Monk business

Gothic, mullioned windows, weathered slates and knarled beams shout medieval, or at least Tudor - so you first think. But Bailiffscourt is the biggest fake since Piltdown man.

It is the end product of more than a bit of gentle plundering by its original owner, Lord Moyne, who built the house only 50 years ago to satisfy a whim - to reconstruct the courthouse built on his land by bailiff monks in the 12th century. He gave a blank cheque to his architect, Amyas Phillips, who razed a nondescript Georgian farmhouse to the ground and in the process discovered hundreds of pieces of stone from the original courthouse embedded in the walls.

The salvaged material was nowhere near enough to fulfill Phillips' plans, so he and his men scoured Britain for stone and timber from ancient houses. Arches were "found" in a priory; a moulded-oak ceiling in a rectory; 15th-century doors in a stable; and ceiling beams from a barn in Hertfordshire.

The result, giggles new owner Anne Goodman, was summed up by 1940s socialite Chips Cannon, who said, "It was like going to stay with a pansy monk.

"I thought it was rather sweet," says Goodman, "I know exactly what he meant - there is a slightly monastic feel to the rooms."

The Goodmans bought Bailiffscourt last summer. So far they've spent over a quarter of a million on the refurbishment, soon to hit the half million mark when all 28 bedrooms are finished. Seasoned hoteliers, already running the Spread Eagle at Midhurst and Ockendon Manor in nearby Cuckfield, the hotel was bought from receivers after sitting on the market for two-and-a-half years.

Kneeling in the courtyard, a rubber-gloved Goodman repots some ivy as she excitedly explains: "The Spread Eagle has been in my family for 40 years - my husband and I bought it from the family company about 12 years ago. Our accountant said ‘if you ever make money out of that hotel I'll eat my hat'. Two years later he had to."

How did they do it? "We built twelve extra rooms. That's really half the secret. With these lovely old buildings, unless you're the kind of couple that works yourself into the ground, you've got to have enough bedrooms to support the whole thing." A business plan for Bailiffscourt worked out that it would do well on 28-30 rooms - any more and they wouldn't have had enough seating area.

Goodman has done the interiors for all three hotels herself. Nineteen out of 20 rooms have been refurbished at Bailiffscourt, with a further four in a cottage on the grounds ready next month. Some furniture was left by the previous owners, much of which Goodman has relegated to the corridors. "People get a hernia trying to lift it; it isn't practical," she says.

According to Goodman, every single piece of furniture is made from recycled 14th and 15th-century "oak bits", acquired mostly from churches and lecterns, "chopped around a bit" and put together by local craftsmen. But it works. Goodman asserts: "I've tried to make it smart, but not too smart. You can come in with mud on your feet and not worry about it. I think its a good hotel for children - so many natural surfaces - if you get a mark on the wall you can slap a bit of paint on it. It's not like having chintz; it doesn't matter if these fabrics get a bit scrumpled, it doesn't really show, and sometimes looks better!"

Simple and fresh

Fabrics are the focus of the interiors. Chairs and sofas are covered in a mixture of Colefax & Fowler, Zoffany and Ramm, Son & Crocker. Walls are relatively bare; stone floors are covered in jute carpets - not a whiff of chintz. The mood is soft, harmonious and simple. Fresh flowers sit on window ledges. "No mantelpieces, so no clutter," says Goodman. "The fabrics play an important part - bringing warmth and glamour to the rooms." Her biggest extravagances are the Belinda Cootes tapestries hanging in the restaurant and public areas. "The architecture wasn't designed for pictures, they look wrong." She pulls out a fabric book from Baker & Sons. "What do you think of this? I'm the only one who likes it," she says, stroking a camel motif. Goodman has "a chap in Hove" who re-upholsters for a good price, but won't say who it is.

Using outside designers does not fit into her scheme of things. "My feeling is that if people like coming to our hotel it's not just because of the service and food, but the personality that you put into it. If you put into it somebody else's personality it's not the same thing."

Both Anne and her husband Sandy sleep in the rooms from time to time, looking out for awkward reading lights or lumpy mattresses. "People write us reams here - complimentary things . . . ‘but did you realise that the lid of the loo won't stay up?' Sometimes I'm not always so practical - I don't think ‘how many abrasion tests can this handle?' - but I'm learning." Room prices start at £95 for a double (including breakfast) and £125 for a four-poster room.

The 22 acres of garden stretch down to the sea with Bognor to the right and Littlehampton to the left - a comfortable distance of shingle lies in between. Peacocks screech spasmodically. Chef Simon Rogan admits to lobbing the odd bread roll at them. Since Rogan arrived, the bakery has been working flat out, even selling extra to the guests due to popular demand. Having worked with Michelin-starred chef Jean-Christophe Novelli for five years, eventually becoming his sous chef at Provence, this is Rogan's first head chef position.

There's a Novelli influence to the menu - a masterful "Boîte Surprise", all spun sugar and patiently moulded chocolate. A footnote on the £27.50 dinner menu asks politely, "It would be desirable and fully appreciated if you could order your dessert in advance, as they are of an intricate nature and time consuming."

Goodman steps into the other half of the restaurant, closed off by a heavy oak double door. "I don't feel I've done one thing that I'm really happy with yet, though this morning we were putting a colour wash on the restaurant and I can see it will transform the room." She runs a hand down the wall: "It will pull it all together. I'm very excited about it."

Bailiffscourt Hotel, Climping, West Sussex, Tel 0903 723511.