Thyme
United Kingdom
Thyme
Southrop, Lechlade GL7 3NX
United Kingdom
www.thyme.co.uk
HOTEL INFORMATION
Group
N/A
Shareholders
Privately Owned
Date of Creation
N/A
Hotel General Manager
Camilla Hibbert
Through a vibrant career in design, visual merchandising and marketing, Milly has worked both in-house and agency side for businesses in London, Liverpool and New York. Her focus was often on experiential activations, event management and community or client liaisons, allowing a passion for working with people and brands to thrive.
In 2018, she returned home to work alongside Caryn to launch retail at Thyme and founded Bertioli by Thyme, before taking on brand development and marketing for both brands. Now, Milly has taken the reigns at Thyme as General Manager, leading the daily operations of delivering the Thyme experience and building the business.
Hotel Positioning
Luxury boutique estate
Development Strategy
N/A
Thyme
History & Story
“Thyme is a restored Cotswold manor and farm. It is a family story where a passion for the land, food and entertaining merges with a love of local heritage, beauty and conservation.
We took time to make Thyme. Working with the historic buildings and the land that surrounds them, we have created a thoughtful place with love and attention lavished on every detail.
We hope you will experience a real connection to the land, the seasons and to nature, and we invite you to rest, relax and enjoy this English country idyll that our family call home.” – Caryn Hibbert, Founder & Creative Director.
Date Renewal
Thyme began in 2007 as a cookery school and has grown and evolved naturally over time.
Date added extensions
The steady restoration began with the Tithe Barn and Olive Garden, which in 2007 became Thyme’s founding ingredient: the cookery school. Over the next 10 years, Thyme began to unfold, evolving organically into the ‘Village within a Village’ that it is today. In 2020, with the Ox Barn and estate drive open, Thyme was complete.
Main Strengths, Special Touch
As Thyme has grown, the ethos has never faltered with the story of the land imbued in every detail. Today, Thyme is comprised of 31 bedrooms dispersed across its houses and cottages, the Ox Barn restaurant, the Baa Bar, the Swan pub, Cookery School, Meadow Spa, our boutiques, and the Tithe Barn event and exhibition space, Thyme is still family-owned and run, led by Caryn, her eldest son Charlie and daughter, Camilla.
Location
Situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty where the Cotswold hills rise up from the Thames, Thyme is surrounded by idyllic and historic English countryside, and an array of beautiful places to visit and things to do.
Key sites/activities in the area
The gently rolling hills of the Cotswolds, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, are not only famed for wool production, ‘cot’ meaning sheep enclosure and ‘wold’ meaning hill, but also for the idyllic honey-coloured houses that are scattered across our unspoilt landscape.
The picturesque landscape has inspired many notable writers and poets over the centuries including Jane Austen, Laurie Lee, Nancy Mitford and T.S Eliot to name a few. The food is equally as noteworthy, with bountiful local produce (Bibury Trout, Tewkesbury mustard, Windrush Vallery Goats cheese, Stinking Bishop & Gloucester cheese, Cotswold Gin) and exceptional pubs and farm shops. The nature surrounding these creatives was what so inspired them and continues to be un-spoilt today. We have curated a list of wonderful gardens and landmarks to explore.
When you check in, simply ask at reception for our list of local recommendations.
Fun Facts
We welcome dogs in various spaces and charming cottage suits at Thyme. For guests checking into one of our dog-friendly rooms with a dog, there is an extra £50 per stay cleaning charge.
Children’s Corner
Throughout Thyme, we have created a peaceful grown-up environment, and we welcome children over 12 across the estate. If you are planning to stay with your young ones, our village cottage, Old Walls, is perfectly suited to families. All other accommodation is over 12s only. In the Ox Barn restaurant, we welcome families at lunch, while breakfast and dinner service are over 12s only. The Swan, our village pub, is family friendly with a cygnets menu for children to enjoy. Our Meadow Spa is able to offer treatments for guests aged 16 and over.
