Food and drink

Homegrown,
seasonal & delicious

Nestled behind our walled courtyard, alongside the fruiting trees, our kitchen garden is growing to be a constant source of inspiration for our seasonal dishes.

And the wider 35-acre estate is home to an abundance of foraged feasts; we’ve made crackers from our acorn flour, dusted handmade chocolates with powdered nettles, found wild pears and made quick sloe gin.

When we look outside the estate, we only source seasonal food from our trusted local suppliers.

chapel house wildlife

Celebrating the birds & the bees

Thoughtfully developed to encourage nature’s growth, there’s rich biodiversity that thrives across our 35-acre estate, and it’s lovingly cared for by our in-house environmentalist, Nik.

A comprehensive wildlife survey has guided our efforts to nurture and protect the estate’s natural inhabitants, with regular sightings of buzzards and even the elusive little owl. Indeed, our hideaway lodges are all named after our resident species. Bird and bat boxes are in place to provide safe nesting spaces and we have bee-friendly wooded areas and bee hotels to keep our essential pollinators playing their key role in maintaining biodiversity. And we’ve even got a hedgehog highway so our spiky friends stay safe.

Juliet, our resident gardener, has transformed the Wild Apple Orchard into a beautiful meadow, allowing the lawn to flourish naturally to create a serene space for intimate, romantic summer weddings buzzing with bees and butterflies. And in autumn, our bumper crop of apples is celebrated in our number nine restaurant’s dishes, but with plenty of the fallen fruit left for our resident foraging wildlife too!

Information signs throughout the estate celebrate our rich ecosystem, highlighting wild flowers, moss, ferns, home-grown herbs, shallow nest cups, green roofs, insects and wildlife that all live in harmony with one-another.