Heckfield Place review: a tender retreat in the English countryside

Secluded in the fields of Hampshire, this revived Georgian manor is the stuff of literary fantasy

Heckfield Place is quite easy to love. You disembark at Winchfield railway station, you drive 15 minutes through the pleasant Hampshire roads and you arrive at what can only be described as a residence straight from the pages of an Austen novel. At the front you’ll find gorgeous lawns, a reconditioned redbrick Georgian home and a couple of Land Rovers parked in a row; at the back is more than 400 acres of land which takes in lakes and ancient heathers, wild stretches and easy-to-navigate paths, walled gardens with wisteria, lavender and English roses, and a working farm with Guernsey cattle and files of beautiful produce. Book a night or two here and you’ll be tuned into the hushed flow of the English countryside.

During your stay, you will be examining the pop-arty work of David Spiller that’s affixed to the walls. You’ll sip on pots of rooibos with a slice or two of cake made with whichever fruit is perfectly ripe that day. You and your guest will spend a lazy afternoon in The Bothy by Wildsmith – a spa area that marries together the stillness of a temple with the stylings of a modernist chalet. There will be croquet on the lawn and you will most likely have forgotten your daily worries. In the evening, you’ll wander your way down to Hearth, where the open-fire cooking is exactly what you want from a rural hideout: cavatelli with broad beans, guanciale and a few spins of black pepper; crab curry with flatbread; a hunk of braised rabbit leg.

Then, at day’s end, you’ll hunker into your room – the Long Room features a vaulted ceiling that appears on pretty much every major review of the place; Keeper’s Cottage offers a retreat within the retreat – and wake up to the sound of birdsong piping through your open window. Come in summer and see the grounds alive with sunshine and the promise of bright days. In winter, it makes for a cosseting bubble that protects you from the bite of the cold months. Staying here is perhaps one of the greatest joys you’ll ever experience in life.