• A stunning piece of British country heritage, a truly Jane Austen Manor House within one of our most important listed gardens
• Funky, clever, fun and simply wonderful contemporary design that surprises at every turn
• One of the UK’s best spas with stunning indoor and outdoor pools.
The Whole Story
Deep in the heart of the Cotswolds, possibly the most English of all counties, lies a surprise. History and tradition are what you expect to find as you wind your way along a classic, unspoilt narrow road through an agricultural landscape straight out of an Arcadian scene from a Dickens novel. You expect Cowley Manor (a Grade II listed Italianate villa built in 1855) to be one of those more English than English houses: stately home, estate cars, Labradors, gun bags and an interior crammed with hunting scenes.
Yet this house is the result of the passion of a young couple, hell bent on reinventing the classic English country manor. The key words that played a role were ‘constructive conservation’ the process of achieving a balance between the finest details of a historic building (and its listed gardens) and the merit of new architectural design and materials.
The results is modern furniture upholstered in pink, lavender, yellow and khaki felt, funky lamps, contemporary sculpture, and a purple billiard room. Even the dining room, a grand ballroom sized space panelled in exquisite wall to wall carved Louis XVI pearwood is adorned with a cerise pink ceiling.
They also insisted on a spa, and in doing so they have created probably one of the best in England (Conde Nast agrees). Its startling modernity is not readily visible, tucked as it is into the folds of the landscape adjacent to the old stable block. It houses treatment rooms, a gym and a beautiful slate lined pool that opens into a large, year round heated outdoor pool. The newly added ‘Pool.side’ adds waiter service, summer cocktails and chilled out music, a full service pool scene. For indoor lounging there is the bar plus a huge funky sitting room overlooking the grounds and a Billiard room.
The Rooms
All Cowley Manor’s bathrooms are special and feature immense showers tucked behind sheets of blue glass with bespoke products in every room.
Bedrooms are white, with the odd accent wall of orange, pink or lavender, and they are organised in a new version of S, M, L, and XL, which they call Good, Better, Great, Exceptional and Best.
All have iPod docks for your own music selection but also DVD and CD players so you can enjoy the extensive film and music library.
Good rooms are a smaller base yet still with the Manor’s trademark bathroom.
Better rooms are all in the stable block, some on split levels.
Great rooms are larger and found in the main house some with fantastic views over the lake.
Exceptional is a blanket term for some very special rooms around the manor, the thing that makes them special differs, could be duplex, could be a balcony could be the spacious sitting area, so let us know your desires!
Best is simply that, the best views in the building over the grounds with a private terrace to savour them, plus a four poster bed and a tub for two.