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Explore the Charm of Hampshire’s Heckfield Place and the Allure of England’s Country Houses
Looking for a cultural escape? There may never be a better time to visit England. From Ellen DeGeneres’ bold move to the Cotswolds to the buzz surrounding another Downton Abbey finale, the UK is more captivating than ever. With home prices falling in London, the countryside is drawing more Americans eager to embrace its rich history.
Where to Stay? Discover Heckfield Place
For the perfect blend of history and luxury, look no further than Heckfield Place. This beautifully restored Georgian house is nestled in the Hampshire countryside and offers a tranquil escape. The MWR Club’s Travel Advantage provides exclusive access to this idyllic retreat.
The Best of England’s Country Hotels
On October 22, the World Travel Awards will recognize the top country house hotels in England, including Heckfield Place. These awards, voted on by industry leaders and travelers, celebrate excellence in hospitality.
Though the list may not be exhaustive, it highlights standout properties that break the mold of traditional country estates. Many are independently owned, with backing from international billionaires—Chinese, South African, and Indian owners—bringing fresh energy and vision to these historic homes.
A Fresh Take on the Country Estate
These estates are not just for the elite. They offer warmth, sophistication, and relaxed luxury. Each estate features sprawling botanical gardens and farms, perfect for the ambitious chefs behind innovative culinary experiences. Set amidst breathtaking natural landscapes, these hotels offer a perfect combination of rural charm and modern luxury.
Ready to immerse yourself in this new era of country hotels? Book your stay at Heckfield Place and experience the serenity of the countryside while enjoying top-tier amenities and unique cultural experiences.
For Jane Austen-enthusiasts and foodies who want to eat straight from a biodynamic farm.
Owner: Gerald Chan, the Hong Kong-born billionaire and head of private investment company Morningside Group, bought Heckfield in 2002.
It has been a very Jane Austen summer. Just an hour outside of London, Heckfield Place has fashioned itself a literary muse, with canvas-bound novels in each of its 45 guest rooms, and a rotation of screenings and guest speakers in the hotel’s 67-seat cinema, nestled within the charmed seclusion of 438 acres in Hampshire. Here, everyone is all a-twitter about the upcoming arrival of actress Emma Thompson, who is set to introduce a screening of Sense and Sensibility August 31 (The event is sadly sold out, but events such as these are a regular hallmark of the hotel).
When it first opened in 2018, Heckfield attracted guests with its handsomely restored Georgian home, sprawling grounds, and misty lake. But the stewardship of its organic farm-to-table restaurants Marle and open-fired Hearth by culinary director Skye Gyngell really put Heckfield on the food world map. In recognition of its sustainable practices, Michelin awarded a Green Star to Marle in both 2022 and 2023.
Executive Chef Michael Chapman at Heckfield
“The essence of Heckfield is that our food is literally within 200 meters, and the idea is to be nearly self-sufficient,” said Executive Chef Michael Chapman, sitting down after a busy dinner service. On average, he serves roughly 200 meals per day. “It’s taken a good four and a half years for the farm to get where it is now, but we still have to adjust. Because we’re biodynamic, we’re at the whim of the elements. When we start planning our menus, we’ve got good ideas, and then we wait for the farm to bring it in. Fingers crossed, we’ve had a good harvest.”
The first thing you notice is the trees. Towering marvels of birch, purple beech, ash, chestnut, and pine fill the air with sweet sap, while 20 varieties of wise oaks create a canopy to cover your path. It’s like being enveloped in an enchanted forest, where it is entirely plausible that the ribbon wish you tied to the magickal Yew tree in Hobbit lande will most certainly come true!
The Bothy by Wildsmith
O’er the river and through the woods brings you down to the lower lake, which is its own reward. From a blanket on the banks, you can order up a sumptuously stocked picnic basket (with things like bubbly elderflower cordial, red beetroot with goat cheese, Guernsey cow butter slathered on crusty baguettes, swiss chard salads, and bright logan berries) or engage in the invigorating practice of “wild swimming,” which is really just swimming without chlorine. Though the lake is cold enough to make any warm-blooded fool feel “wild.” Another ‘must’ is the new 17,000-square-foot spa, The Bothy by Wildsmith, which offers a full roster of decadent treatments, fitness rooms and a hydrotherapy wing complete with pools, saunas and wildflower views.