HOTEL FEATURES
Accommodation
Number of suites:
• 5 Garden Rooms – second highest category “All these rooms have a small, private garden with a fire pit.
With large glass doors that open onto the gardens, they are elegant and perfect for inside-outside living.
Our Garden Rooms have wonderful showers and most have roll-top baths. “
• Number of Luxury rooms:
• 2. Our exquisite rooms are our master bedrooms – English Rose and Cedar of Lebanon. Both are situated in the Lodge, one on the ground floor and one on the first floor, both with sweeping views of the Cedar of Lebanon on the lawn and the fields beyond. Both these rooms are spacious, with beautiful bathrooms and large baths for botanical soaks.
• Number of rooms, (keys) in all:
• 31rooms in total- 28 keys. All our botanically inspired bedrooms are dispersed across houses and cottages, forming a peaceful hamlet environment with gravel pathways to lead you through the gardens. No two rooms are the same, with colours inspired by their botanical names and graced with carefully sourced antique pieces.
All our bedrooms have beautifully comfortable mattresses and linens, and guests are welcomed with a complimentary trug of goodies, plus a minibar of delicious liquors, teas and coffee.
Restaurants & Bars
• The Ox Barn- Rooted in a passion for the local land, food and entertaining, our carefully curated menus tell a story of the farm and seasons. Under the direction of Charlie Hibbert, the chefs and gardeners at Thyme work together to select and grow the fruits, vegetables and herbs used to create his modern British countryside fare.
• The Swan – Just a short stroll from Thyme, the Swan sits at the heart of the village of Southrop adjacent to the green.
• Orchid House – Positioned alongside our spring water swimming pool, the Orchid House is a tranquil, designed to help you wind down and enjoy the peaceful serenity of the Meadow Spa.
• Baa Bar – Bartenders create homemade cordials, shrubs and infusions which together with fresh flowers and herbs from the garden, form a botanical cocktail menu that tells the story of the land. The Baa is an elegant space to enjoy a coffee, lunch and a newspaper during the day or a fresh cocktail in the evening.
Wellness
• Meadow Spa – Our Meadow Spa offers calm, stillness, and nurtures beauty from within. The botanical spa is an idyllic haven of peace and tranquility; a place for mindfulness and meditation, providing respite from our hectic lives.
Meadow Spa offers a range of treatments in the cottage as well as in the Botanical Bothy, a space designed in conjunction with Bertioli Beauty to deliver journeys that incorporate bathing and breathing.
Corporate & Celebration Events
We have a range of dining spaces to choose between. From large tables in the restaurants – the Chef’s Table in the Ox Barn or the Snug in the Swan – to the private Home Kitchen, spilling out into the Olive Garden. Our magnificent 16th-century Tithe Barn is the jewel in our crown, a magical space which holds a dinner for 16 as comfortably as a dinner for 60.
Extra Notable Features
• Cookery School- Classes usually start in the kitchen garden, showing guests how and where the produce is grown before harvesting ingredients for their menu. Cooking under the guidance of an expert Thyme chef, guests learn our ‘field to plate’ techniques.
We offer two styles of class: the 2-hour ‘master a dish’ class or a 4-hour (half-day) ‘cook and dine’ class.
• Gardens & Farm – Situated on the edge of the water meadows, Thyme’s carefully managed kitchen gardens ensure abundance from the land while protecting and maintaining the fertile alluvial soil. The garden is productive for much of the year and features a herb garden, cutting gardens and poly-tunnels to extend the seasons. We grow a large variety of flavoursome and unusual varieties to supply our restaurants…
• Thyme is surrounded by glorious countryside and honey-hued market towns. Guests can take a map and head out on a walk through the surrounding countryside or borrow our bicycles and explore the neighbouring villages and towns.
• We have a tennis court on site, as well as badminton and boules for our residents to enjoy a spot of gentle competition
Hotel and restaurant Awards
2023
• The Sunday Times- 100 Best Hotels
• 2023 Best Spa Hotel
• 100 Best Spa in the World
• Vogue Global Spa Guide
Number of employees
100