Hot Pig news! Exciting additions to our litter will give the Home Grown Hotels company (The Pig’s parent company), a trotter-hold in every South Coast county of England.
In The East, the village of Bridge, near Canterbury in Kent, will see diggers and dumper trucks arrive next week to begin renovations on The Pig at Bridge Place, due to open at the end of the year.
In West Sussex, the Grade II-listed Madehurst Lodge, near Arundel, was acquired last year and, all being equal, will be opening as The South Downs Pig in 2019.
Finally, in The West, for those Poldark lovers out there, we have bought the Grade II-listed Harlyn House near Padstow in Cornwall. This stunning building, with incredible views of the coast, will require change of use consents to become The Pig at Harlyn Bay, but with a fair wind, should be open in time for summer 2019.
Up close: The Pig at Bridge Place
Formerly Bridge Place Country Club, The Pig At Bridge Place is a 16th century manor house just outside the historic village of Bridge in the Nailbourne valley and three miles south of Canterbury.
With its welcoming red brick façade and quirky Jacobean interior, Bridge Place is an intruiging old building with a real ‘rock and roll feel’ , unsurprisingly given that it has been home to some great parties and gigs over the years, and even saw Led Zeppelin play there in the 70s along with other rock bands of that era. It boasts a wealth of period features, including large fireplaces, secret stairways, panelled rooms and lots of nooks and crannies, all of which will be respected and enhanced when the house is restored to create seven bedrooms and numerous cosy bars and sitting areas.
Outside the main building, a new, carefully detailed Coach House will accommodate 12 further bedrooms, while seven romantic ‘hop pickers’ huts’ will be created from reclaimed materials on an island within the grounds. Each hut will provide a double bedroom with gorgeous bathroom and wood burning stove. A newly restored gate lodge offering two further bedrooms, The Pig At Bridge Place will have a total of 28 rooms.
Eating-wise, the Coach House will feature a conservatory restaurant with open kitchen and views onto the kitchen gardens, and a charmingly scruffy barn will be converted into a very casual Kitchen Larder. Its derelict-chic style renovation will see walls lined with beautiful jars of preserved fruit and veg from the garden, and delicious wood-fired cooking.
CEO of Home Grown Hotels Robin Hutson is ‘thrilled’ to announce these exciting projects. ‘We’ve had a great couple of years, with customers apparently loving what we do. Occupancy is in the mid 90%’s in our rural locations and we know from our guests they want more Pigs. After searching far and wide for truly unique properties, we are really over the moon about our new Piglets in Kent, Sussex and Cornwall, and can’t wait to get started on this new phase of our development.’
The renovations will be done by The Pig team and their talented team of contractors. Interiors will be overseen by acclaimed designer Judy Hutson, whose signature style is what has given The Pig its unique brand of effortless, laid-back chic, so beloved by guests.
As with every Pig, the kitchen garden and restaurant will provide the beating heart of these new properties; anything that can’t be supplied by the gardens will be sourced from the best producers within a 25-mile radius.
