The Rectory Hotel

Built in the early eighteenth century to house a rector and his 14 children, The Rectory has kept its scale ever since, even as its purpose shifted from clergy house to country hotel. The Grade II listed building is worked in Cotswold oolitic limestone, its irregular U-shaped plan turning an east wing toward the church and a nineteenth-century block around a rear courtyard. Past residents have left their mark: Colonel Rex Osbourne lived here in 1933, and from 1959 the Gilbeys, of the gin family, kept a noted Guernsey herd on the land. Their initials are cut into stone by the front door. The grounds hold a Grade II listed dovecote raised in the late thirteenth century, likely built under Abbot William of Colerne during the rebuilding of Malmesbury Abbey's church. It still stands. Eighteen bedrooms now fill the house and a separate cottage, each with goose down bedding and a Victorian roll-top bath, and a landing honesty bar keeps scotch and cognac within reach. The restaurant serves under a glasshouse alongside the main dining room, and the bar leans on old-world wine. A heated pool runs from May to October, set among gardens laid out for wandering. Across the road, the hotel's sister pub, The Potting Shed, keeps its own kitchen and cellar.