THE PIG in the South Downs

Madehurst Lodge is a Georgian house in the hamlet of Madehurst, high on the chalk ridges of the South Downs National Park and four miles from Arundel. The house dates back to the 1770s. Robin Hutson's group opened it as THE PIG in the South Downs on 6 September 2021, the eighth house in the litter, with 30 bedrooms spread between the main house, the stables and a set of Garden Wagons in the Kitchen Garden.

This is the house with the group's first vineyard. Alpaca Block runs south-west below the restaurant, a glasshouse at the back of the house that cooks a 25-mile menu from the walled Kitchen Garden and Sussex growers, with a terrace looking over the vines. Three sitting rooms with open fires, one of them holding an oval panelled bar, sit between the entrance hall and the restaurant.

Private gatherings are on a house-party scale. The Garden Room is a semi-private dining room lined with the head chef's cookbooks, with its own garden terrace and a view to the vineyard, seating up to 24. Below it, The Round Table sits in the original wine cellar and seats 16 around one big table, or takes 24 standing for drinks before dinner upstairs. The restaurant itself takes larger celebrations, and guests can stay the night.