JANE SLADE visits one of the country’s top country house hotels
You can’t hurry a stay at Gravetye Manor. The moment you peel off the motorway and drive through the gates you have to slow down because you can’t quite believe you are suddenly meandering along a mile-long driveway through 35 acres of rural paradise.
Enchanting, secluded and sedate Gravetye Manor, awarded AA Hotel of the Year 2013-2014, is everything you would expect from a quintessential English country house hotel.
There are big comfy chairs, huge fireplaces (they light the one in the front hall, pictured left, which dates from 1598 year round), vases overflowing with fresh flowers from the garden, creaky floorboards and that reassuring aroma of polished wood.
“We like to consider ourselves a home from home but with a butler; offering honest English hospitality,” says the Resident Manager Samantha Foster.
It’s hard to imagine you are just 30 minutes from Gatwick airport and an hour from London when you hear the owls hooting in the dead of night and the songthrush singing in the early morning.
In fact you feel so far from the hustle and bustle you are happy to surrender to a somnambulant pace as you wander the walled kitchen garden, the only one in the world that is oval shaped, created by William Robinson, the father of the English natural garden. 
Produce from the kitchen garden provides the hotel with 95 per cent of its vegetables and there are so many natural springs in the grounds, guests can enjoy fresh Gravetye water too.
Gravetye employs 10 gardeners to tend the abundant flower beds, shrubberies, winding pathways and the natural and wild gardens Robinson created.
And there is something to see every time of the year which is why it’s so popular with green-fingered visitors. The fishpond which boasts a rare collection of water lilies is said to have inspired Claude Monet’s water lily series of paintings. He stayed at Gravetye when it was private house as did the sculptor Henry Moore.
From March to April is tulip time; there are 5,000 bulbs so you can only imagine the riot of colour, not to mention the carpets of daffodils in the meadows. Summer brings the orchids and wild flowers and a variety of grasses. “We keep colour in the garden until November,” adds Samantha.
Enjoying a summer tea in the garden listening to the songbirds or watching the sunset in the evening over a glass of champagne here takes some beating.
There are also lots of lovely walks from a 3 1/2 mile stroll to the Cat pub to a six-hour hike to Weir Wood reservoir for the more adventurous. Personally I preferred staying put, sitting among the small private flower beds enjoying a freshly-picked salad.
Gravetye is an ideal base for those who want to explore some English heritage; Hever Castle (40 minutes) Winston Churchill’s former home of Chertwell (50 minutes), Bodiam Castle (an hour) and Glyndebourne (45 minutes). And there is also the charming Bluebell Railway.
Gravetye dates back to Elizabethan times and has an olde-worlde charm that makes it one of the most relaxing hotels to spend the weekend, celebrate a special anniversary or to escape the hurly burly. It’s no wonder guests have been returning for decades. In fact one who has been coming since he was a boy and even spent his wedding night here bought the place in 2010 to preserve the special ambience and timeless quality.
“Change without change,” is the current owners, Jeremy and Elizabeth Hosking’s, philosophy. There isn’t even a spa and there is no intention to have one. And that precisely why guests love it.
We stayed in the comfortable and cosy Pear room in the main house, decorated in antique furniture but not designed for couch potatoes who want to watch TV on a cinema-size flat screen; Gravetye’s guests are more into Radio 4 and the Telegraph Crossword.
The stunning views of the countryside from the window and the delicious scent emanating from a fresh bowl of hyacinths on the occasional table made a wonderful welcome.
All the rooms are different, some have four-poster beds and there is also a separate wing (not that you would notice) attached to the main house with 10 more rooms.
One of the high points of your stay will be dinner in the wood-panelled dining room where gourmands can enjoy an eight-course tasting menu for £85 per person with six tasting wines at £45. My husband chose scallops from the à la carte menu followed by pheasant while I had quail followed by John Dory with dauphinoise potatoes and garden vegetables.
Each course was absolutely delicious and beautifully presented. The subtle flavours of the amuse bouche of potato soup and parmesan were divine and cucumber sorbet we had for desert tangy and refreshing. The cheeseboard comprises only British cheeses (of course!) and includes Stinking Bishop (for Wallace and Gromit fans!) and Stinking Bishop’s brothers Mayhill Green and Tunworth.
The wine list is also impressive and the sommelier very knowledgeable. He even puts aside regular customers’ favourite vintages.
What I loved was that there are lots of nice cosy rooms to sit in, each one comfortably furnished and decorated with oil paintings, big gilt mirrors and Indian rugs evoking the cosiness of a private home; the kind of place that wouldn’t mind if you padded about in your slippers. The staff were all warm and friendly too without being intrusive and seem to genuinely love working at the hotel.
“Our staff are hired for personality over skills,” adds Samantha. “Most live on the estate; we’re like a big family, we work together and celebrate birthdays and big occasions together.”
My only gripes were that it would have been nice to have had some home-made canapés with our pre-dinner drinks instead of just nuts and olives.
17 Rooms priced from £295 b&b per night for a double. For special offers and more information visit www.gravetyemanor.co.uk /01342 810567
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