Thyme: The idyllic hotel where you can immerse yourself in nature

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. The estate dates from Roman times but is first clearly defined in the Domesday Book of 1086. The Manor House remains a private home and sits on the eastern side of its ancient Norman church. To the west of the church lie the manorial barns, houses and cottages which are at the heart of this medieval estate. Caryn & Jerry Hibbert moved into Southrop Manor in 2002, and soon after acquired the derelict farm buildings that sat adjacent to their new home.

The restoration has been slow and considered. Thyme has evolved organically with an understanding that conservation is about sustainability - not only preserving the past but more importantly, securing the future. The restoration of Thyme began with a collaborative effort between Caryn Hibbert, Thyme’s founder, and her father Michael Bertioli, a physicist and engineer, combining their passions for architecture, conservation, and design.

Caryn’s ambition was to breathe new life into the magnificent agricultural buildings, keeping their huge internal spaces and reconnecting them with the land and farm. Michael’s motivation was to ensure that modern technology was fully embraced in order to make Thyme as energy-efficient as possible. Heating systems include ground source heat pumps and wood chip boilers. There are also sophisticated ventilation and heat recovery systems, with great attention being paid to the buildings’ insulation. Take a look at these before and after images, they hardly look like the same buildings!

Thyme today..

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, the 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.

Thyme is a family story where a passion for the land, food and entertaining merges with a love of nature, beauty and conservation. It took time to make Thyme, with the story of the land imbued in every detail. A moment to pause for thought, slow down, and connect with nature. A collection of restored, historic buildings form a peaceful hamlet environment. Thyme invite you to rest and reconnect in this English country idyll that the family call home.

Thyme is a very popular hotel, and for good reason! It may be someone from a Cotswold village who wants to relax or someone from a city who wants to experience the countryside and immerse themself in nature. Thyme is like a bucolic village inside a stunning Cotswold village.