The Sunday Times May 22, 2022 21Travel UK
Clockwise from
top: the Retreat’s
smart Sutton
Suite; burrata
and tomato salad
is on the menu
at the 1772
brasserie;
Yu, the pan-Asian
restaurantsecond — although ribbon-
snipping duties here fall to
thespian royalty: Benedict
Cumberbatch.
It’s all part of the Signet MO:
take a historically significant
doer-upper (Elcot Park once
belonged to Lady Shelley,
mother of the poet Percy)
and give it what Ross calls
the “defibrillator” treatment.
Resuscitation has been fairly
speedy — the builders were in
and out of the main building in
11 months, having discovered
handsome floorboards
beneath old carpet, gilt-framed
mirrors behind plasterboard,
and 1940s fag packets left
behind by American pilots.
Ross says that his brief to
the interior designer, Taylor &
Turner, was to “think of your
poshest friend and imagine
what their parents’ house
might be like”. I suspect their
friends may be posher than
mine: peacocks and parrots
feature on the hand-painted
de Gournay wallpaper in one
private dining room; 125 oyster
plates jolly up the walls of
another. But they’re not so
posh they’re strangers to
buying their own furniture —
among antique dressers and
chandeliers are mid-century
chairs and globe lights.
In the 55 bedrooms between
(red-brick) old house and
(surprisingly OK) 1990s
wing, snazzy patterns and
fabric headboards add a
contemporary feel. And
although the pricier roomsand farmers’ markets. A lot of
it feels aimed at well-heeled
neighbours as much
as overnighters; locals can
become members with gym,
tennis and pool rights, and the
hope is they’ll be restaurant
regulars. The evening I’m
there, both the pan-Asian Yu,
with its oxblood-red walls and
seven-course tasting menu,
and the brasserie-style 1772
are full — and, sure enough,
post-pud some head for the
car park rather than the stairs.
Hard surfaces make 1772 a
bit noisy but the atmosphere
is convivial, helped along by
personable staff and GM
Vinny, a Frenchman who hasSnack pantries, poetry and horse-drawn barge trips are all part of the
fun at this revamped Berkshire country pile. Liz Edwards is first in
to hold a hot-air balloon
licence and there will be bikes
for hire, clay-pigeon shooting
and trout fishing on the chalky
River Kennet. Every day the
hotel has ten free pairs of
tickets to nearby Highclere
to give guests.
We have other ideas. We
trundle the couple of miles
down the road to
Kintbury to meet
Steve and
Drummer,
a young
Clydesdale
horse with a
taste for cow
parsley and a
natty string of
bobbins along
either flank. Steve and
his wife, Charlotte, run the
Kennet Horse Boat Company,
one of three such operators
left in the country. The
bobbins prevent chafing when
Drummer goes under bridges,
pulling the 19-tonne Kennet
Valley with impressive
nonchalance. Canal boat
trips are soul-
soothingly peaceful
any time. Replace
the engine with
a horse and you
magnify the
effect tenfold.
As we float
along, drinks
in hand, ears
cocked for cuckoos,
it’s obvious why Ross
offers this to guests. Nature
works its magic, modern life
recedes. A true Retreat.Liz Edwards was a guest of the
Retreat at Elcot Park, which has
B&B doubles from £180; mains
at 1772 from £16; two-hour
horse-drawn barge from
£200pp (retreatelcotpark.com)not run a hotel before — “I’m
Hector’s wild card,” he says.
Signet’s culinary director
Ronnie Kimbugwe claims to
be a “country bumpkin — I like
greenery, pheasants and
muntjac” and those things all
have a place on the 1772 menu.
Highlights are the crispy chilli
squid and the spatchcock
miso chicken, both
imports from the
Yu menu. Ross
says they’re
not chasing a
Michelin star.
“I want people
to remember
their steak for a
month, not five
years.” Still, the
ribeye is so good that it
presents no problems for my
eight-year-old, despite his
missing four top teeth.
The kitchen has bigger fish
to fry than gummy children,
anyway — long-term guests
are cast and crew of a certain
baking show, in production
locally. No pressure then,
pastry chefs! A soggy
bottom-less
afternoon tea
suggests they’re
coping.
The hotel
has 16 acres,
although it
looks like more
— the Sutton
estate starts where
the croquet lawn ends,
and breakfast may come
with views of Belted Galloway
cows grazing. The North
Wessex Downs stretch into the
distance and the A4 sneaks
past invisible in between.
Ross has big plans to make
the most of this prime
countryside spot: the hotel is
one of five places in BerkshireT
aking the kids
swimming can
be a surprisingly
expensive business
— £9.4 million
expensive if you’re Hector
Ross. Not because his children
have extravagant taste in
Dryrobes and verruca socks,
but because, when he took his
son for lessons at a Berkshire
country club, his head was
turned by the Mercure hotel
it was a part of, Elcot Park. So
smitten with the 19th-century
house was Ross, who ran the
Bel & the Dragon chain and
helped to launch Beaverbrook,
that he badgered the owners
for seven years until they
agreed to sell it to him.
Between badgerings he
snapped up the Mitre next
door to Hampton Court, gave
it a makeover and got the Duke
and Duchess of Cambridge
along to declare it open. That
was the first hotel in his new
Signet Collection group.
And what is now the Retreat
at Elcot Park, halfway between
Newbury and antiques-stuffed
Hungerford, is the group’sTHE
have four-posters, roll-top
baths and Flight of the
Conchords posters, the seven
entry-level Classics are large
and do better for bedside plug
sockets and USBs. All arrivals
are given a glass of wine, and
the pantries’ snacks and soft
drinks are there for everyone.
The hotel has five
wheelchair-accessible rooms
and, like the Mitre, looks after
dogs and sprogs. Reception’s
fireside bed for the former is
invitingly plumped (I’m almost
tempted myself ); for the latter
there are bunk beds, a family
screening room, a (distant)
play area and, when the
heated outdoor pool is ready
and filled, a daily inflatables
session. Ross decided against
calling it “bombing hour”; still,
other residents will be warned.
That pool, with its cabanas
and Whispering Angel wine
bar — if it’s sunny you’ll want to
book your two-hour slot early
— is due to be finished in time
for the Jubilee weekend. So too
are the Orangery dining room
(for now a building work in
progress), the hydropool and
sauna (three Ila treatment
rooms and a Matrix gym are
open now) and the beauty
salon, café-deli and wine
merchant in the courtyard,
where Ross plans live musicNewburyKintburyHungerfordRetreat at
Elcot ParkRetreat at
Elcot ParkM4River
Kennet
2 milesTO BEAT
RETREAT
Every day the
hotel has ten
free pairs of
tickets to nearby
HighclereJAKE EASTHAM; ASTRID TEMPLIER