The Grade II-listed manor house near Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon has returned under new ownership with 34 individually designed rooms, wood-burning fires throughout and a kitchen led by Dean Westcar.
There are a lot of Cotswolds manor houses that have been turned into hotels. Far fewer of them have a history of being visited by Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, the Mitford sisters, John Betjeman and Patrick Leigh Fermor, and then spent the Second World War housing the Women’s Land Army. Dumbleton Hall has all of that, and has now reopened following a two-year restoration under new owner Paul Vezolles.
The Grade II-listed building, constructed in 1830 and set within a 16-acre estate in the North Cotswolds between Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon, has 34 bedrooms and suites, each individually designed. The common spaces, including the Drawing Room, Library Bar and Pheasant Lounge, have all retained their wood-burning fireplaces, and the decorative scheme throughout references the hall’s literary and cultural history with William Morris prints sitting alongside animal prints, palm plants and chinoiserie pieces. The intention is clearly to honour the building’s character rather than neutralise it.
The kitchen is in the hands of executive chef Dean Westcar. The Cedar 1905 restaurant, named for the date it was founded, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, with Cacklebean eggs, fresh fish and estate-sourced game among the current menu staples. Afternoon tea runs in the Drawing Room, with The Orangerie opening for further dining in August. The food offer is properly grounded in the estate and its surroundings rather than the generic country house format.
Vezolles, who is clearly invested in the hall’s legacy, has described his aim as giving guests the experience of the golden age of the manor house while delivering serious Cotswolds cuisine. On the available evidence, that is more than just an aspiration.
Dumbleton Hall is open now. More at dumbletonhall.co.uk