Summer in the UK | The Rectory Hotel – Promise To Carry The Cases

I was lucky enough to be swept away to the Cotswolds to the beautiful Rectory Hotel for some Summertime bliss. It was a Birthday treat which felt one hundred more times a treat this year. The weather was a balmy 33 degrees, the journey was a couple of hours drive through the very pretty Wilshire countryside. We arrived in time for lunch, headed straight to the pool and immersed ourselves very happily and very easily into utter indulgence and relaxation for 24 glorious hours.

The Rectory hotel is a very charming country house in the prettiest Wiltshire village of Crudwell, in the Cotswolds. It is peaceful, rural, yet elegant and stands very beautifully in the most picture perfect English Country Garden. There is croquet on the lawn, a stunning outdoor heated pool, tables and chairs dotted around to sit, relax, read a book, sip on a Pims if you will. Decadence at its finest but in such a relaxed and rural manner. If you had to take a picture of a perfect English Summer time, with the perfect imperfect light flair with warm sepia and Summer tones….. the Rectory would forever capture that image for me.

The house has 15 beautifully designed bedrooms, some with free standing bath tubs and all with gorgeous Bramley Products, beautiful grand Georgian windows to open up and let in the summer breeze . Throughout the hotel is an array of velvets and prints, pinks and greens, beautifully considered furniture and pieces; leading to the very chic bar and then out to the gardens. After an afternoon by the pool, we had an aperitif outside on the lawn but I can imagine it would be as magical inside with the log fire in the Winter months. Dinner can be taken in the hotel restaurant or in their sister pub the Potting Shed. We decided to stay in the hotel, and enjoyed dinner in the beautifully lit, plant filled conservatory, with exposed brick wall and candle light. Social distance was easily maintained with few tables in the restaurant being two meters a part. We feasted on steak and lovely wine, a true escape from the past few months. A long sleep in the huge bed and then breakfast of English Breakfast tea and butter milk waffles were brought to our room, a long soak in the tub, liberally using the Bramley products, really is how every Monday should begin….Amazing!

If you are looking for an escape out of the city, I couldn’t recommend The Rectory more. We were only there for 24 splendid hours, but each one of those hours was full of Summer laid back bliss. The Rectory felt like a little secret abode, shutting out the past few months and replacing it with everything that brings Summer joy.