Why we picked this hotel
Thyme feels as though it grew into a hotel almost by accident, which is exactly its charm. Bedrooms, barns, gardens, spa and village pub sit separately across the estate, making the whole place feel more like somewhere you temporarily live than somewhere you check into.
Hotel description
Thyme feels less like a country hotel and more like having an entire Cotswolds hamlet to disappear into. Thirty-one bedrooms are scattered between a Georgian rectory, old farmhouse, cottages and garden buildings, with gravel paths winding between kitchen gardens, the Meadow Spa, Ox Barn restaurant and Baa Bar. Days have their own easy rhythm here: walk through the water meadows, borrow a bicycle, take a cookery class, spend the afternoon beside the spring-water pool, then move from botanical cocktails at Baa Bar to dinner in the Ox Barn. It is a place where the gardens, food, landscape and spa matter as much as the room itself.
Hotel location
This is great
A village within a village
Historic houses, cottages and restored farm buildings are linked by garden paths, making Thyme feel more like a tiny country hamlet than a hotel.
The farm genuinely feeds the kitchens
Thyme’s 150-acre working farm and productive gardens grow vegetables, herbs and fruit used across its restaurants and cookery school.
A spring-water pool behind Cotswold walls
Meadow Spa’s outdoor swimming pool uses the estate’s spring water and opens seasonally during the warmer months.
Wellness built around breath and botanicals
Meadow Cottage and the Botanical Bothy focus on massage, breathwork, scent and restorative treatments rather than an oversized thermal circuit.
The cookery school is where Thyme began
The restored Tithe Barn and Olive Garden became Thyme’s founding cookery school in 2007, a thread that still runs through the estate today.
Food is reason enough to stay
Charlie Hibbert directs ingredient-led cooking across Ox Barn and The Swan, with much of the produce coming directly from Thyme’s gardens.
Our take on the stay
Plenty of Cotswolds hotels look like country life. Thyme actually functions like it. There is a working farm, productive gardens, a cookery school that started the whole story and a family still closely involved in running it.
Curated by
Eliza
What guests loved
The beautiful grounds and gardens
The exceptionally comfortable bedrooms
The food at Ox Barn
The attentive, thoughtful service
The peaceful countryside atmosphere
Best for
Cotswold countryside • Food lovers • 150-acre estate • Nature • Romantic stays
Good to know
31 bedrooms in total
Check-in from 16:00
Check-out until 11:00
Main bedroom categories average 22–58 m²
Cottages range up to approximately 110 m²
Seasonal outdoor spring-water pool
Meadow Spa and Botanical Bothy
Ox Barn, The Swan and Baa Bar
Hotel accommodation is 12+
Selected cottages are dog-friendly (charges apply)
Free on-site parking
Bristol Airport around 90 minutes by car
Amenities
Pet friendly
Breakfast included
Free cots available for children
Free parking
About the destination
The Cotswolds
The Cotswolds is a landscape of rolling hills, honey-coloured villages, and quiet country lanes, with walking trails, historic estates, and traditional pubs scattered throughout. Near Lechlade, the countryside opens around the upper reaches of the River Thames, offering a particularly peaceful corner of the region. Thyme is set within the nearby village of Southrop, surrounded by gardens, farmland, and classic Cotswold scenery.
