The Pig at Combe to open in July
The latest addition to join the litter of Pig hotels will open in Devon in early July.
What was previously the 20-bedroom Combe House hotel, near Honiton, is being transformed by Home Grown Hotels to become the fifth property in the Pig collection, joining hotels in the New Forest, Bath, Studland Bay and Southampton. It will have 27 bedrooms.
However, while the grade I-listed Elizabethan property will offer the feel of the earlier Pig hotels, Robin Hutson, its founder, is keen to stress there will be nothing predictable about the latest addition to the family.
"We're really over the moon with the building progress at the Pig at Combe," he said. "Outside we are busy planting and seeing new shoots in the kitchen garden, and inside whilst deformalising the space we are renewing every pipe and wire, stripping off layers of varnish, and scouring the country for quirky and unique artifacts.
Home Grown Hotels acquired the leasehold of the property in October last year from Ken and Ruth Hunt, who had run the hotel as Combe House since 1998.
The group is now introducing changes to the traditional order of the public rooms with the entrance converted to the main bar, ensuring guests head straight into "the heart of the fun and action of the hotel. Meanwhile, the panelled banqueting room and formal drawing room are being knocked together to create an informal restaurant with bare wood floor and a double-height window offering views over the Devon countryside.
The former dining rooms are to become cosy sitting rooms with open fires, while the previously unused attic floor in the main house is transformed into rafter bedrooms. Further quirky bedrooms will be located in the original Georgian stable block, with two thatched Devon longhouses providing cottage-style accommodation.
The Georgian kitchen, featuring an original range, will become a private dining room featuring Mrs Beeton's recipes.
Within the 3,500-acre estate, a garden folly is being semi-restored in a "derelict chic" style to provide an indoor/outdoor bar and dining area with wood-fired oven, oversized tables and benches. And within one of three walled kitchen gardens (vegetable, herb and infusion), two potting sheds are being transformed into treatment rooms for massages.
Produce which cannot be grown in the gardens will, like the other Pigs, be sourced within a 25-mile radius.
Rooms rates will start from £155 per night, with reservations now open.
Latest addition to the Pig litter to open in Devon >>
