House of the Month

The Hall on the Hill, Sleeps 26, Gloucestershire

The Hall on the Hill sits in idyllic Forthampton, home to duck ponds, a church, thatched cottages and farmsteads. It stares lovingly down on the Severn Valley, high above the petty concerns of everyday life. This is a grown-up house for grown-up celebrations that respect the venerable charms of a grade II-listed manor house.

Get 26 family, friends, hens and a couple of dogs together and head towards Tewkesbury and the soaring Malverns. Settle back amid the busts and the beams of a 17th-century manor house with two acres of sprawling gardens and bucketloads of period charm married to a little modern tech.

Wifi wasn’t around in the time of King James, but you can enjoy Sky broadband, plus a 65-inch smart TV with Netflix in the sitting room. Load up the logfires, wiggle your toes and binge a boxset or two. Cook on the Aga (what else?), then break the bread and pour the wine in the wood-panelled dining room beneath the chandelier.

After croquet on the lawns and Prosecco on the terrace, the hot tub beckons with the myriad stars glinting in the dark skies that hang over the Malvern hills. Sleep on deep mattresses wrapped in crisp cotton with the sash windows inched open to the sound of the wind in the boughs.

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