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The Many Faces of Lucknam Park
Thoroughly Modern Milieu: Thyme in the Cotswolds
Part hotel, part working farm and home to two very different restaurants, Thyme offers a refreshingly individual take on modern country hospitality.
Don’t be fooled by the old stone and honeyed Cotswold façades. Across 150 acres in a quiet corner of Gloucestershire, Thyme has taken centuries of history and made something distinctly of the moment.
Part hotel, part collection of guest houses, part working farm, it is also home to a cookery school, meadow spa, a boutique, bars and two very different restaurants.
It took time to make Thyme. The steady restoration began with the Tithe Barn and Olive Garden, which in 2007 became home to Thyme’s founding ingredient: the cookery school. Over the next decade, the estate continued to unfold, evolving organically into the Thyme we know today.
What followed has been very much a family enterprise. Caryn’s son Charlie now leads the kitchens, while daughter Camilla runs the business; the gardens, farm and surrounding landscape remain a constant thread through it all. Over the years, Thyme has grown into a wonderfully English country estate — not quite a hotel, not simply a farm, but a place that has evolved entirely on its own terms.
Ox Barn
Once home to the farm’s oxen, the vast 19th-century Ox Barn is now a soaring dining room with its original of Douglas fir beams and an open kitchen bringing a little theatre to proceedings.
The menu takes its cue from Thyme’s farm and kitchen gardens, with Chef Director Charlie Hibbert turning what is growing and flowering into ingredient-led dishes. Seasonality here is less a menu philosophy than the natural consequence of having the gardens quite literally on the doorstep.
There is another reason to arrive before your reservation. The Baa, Thyme’s cocktail bar in the former lambing sheds, makes a particularly good starting point for the evening, with botanical cocktails drawing on the gardens and surrounding countryside (and home to the charming Thyme Sheep Seats, designed by Caryn and hand-made to order in the Cotswolds).
The Swan
Every great village deserves a good pub, and Southrop has The Swan. Dating back to the 17th century, it has all the right ingredients — low beams, open fires and a stylish bar — but with enough polish to make it feel rather more special than your average local.
The menu is reassuringly pub-like, with British classics, some French twists, seasonal ingredients and produce from Thyme’s own farm and kitchen gardens. It is a different proposition from Ox Barn, and deliberately so. Go for a pint, stay for lunch or settle in for dinner.
Beyond the Table
There is plenty to keep you in Southrop once lunch is over. The Meadow Spa sits within the gardens, while Thyme’s cookery school returns the story neatly to where the business began. Bedrooms are scattered through historic houses and cottages rather than contained within one conventional hotel building, adding to the sense that you have happened upon a particularly lovely corner of village life.
It is this mix that makes Thyme interesting. The bones may be old — in some cases very old indeed — but there is nothing nostalgic about the way the estate continues to evolve. History is not the theme here; it is simply the starting point.
Discover Thyme with Luxury Restaurant Guide
Luxury Restaurant Guide members enjoy privileges dining at Ox Barn. See details.
Members and their dining guests receive a complimentary glass of English sparkling wine and a garden nibble when enjoying two or more courses, with an average value of £35.
Not yet a member? Explore Luxury Restaurant Guide with a complimentary 14-day preview.
