The Newt
In the middle of the Somerset valleys, The Newt and its grounds form sacred soil where visionary farmers have left their mark over the centuries. Margaret Hobhouse put the best of Victorian, and color, greenhouse with beech, oak, pine, walnut and cedar trees. Penelope Hobhouse gave the world a new lease of life in the 1970s, followed by Nori and Sandra Pope, the venerable figures of entertainment. In 2013 the current owners Karen Roos and Koos Bekker – who created Babulostoren in South Africa – announced five years of renovations under French designer Patrice Taravella. Many things are folded into their vision: besides the restaurant and three museums (including a building similar to the Romano-British villa), there is a working farm, a no-dig kitchen garden, orchards, a forest full of deer, a pasture for British White cows, an apple maze and many beautiful plantings. Large outdoor rooms with impeccable, leading-edge rooms are shared between the 17th-century Hadspen House, stables and outbuildings, and The Farmyard, a highly converted dairy. A D-shaped parabola garden, with hedges and apples; The outside is covered with plums, figs, crab apples and jostaberries. The free Arts and Crafts-y Cottage Garden features a chocolate cosmos in summer, a grassy cottage full of sprinklers; The Victorian Terrace is a feast of colours. The “caterpillar edge” reaches its peak in the summer months, when there is a riot of tromboncino, bottle, speckled strings and rainbow decorations, every inch bursting with beautiful glitter. Lydia Bell
Price: Doubles from £520
Website: thenewtinsomerset.com
