The Hyll: Cotswolds retreat a jewel oozing rustic charm

Those familiar with Britain’s regional architectural nuances will, at a single glance at the honey-coloured limestone from which this converted 17th-century manor house is built, immediately identify its location: the Cotswolds, roughly 160km to the north-west of central London.

This part of the world is littered with toffee-box-esque villages and children’s book countryside — where church spires act as navigation points for those enjoying the region’s abundant walking trails. The charming pull of the place is so strong many Australian visitors to the UK make a beeline here direct from Heathrow.

Casting an eye over Hyll’s grounds — 24ha of verdant meadow and woodland — few would regret skipping the Uber to Mayfair or Soho, and heading west as soon as possible. And, once they step inside this newly opened retreat close to the sleepy hamlet of Charingworth, they’ll see the rustic charm they were hoping for go into overdrive.

Manchester-based design studio YOUTH is behind an interiors revamp that nails a dilemma faced by any architects and designers tasked with revamping very old structures: the complex interplay between preservation and renovation, with adherence to stringent, often compromising heritage legislation often being an unwelcome protagonist in the narrative.

Because of — no, thanks to — such legislative demands, the first-time visitor experiencing this Grade II listed main building, probably to a soundtrack of smooth jazz emanating from a turntable in one of the many public rooms, will find many of the original features spruced up, but ultimately left to exude their own rustic charm.

Expect imperfections in the masonry, original fireplaces and sections of preserved brickwork by artisans of old, juxtaposed starkly — and so elegantly — with newly applied stonework; expect a cosy, pulse-slowing chocolate palette that ties the whole effect together.

Elsewhere, expect baskets of logs, swallow-me sofas, gloriously random recesses — who knows why they were gouged out? — filled with thistle-packed pottery, and snugs that were apparently built at a time when humans were considerably smaller than today.

Together, all these quirks pull their weight in an overall aesthetic that seems to slow the pulse the moment shoe-leather hits doormat.

Books — vast piles of them, everywhere — are also a considerable part of the vibe, and indeed the conversation, here.

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The hotel takes great pride in the fact that T.S. Eliot wrote the poem Burnt Norton while staying here in the 1930s, while the piles of literature you’ll find in most corners at Hyll have been carefully curated to cater for all tastes (think Britpop band member biographies sharing space with Yuval Noah Harari’s rather more wide-reaching explorations of the human condition).

An ongoing partnership with local company Borzoi Books adds a curated in-room reading menu to this literary flavour, as do regular readings from local authors.

The cultural yen doesn’t end with the written word. A collection of diverse artworks — African folk art here, colourful abstract modernism there — are positioned in corners and crannies they really ought not to be, with flagrant but elegant disregard for any kind of adherence to symmetry or order.

Venture outdoors, meanwhile, and the abundant interior cultural heft gets an exterior nod in the drizzle courtesy of stone sculptures by Adrian Gray — a stone-balancing artist whose improbable, gravity-defying installations prove a talking point during ROAM’s visit.

Venturing back indoors, it’s easy to conclude that what the aforementioned YOUTH has crafted here is a design equivalent of the Italian menswear concept of sprezzatura — studied nonchalance, which makes Hyll the perfect venue for kicking back with a book on those days when the Tupperware skies we associate with British weather were threatening to compromise the day.

Think Bilbo Baggins’ hobbit hole meets modern Swiss ski chalet, or perhaps a newly built superyacht.

As for the guest quarters, no two of the 26 guestrooms are the same, although commonalities include dark pastel colour schemes, Verden toiletries (there’s a custom scent for the hotel), coffee machines by Grind and suitably weatherproof jackets for walks provided by ultra-hip boutique British menswear brand Private White V.C. (Google its back story, one replete with the World War I heroics that give a clue to the name).

Wellness specialist Kathryn McCusker has worked with Hyll to create a range of in-room guided meditations, sound baths and breathwork sessions.

As for Hyll’s culinary creds, expect chef Mark Coleman to serve up a menu — made with seasonal and local ingredients — with refreshingly unfussy preparation and generous proportions.

Seared-to-perfection locally farmed lamb, along with a delectable brie and apple tart, poached asparagus and wild garlic potato, were the gastronomic highlight during ROAM’s visit, against some stiff competition.

The name Hyll, owners say, is a nod to a Middle English spelling of the word “hill” — but it’s more than that too, as the moniker is, they say, an allusion to the owners’ wish to raise the ground when it comes to guests’ staying experience.

Marketing fluff? Maybe. But utterly forgivable — it would be churlish to call them out on such when it comes to this stunningly executed new jewel in regional Britain’s hospitality crown.

hyllhotel.com