From the amazing food to the well-kitted out rooms and great service, this refreshingly modern take on a Cotswolds classic gets just about everything right
I like the Cotswolds as much as the next cake-scoffing, tea-glugging tourist, but there is something disconcerting about the way it all looks the same. The Lygon Arms in Broadway, say, looks scarily like the Lygon Arms in Chipping Campden. This homogeneity is a major part of the area’s charm – honey-coloured stone, cutesy villages – but it can leave me yearning for a bit of originality.
From the outside, the Old Stocks Inn, which reopened last year after a £2m refurbishment, definitely ticks all those classic Cotswolds boxes. It is a Grade II-listed, 17th-century coaching inn on the main square in chocolate-box Stow-on-the-Wold. Step through the door, however, and the olde worlde vibe is shattered: this hotel is bold, bright and modern. The company behind the refit, Tekne, also revamped the Great Northern Hotel and the Chiltern Firehouse in London. Here, it has opened up the space, letting in lots of natural light. The decor mixes neutrals with splashes of colour, especially teal, and there are playful objects on display, such as porcelain rabbits and golden apples.
It’s a marriage of old and new; ancient floorboards and modern tiles; exposed stone with silky-smooth walls
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