Teffont House, Wiltshire: ‘We’ve created somewhere we would like to go’

“We’ve struggled with the word hotel because we never thought we’d create one,” says Charlie Luxton of Teffont House, opening this month in Wiltshire’s Nadder Valley. Instead, Luxton and his business partner, Dan Brod – who kickstarted the UK’s pub-with-rooms craze with the Beckford Arms in 2009, and now own four more Wiltshire pubs plus two restaurants in Bath – are attempting something new. “Accidentally inventing the pubs-with-rooms sector was weird zeitgeist timing. And I think we’re on to something with a small hotel that isn’t described as ‘boutique’ – the industry’s most-overused word,” says Brod, who references as inspiration the hotels Glebe House, in Devon, and Updown Farmhouse, in Kent. “It’s going to be more like a French auberge,” adds Luxton.

The medieval village of Teffont acts as the driveway to the hotel, which is made up of three cobbled-together buildings dating back to 1623. Luxton, who spent years buying art and antiques at auction while waiting for planning permission, describes the interiors as “almost undesigned”, and has designated himself chairman of the village croquet team, which will play twice weekly on the hotel lawn.

There is kedgeree on the breakfast menu, local-ham-and-cheese jaffles (toasted sandwiches) for guests returning from walks,and Horlicks for stargazers. In the garden is a sauna built by a local craftsman alongside a cold-plunge and Bramley-treatment room. And two summer houses are stocked with watercolours and badminton nets. “We’ve created somewhere we would like to go,” says Brod, “a place that’s affordable but full of surprises.”