Old Stocks Inn, Stow-on-the-Wold, Cotswolds: hotel review 1

Old Stocks Inn, Stow-on-the-Wold, Cotswolds: hotel review

I just like the Cotswolds as a good deal as the following cake-scoffing, tea-glugging tourist, but there may be something disconcerting about the way it all appears the same. The Lygon Arms in Broadway, say, looks scarily just like the Lygon palms in Chipping Campden. This homogeneity is a first-rate part of the location’s attraction – honey-colored stone, cutesy villages – but it may go away my longing for a piece of originality.

From the out of doors, the antique stocks resort, which reopened remaining yr after a £2m refurbishment, certainly ticks all those conventional Cotswolds packing containers. It’s far a Grade II-indexed, seventeenth-century training lodge on the main rectangular in chocolate-container Stow-on-the-Wold. Step via the door, but the olde worlde vibe is shattered: this hotel is formidable, brilliant, and modern. At the back of the refit, Tekne, the employer also remodeled the incredible Northern hotel and the Chiltern Firehouse in London. Right here, it has unfolded the gap, letting in lots of herbal mild. The decor mixes neutrals with splashes of color, particularly teal, and there are playful gadgets on display, including porcelain rabbits and golden apples.

That isn’t to say the individual of the unique hotel has been destroyed. On the contrary, pains have been taken to preserve the authentic capabilities – even replastering ceilings with horsehair and lime. The wooden beams, crooked staircases, and unusually formed rooms are all intact. It is the most successful marriage of antique and new I have seen, mixing historic floorboards with modern-day black-and-white tiles; exposed stone with silky-smooth walls.Old Stocks Inn, Stow-on-the-Wold, Cotswolds: hotel review 2
Up some wonky stairs, our room is within the oldest part of the construction: low front, sloping ceiling, tremendous beams overlooking the rectangular. As I soak in the claw-foot bath, the metropolis’s bell-ringers offer the background tune. Even though the partitions are especially white, one is inside the signature teal, the couch, the (unfastened) mini bar, and the phone. Bespoke furniture fits the novel spaces – our room has a slimline desk underneath the eaves. Bedside lamps are uncovered bulbs from the ceiling; there are abstract prints and framed maps, lovely Scandi-fashion cushions and throws Sci Burg.

Strangely for the sort of stylish inn, youngsters are very welcome: there’s a “bunker roomâ€, with a triple bunk bed, 2nd tv, and a games console. Many of the 15 different rooms can also be made up as own family accommodation.
On the primary night time, we sample Stow’s pubs and request some late-night snacks within the bar, instead of dinner inside the eating place. We anticipate a scotch egg or maybe cured meat and cheese. As a substitute, we’re presented with big wood forums encumbered with small quantities of amazing food: vodka-cured salmon with squid-ink aioli; sous-vide trout with kale and blackberry sauce; crostini with sluggish-cooked pork; braised rabbit; wooden pigeon with redcurrants and blackberry jelly. It is a lovely show, festooned with caper berries, pea shoots, and fit for human consumption vegetation.

We are able to’t look ahead to the following night time’s dinner, and it’s miles similarly wonderful. My starter is a deconstructed caesar salad (£7) – an extraordinary case of improving on a classic, whilst my major is scrumptious rabbit: loin and leg ragout (£17). Recreation is a characteristic; we try the venison, too. We will’t face up to cheese before dessert – smoked whisky babas with blood-orange gel and vanilla cream (£6.50) – and coffee martinis (£eight) afterward.

I look for a bad, not noted detail. However, there’s nothing. The personnel is extraordinary, especially Richard, the informed deputy manager, and Pete, the friendly barman. The cocktail bar also serves neighborhood beers and spirits from the Purity Brewing business enterprise and the Chase Distillery, and there’s a coffee store around the corner. The walled garden on the back has a timber-fired pizza oven. Even the region is best, within the centre of the medieval market metropolis, with many attractions nearby: we walked to Bourton-on-the Water. We visited the neolithic Rollright Stones, while Daylesford organic farm is also a quick pressure away.

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I am a writer, financial consultant, husband, father, and avid surfer. I am also a long-time entrepreneur, investor, and trader. For almost two decades, I have worked in the financial sector, and now I focus on making money through investing in stock trading.