This intimate Cotswolds hotel is fast becoming known for its food and is dog friendly to boot, says Country Life's Octavia Pollock. My mother and I arrived at Burleigh Court later in the afternoon than we had hoped and were, therefore, somewhat frazzled. Within seconds of entering the hall, we were feeling relaxed and at home, such was the welcome we received.
In another few minutes, we had dropped off our things in our room and were settled in on the terrace with tea and the freshest, lightest scones imaginable. Copious spoonfuls of clotted cream and jam, a gleam of sunshine through the cloud and a view that stretched away down the valley put the seal on a perfectly soothing afternoon. That view, across the Golden Valley to Sapperton Church and Rodborough, must have lifted the hearts of the cottagers who once lived on the site, before the present house was built in the early 19th century.
Back then, the smooth, inviting lawn below the terrace was a lake, a photograph of which hangs in the hall. An apocryphal legend says that the owners’ daughter, Mary, drowned when she slipped down the bank, after which it was filled in, but, thankfully, it seems the Evans family instead had a happy sojourn here. The court passed through various other hands — including a Sir Guy Granet, who employed Clough Williams-Ellis to remodel the garden in the late 1920s/1930s—before finally being bought by Corinna and James Rae, with Simon Austin, formerly of the Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath, in 2.
