Margot Henderson, the queen of east London’s coolest culinary experience, Rochelle Canteen, is behind Somerset’s latest country escape. With Max Wigram, a former art dealer, she has revamped a 17th-century boozer in Batcombe, a sleepy village within a buttered scone’s throw of trendy Bruton. Interiors are now a study of stealth-wealth discretion, leaving the menu to provide the retro fireworks, including smoked haddock and mash, and sherry trifle. The five bedrooms have an eclectic mix of antiques, art and village rooftop views, with the bells of the grade I listed 15th-century church of St Mary the Virgin providing your wake-up call.
Overall score 9/10
Main photo: the rustic bar at the Three Horseshoes (Emma Lewis)
Rooms and suites
Score 8/10
This place is all about simple pleasures, so the fabulous beds have handcrafted pure wool mattresses by Relyon, a Somerset company that has been going since 1858. There are mix-and-matched pastel-painted walls with blasts of bold blue and ruby red soft furnishings by big-name designers such as Fermoie and Penny Morrison. The dark wood antique oak chairs and chests bring grown-up glamour, while the battered beams and sloping ceilings provide a suggestion of cottage cuteness that keeps the mood relaxed. Room Three is the smallest but still a decent size and has the compensation of a bath perched by a window overlooking gardens that are sprinkled with terracotta pots filled with arbutus and country borders of roses, geraniums, hydrangeas and herbs.
Food and drink
Score 9/10
The bar is a delightfully unpretentious spot where Henderson has handwritten the cocktail recipe book. She’s a fan of a Hanky Panky made in the tradition of Ada Coleman of the Savoy’s American Bar — heavy on the Beefeater gin, with sweetness from Punt E Mes vermouth and a bitter kick from Fernet Branca liqueur. Expect some raised eyebrows from the locals nursing a pint by the wood-burner. The chicken pie for six typifies a menu that encourages sociable sharing. There are also upscaled classics such as cod’s roe and soft-boiled egg, pickled herring and devilled kidneys on toast. Leave space for the sensational sticky toffee pudding. Service is informal, efficient and delightfully enthusiastic about the ingredients. Breakfast may prove too pared back for some. The choices are utterly delicious but limited to yoghurt and granola, toast and jam and poached egg with bacon and roast tomato.
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What else is there?
Score n/a
This is a classic pub, but there’s no spa or gym — just a pretty beer garden with picnic benches.
Where is it?
Score 9/10
Batcombe is the definition of decompression, the kind of tumbleweed magnet that teenagers can’t wait to leave and the rest of us can’t wait to visit. Nearby distractions include Bruton, a ten-minute drive, which is home to two contemporary art galleries, Hauser & Wirth Somerset and Bo Lee and Workman, which is in an atmospheric former Methodist church. The pretty market towns of Frome and Castle Cary are not much further, though it’s worth the half-hour drive to Glastonbury for some authentic hippy vibes and a walk up Glastonbury Tor.
Price B&B doubles from £170
Restaurant mains from £18
Family-friendly Y
Dog-friendly Y
Accessible N
thethreehorseshoesbatcombe.co.uk
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