Travel

Six years in the making, Heckfield Place is a real treat

Relaxed luxury at Heckfield Place, Hampshire

‘THAT COFFEE AND WALNUT cake is my favourite,’ says Olivia Richli, the glamorous and unflappable general manager of the hottest new country house hotel, Heckfield Place in Hampshire, as she sees us tucking into the big fat slices in one of the many ‘settle-in for the afternoon’ seating areas. ‘But I’m not sure it’s the favourite of seven-yearold girls,’ she adds, noticing our daughter Eva’s almost untouched piece and draping an arm around her shoulder. ‘Shall I go and find you some freshly baked cookies?’ I knew I’d love her.

I had read about Richli before coming so was intrigued to meet her. Her previous jobs include 10 years as the general manager of Amangalla in Sri Lanka (which she opened 10 days before the 2004 tsunami and then ran as a shelter, makeshift hospital and aid headquarters), and launching and running Aman Venice (including overseeing the Clooney wedding).

The 39-room hotel, housed in a Georgian mansion on a 400-acre estate of formal and kitchen gardens, lakes and rolling farmland, was originally slated to open in 2012 and has had many concept changes by Gerald Chan, its Chinese-american billionaire owner, along the way. The one settled upon is as pleasingly relaxed and uncorporate as it is possible for an expensively executed posh hotel to be. I don’t even feel short-changed by the fact we’ve been put into a family wing rather than getting one of the glorious signature rooms in the main part of the house, because ours, which overlooks an oval lawn, is beautiful. It feels like a bedroom in a stylish friend’s country home, with plants, blown-glass table lamps, rustic wooden coffee tables with books on Cecil Beaton, Sissinghurst and Andy Goldsworthy. Bathrooms are stocked with delicious-smelling skincare products by Wildsmith, a brand created especially for the hotel. There are excellent Wildsmith massages and facials to be had at the Little Bothy spa in the main house, and next summer, a larger self-contained spa and pools will open.

The main communal spaces are a series of lofty, elegant drawing rooms – with fireplaces – and a cosy bar serving interesting cocktails made with ingredients from the estate. The food offering, by chef Skye Gyngell, is entirely based around these seasonal, estategrown ingredients. There’s the sunny Marle restaurant for healthy, hearty breakfasts, lunches and dinners, and the more intimate, meat-focused Hearth for wood-fired dinners. After breakfast, we pull on Hunter wellies and coats (both provided) and stomp down a muddy track to the farm to visit the free-range chickens and peek into a shadowy barn to meet the hotel’s latest arrivals: 12 tiny piglets.

Heckfield Place is set in 400 acres of Hampshire countryside