After a treatment, you are guided into a cavernous grey stone and wood relaxation room with six oversized day beds, plumped with heavy pillows and wool blankets. There are no clocks or screens allowed — they simply light a custom candle with the name of a local tree etched into the glass. My “oak” candle burns for precisely 20 minutes, at which point I am cocooned in warmth and anointed in oil, sinking into the sofa like a lump of clay not yet needing to take shape. It’s very quiet, and deeply restorative.
To really make the most of Heckfield, you’ll want to pre-book a few “experiences,” including floral arranging workshops, gin garden mixology classes, bread-making, or — coming this fall — pickling. “The Art of Preservation” workshop (£65 per person) is led by Chef Dor Harel who teaches centuries-old techniques of pickling, fermenting, and preserving.
As it turns out, preserving can not only help you stock your winter pantry, but teach you how a biodynamic garden actually works. It runs on a lunar calendar and organic material only, like British black beef cow dung and compost. No chemicals or sprays are used, but companion planting and predatory bugs like mealy bugs or ladybug larvae can help to manage crops. The best part? Whether gooseberry, plum or lemon preserves, you get to take it home with you.
The produce garden is steps away from the main house and restaurant.
For travelers wanting to experience history come to life on an 800-acre estate.
Owners: South African businessman Koos Bekker and his wife, Karen Roos, who also preside over Babylonstoren, South Africa’s most ambitious wine farm hotel.
They say an estate can have a soul, or a ‘beating heart’. Laying claim to more than 800 acres teeming with apple orchards, gardens both botanical and medieval, 500 British white cattle, 400 sheep, about 80 red deer and an armada of great crested newts — the Newt has more than a few. (Fun fact: The presence of newts is a sign of a healthy wetland environment).
At the center of this salamander’s flywheel is the Hadspen House, a honey-hued limestone home built around 1690 and reshaped in Georgian times. In 2019, it entered the 21st Century as a premiere hotel, housing bedrooms, lounges and The Botanical Rooms restaurant.
The most whimsical of its 23 guest rooms are in the Hadspen’s former stables. Who would want a regular-old room, when there are haylofts with wood-burning stoves that once warmed the hind legs of Kind Arthur’s horse? The “Hayloft & Woolsack” cottage, for example, is a cozy throwback to a time when English wool was more lucrative than American cotton. In the sitting room, a ceramic-clad kiln is attended by a basket of dry firewood. Beneath the coffee and tea station (stocked with homemade biscuits), you’ll also find a mini fridge full of cider, cordial, apple gin, water and dairy milk. The crisp white bathroom has a huge clawfoot tub, which you’ll want to fill with buckets of ice in summer (turns out, you can survive without air conditioning). Somehow, the rugged structure of the stables makes you feel you’ve earned a morning yoga session or an afternoon with a good novel. Time sips slower here, or at least that’s what the dainty vintage glass cocktails in the main bar would suggest.
The drawing room inside Hadspen House.
Almost every activity within the Newt’s reach is designed to spark appreciation for the bounty nature brings. You can lose yourself in the Four Seasons Garden, blooming with antique roses that wind around pergolas and spill from the hedgerows. You can dine on Dorset Down lamb with smoked leek and peas, or Cornish crab with cucumber and fettuccine in the Botanical Rooms, take long walks through endless apple orchards, and eventually join one of the honey, wine or cider tastings in the on-site cidery. If you’re feeling social, go for cocktails and croquet on the Hadspen House lawn.
But if you are open to a real education on the Romans who once lived here, and the history and relevance of gardens, get thee to one of the world-class museums on property, which are a major reason why The Newt is considered to be in a class all its own. Built around remains unearthed on this estate, the interactive “Roman Villa experience” allows you to walk through a historically accurate model of what existed during Roman rule of this land. With the help of audio guides and digitally augmented reality, you walk from room to room, immersing yourself in stories of epic soldiers and battles, Roman baths, ancient customs and the decadent bacchanalia of the Roman elite. On the fields surrounding this villa, staff say a new restaurant will be built “within 18 months”. Though no title or theme has been announced, expectations are naturally high.
