rest

Cider tastings, bee safaris, a grotto made of shells… while true to its Georgian past, the Newt in Somerset just keeps on evolving, says Lou Barraclough

The year 2019 was a landmark for many reasons, not least for UK hoteliers – a “boom” year, but the last before Brexit, the pandemic and all the upheaval that went with that.

It was also the year that the Newt in Somerset burst onto the scene – a hotel opening that set new benchmarks across the board. Its sprawling 1,000acre working estate of apple orchards, woodlands and artfully landscaped gardens was awe-inspiring, and also by turn playful, naturalistic and productive. First, it had a cider cellar and farm-to-fork produce. Then came educational and interactive experiences –

garden tours, bee safaris, woodland adventures and cider tastings. Throughout lockdowns, an online delivery service provided a taste of the Newt at home. In just three years – a period of real struggle for the hospitality industry – the Newt rolled with the punches and continued to grow and evolve its club/hotel concept.

Design, or just fortuitous circumstance? The Newt’s sister hotel, Babylonstoren, in South Africa’s Cape Winelands, may hold some clues. Every aspect of this Cape Dutch farm, set at the foot of Simonsberg in the Franschhoek wine valley – including the hotel and spa, the farm shop and restaurants – is led by the ever-changing tapestry and botanical diversity of the garden, and the creative restlessness of its owners and founders, Karen Roos and Koos Bekker. Roos loved setting up Babylonstoren and used it to inspire their next venture.

“The UK appealed, as I grew up reading Jane Austen,” she says. “The perfect proportions of [the Newt’s] Georgian manor house invited us to explore the tensions between contemporary and traditional design. The outbuildings had never been lived in, so it was easy to keep those charming farm characteristics – hay mangers, blue lias stone floors and gnarled wooden beams.

“The gardens were shaped over centuries by various members of the Hobhouse family, but had become neglected. We asked our friend Patrice Taravella, the architect and landscape designer who planned our gardens at Babylonstoren, to work his magic. He connected sections of the garden logically: sweeping curves of hedging, changing floral displays and an immaculate maze of apple trees. Plus, many little ponds for newts.”

As with Babylonstoren, it is the gardens that really inspire everything the Newt offers. “Foraging for food in the morning, herbal-infused treatments, and access to acres of soothing green,” enthuses Roos. “I hope our guests will come here to reground themselves and perhaps learn something new. Our tours, workshops and attractions help explore the connection between us and the land to spark the imagination.”

And these developments show no sign of stopping. An ambitious sponsorship of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year has bolstered the hotel’s already near-on full occupancy and 1,000-strong footfall of day visitors.

Recently, more of the estate was opened, including the Roman Villa Ventorum (Villa of the Winds), a reimagining of a residence that once stood here and has been brought back to life by an expert team of archaeologists, architects, engineers and skilled craftsmen over a period of seven years. It is the most ambitious reconstruction of a Roman villa ever undertaken in Britain, and has been created to offer an educational and immersive experience, from presenting archaeological findings to

recreating the sensory world of a Romano-British household. Traditional construction materials and techniques have been used throughout, including the creation of interior decorations, fittings and furnishings.

The newly opened Gate Lodge is a unique new private dwelling, and channels the charm of Georgian architecture in miniature. Once the original gatehouse to Hadspen House, the self-contained two-bedroom cottage mirrors the sophisticated charm of the manor house and contains a most covetable kitchen. Guests may choose to take up the hotel’s suggestion of cooking freshly collected eggs here – but since this might mean missing a magnificent feast in either the Botanical Rooms or the Farmyard Kitchen, they may equally choose to imagine this experience instead.

From the Gate Lodge, it is a bucolic bike or buggy ride (both provided) through green meadows and cider orchards to a hidden valley and the former dairy, now the Farmyard – 17 rooms spread across the original farmhouse and working barns. It has a relaxed, villagey feel, with grazing livestock, running water and sheltering oaks – plus an indoor pool, all-day kitchen and honesty bar-cum-games room. It is yet another reel in the succession of filmset scenery – here a table of rainbow dishes fresh from the farm brought to Technicolor life by the kitchen, there a sepia tableau of harvests from years gone by.

With more new projects underway – a grotto opened this summer, a bonkers folly hidden in a bank within a wildflower area, created with thousands of shells and featuring a fire-breathing dragon – there is no shortage of reasons to go, and go again.

Yet it is the less tangible attractions that are likely to prove the Newt’s most enduring draw. The insistence on excellence – from the expertise of every member of staff to the interior design features and the first-class farm food served in all four restaurants – leaves an overriding impression of meticulous attention to detail. Key personnel across the hotel are helping shape and grow its fledgling personality beyond its charismatic general manager, Ed Workman. In the spa is Alyssa, an instinctive masseuse who discovered her calling aged six. Guest-experience host Mark is a discreet, warm and hilarious constant in every visitor’s stay. And there is that free-flowing Babylonstoren vibe. The Newt has developed it, then owned it, Somerset-style. Here’s hoping it’s not lost in the pursuit of even greater scale.

Lou Barraclough stayed as a guest of the Newt. Doubles from £520 B&B; Gate Lodge from £2,050 for two nights’ B&B and a 12-month Newt membership, with a minimum two-night stay