Cowley Manor Experimental

Cowley Manor had a long life as a well-loved but faded country-house hotel before the Experimental Group took it on and handed the interiors to the Parisian designer Dorothée Meilichzon. The Italianate stone shell is unchanged; almost everything inside is not. Thirty-six rooms now run to strong colour, curved furniture and a scattering of Alice in Wonderland references — Lewis Carroll was a visitor to the village, and the hotel leans into it.

The result is a genuine oddity in the Cotswolds: a manor house that reads as contemporary rather than reverential. The C-Side spa occupies a modern block set into the slope, with an indoor pool looking out at the trees and a heated outdoor pool beyond it. Cooking is ingredient-led and draws on the kitchen garden and the surrounding farms.

The 55-acre grounds are the quiet highlight — natural springs, a chain of lakes, cascades and mature parkland, all a quarter of an hour from Cheltenham. Walkers can join the Cotswold Way on the escarpment above the village.