In the meantime, if you cross a hanging bridge that winds through the treetops on the other side of the estate, you’ll reach the other experiential museum, “The Story of Gardening”. Here, you can get your hands dirty with the soil, smell the unique scent of countless flowers, and learn lessons in botany required for any thriving garden. And, with a separate room dedicated to each garden type around the globe, you can learn the history and significance of the Imperial gardens of China, Versailles in France, and of course, the story of Capability Brown and the English landscape gardens, where so many literary giants set their scenes… Where better than to muse on the meaning of life?
Estelle Manor interiors designed by Roman and Williams
For late-night revelers who want stylish outdoor adventures and indoor opulence, in equal measure.
Owners: The Co-CEO of Ennismore, Sharan Pasricha and his wife Eiesha Bharti Pasricha own Estelle Manor and its sister property, Maison Estelle — one of Mayfair’s most desirable membership clubs.
The Pasrichas acquired Estelle Manor (formerly known as Eynsham Hall) in Oxfordshire in 2018, transforming it into a luxurious country-house hotel and prestigious private members’ club that echoes Maison Estelle in London. Located just an hour outside London, and open year-round, it attracts social elites who are spoiled for choice, but still turn up for the party.
Much like the other properties, the scope of this 85-acre estate which happens to be surrounded by 3,000 acres of parkland, is massive and guests have countless ways to make the most of it. There are 108 rooms and suites, four restaurants, a heated outdoor swimming pool, fitness center, padel court, kids’ club, private work lounges, and the new Eynsham Baths, a spa constructed to resemble a neoclassical Roman bathhouse fit for the emperors who invented the concept. Throw in archery, falconry, axe-throwing, off-roading, and boating and fishing on Blenheim Lake (behind Blenheim Palace 10 minutes away) — and you’re approaching Gleneagles’ Scottish hotel-level rompery. The best part? You can do it all in borrowed La Chameau welly boots, which scream: I’m outdoorsy, but I never actually “rough it”.
Socializing is very much the point, regardless of the activity. Conversation and repartee is an effervescent art form, and let’s be honest: everyone looks better in light cast by the interior designers Roman and Williams. Their spaces are meant for gathering and carousing—not just looking at. (Don’t even think about snapping selfies in the private club rooms. Discretion at Estelle is paramount).
Though so many clubs have choked on their own disco dust, the club-model actually works here, largely because the original home base, Maison Estelle, is still the toast of Mayfair, and artistic director Eiesha Pasricha understands how to create cool. In each of her spaces, social connection feels encouraged, comfortable and exciting — because you never know who you might meet. The Billiards Room restaurant, for instance, serves traditional Chinese fare in a luxuriously textured room with sumptuous velvet banquettes, lacquered malachite green tables and limed plaster walls lit up by fantastic Murano glass chandeliers. It’s the kind of place you can wear a sequined jumpsuit and sip champagne while watching a whole duck being carved tableside. During the day, the Glasshouse is the place to gather, and share classic English dishes (pork pies and venison haunches) right alongside family-style Indian Dhaba delights, Tandoori chicken included. Set within a walled garden, it’s a light, airy greenhouse-turned restaurant framed by climbing flowers, and elevated by plush velvet banquettes and polished marble tables.
But what truly sets this place apart are its fabulous fêtes.
An aerial view of Estelle Manor
Though Estelle Manor is the most contemporary of the three estates, it gets closest to the real version of upper-class parties that took place throughout the 18th and 19th century. When outdoor heaters are wheeled onto the lawn outside Estelle, live musician platforms rigged, and the fireworks readied, you know it’s going to be a banner night… Upper class parties in Georgian and Regency England (roughly 1714-1830) were late-night affairs, with dancing beginning around 11:30 PM, supper served around midnight or later, and the festivities continuing well into the early morning hours. And it was poor form to leave early! This custom is reflected in Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion in Chapter eight, where Captain Wentworth recounts the details of a party to Anne Elliot and others: “We began at ten, supped at one, and were at Deane before five.”
Over the past few centuries, social events have been creeping earlier and earlier and sad, sanitized phenomena like silent discos and alcohol-free mocktails threaten to steal revelry from our youth. Which is why in this day and age, Estelle Manor serves as a beacon, allowing us one last chance to howl at the moon and watch the day break over Oxfordshire.
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