Thyme

Thyme is a restored manor farm on the Southrop Manor Estate, 150 acres in the Cotswolds. Caryn Hibbert and her family spent years turning a run of derelict agricultural buildings into a hamlet of 17th-century houses and cottages and restored barns, linked by gravel paths, with 31 bedrooms, the Meadow Spa, a cookery school and kitchen and cutting gardens that supply the kitchens.

The Ox Barn, a 19th-century oxen barn under its original beams and arches, is listed in the MICHELIN Guide and cooks from the day's harvest, while The Swan, recorded as the village bakehouse in 1606, is the estate's pub in the heart of Southrop. Private dinners move between rooms of very different character: the Chef's Table beside the Ox Barn's open kitchen, the Garden Room at The Swan with its own bar, the Home Kitchen opening onto the Olive Garden, and the Farmhouse Kitchen by the fire.

The largest of them is the 16th-century Tithe Barn, rubble walls and old timbers, which holds a dinner for 60. The house takes birthdays, dinner parties, festive gatherings and team retreats, and for a stay of two nights or more the whole estate can be taken exclusively, with private use of the Tithe Barn, the Farmhouse, the spa and the Baa Bar, and the Ox Barn and The Swan added on request.