Kate checks in to the PIG at Bridge Place, Kent...
KateMorfoot,leadingtravel writerandfounderof
www.LoveT
oT oEatT
ravel.com
checksintoThePIGatBridge Place,Kentandgets thoroughlyspoilt...
For years my dear friend Charlotte has been raving about The PIG – near Bath, so when The PIG - at Bridge Place in Kent opened in April this year, my mum Barbara and I just had to go!
We arrived to what was formerly Bridge Place Country Club, built around 1638 it was one of the ‘great houses’ of East Kent and latterly famous for its rock heritage that once played host to Led Zeppelin, The Kinks and The Moody Blues.
It was aMonday, I worried itmight not be very busy andmaybe itwould be one of those hotelswhere everyonewhispers during supper and all that you hear during breakfast is the sound of knives and forks. My thought could not have been further from the reality of what was a hip vibe, relaxed and busy place, even though we were seemingly in the middle of nowhere in the delightful Nailbourne valley.
The new Coach House is attached to the main house. Our supersized suite was luxurious and comfortable with views overlooking the kitchen garden and the fields beyond. It had a super king-sized bed, a sofa, TV, an area for making drinks with a fridge and loads ofwardrobe space. Best of allwas the fantastic bathroom with a walk-in deluge shower, a large roll top bath and two large hand basins. It felt so comfortable you wanted to
move in! For ‘anything we needed’ we had an old fashioned dial-up telephone and to tune in to the latest news or have a bedroom dance-off, a bedside Roberts Radio.
With its ‘shabby chic’ interior, the room was decorated in olive grey lit up by freshly picked colourful wildflowers on the windowsill. Within the Coach House there are 12 additional bedrooms; four on the ground floor and eight on the first floor.
Crossing the brook on the hand-crafted wooden bridge there are seven Hop Pickers’ Huts all created from reclaimed materials dotted beside a meandering wooden walkway. Each hut houses a double bedroomwith a cosy bathroomand awood-burning stove. Next to the kitchen garden is The Barn; a large upstairs/downstairs roomwith a vast bathroom. It has bedroomviews over the garden and the adjoining spa in the Potting Shed. The newly restored gate lodge provides two further dwellings, THE PIG-at Bridge Place has a total of 31 rooms.
Close tomy heart is local food. It was refreshing to learn that the business grows their own produce for all their hotels. Theworking kitchen garden employs six gardenersworking throughout the year round to solely supply the needs of the chefs at the hotel.
They keep hens, quails, pigs, sheep and bees. The extensive vegetable garden includes a greenhouse, a mushroom house, polytunnels, fruit cages and there is a smoke house.
Meals are prepared in their open kitchen, their busy chefs never seem to have a quiet moment with menus on what is fresh and seasonal from the garden. The county of Kent is the perfect location for a hotel obsessed with provenance, the people of this county are proud of what they produce. Located in the heart of the ‘Wine Garden of England’, the hotel serves fabulous locally produced local wine, beer, gin and cider.
Kate takes a stroll around the kitchen garden PAGE 40
We enjoyed a very laid-back drink in the pizza and bar area at the end of the kitchen garden. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the cider fromKentwent down verywell indeed.Was this really a hotel or were we at home in the garden?
SHEPWAY & CANTERBURY ADVERTISER
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