A Restored Historic Cotswold Manor & Farm

“Thyme is a restored Cotswold manor and farm. It is a family story where a passion for the land, food and entertaining merges with a love of local heritage, beauty and conservation.

We took time to make Thyme. Working with the historic buildings and the land that surrounds them, we have created a thoughtful place with love and attention lavished on every detail.

We hope you will experience a real connection to the land, the seasons and to nature, and we invite you to rest, relax and enjoy this English country idyll that our family call home.” 

- Caryn Hibbert, Founder & Creative Director.

The History

The estate dates from Roman times but is first clearly defined in the Domesday Book of 1086. The Manor House remains a private home and sits on the eastern side of its ancient Norman church. To the west of the church lie the manorial barns, houses and cottages which are at the heart of this medieval estate.

After three centuries of French baronial ownership following the Norman Conquest of 1066, the estate became the property of the Dean and Chapter of the new Collegiate Church of St. Mary in Leicester which turned it into a monastery. It remained church property until the Dissolution in the 16th century. It then passed into the ownership of Sir Robert Cecil, Elizabeth I’s Secretary of State, before being acquired by Nicholas Wadham in 1608. His wife Dorothy founded the Oxford college in her husband's name upon his demise - the first woman not of noble birth to do so. She gifted the entire estate in her will to the new Wadham College, which eventually sold its interest in 1926. 

Caryn & Jerry Hibbert moved into Southrop Manor in 2002, and soon after acquired the derelict farm buildings that sat adjacent to their new home.

The Restoration

The restoration has been slow and considered. Thyme has evolved organically with an understanding that conservation is about sustainability - not only preserving the past but more importantly, securing the future. The restoration of Thyme began with a collaborative effort between Caryn Hibbert, Thyme’s founder, and her father Michael Bertioli, a physicist and engineer, combining their passions for architecture, conservation, and design.

Caryn’s ambition was to breathe new life into the magnificent agricultural buildings, keeping their huge internal spaces and reconnecting them with the land and farm. Michael’s motivation was to ensure that modern technology was fully embraced in order to make Thyme as energy-efficient as possible. Heating systems include ground source heat pumps and wood chip boilers. There are also sophisticated ventilation and heat recovery systems, with great attention being paid to the buildings’ insulation.

The Story of Thyme

The steady restoration began with the Tithe Barn and Olive Garden, which in 2007 became Thyme’s founding ingredient: the cookery school. Over the next 10 years, Thyme began to unfold, evolving organically into the ‘Village within a Village’ that it is today. In 2020, with the Ox Barn and estate drive open, Thyme was complete.

Thyme Today

As Thyme has grown, the ethos has never faltered with the story of the land imbued in every detail. Today, Thyme is comprised of 31 bedrooms dispersed across its houses and cottages, the Ox Barn restaurant, the Baa Bar, the Swan pub, Cookery School, Meadow Spa, our boutiques, and the Tithe Barn event and exhibition space, Thyme is still family-owned and run, led by Caryn, her eldest son Charlie and daughter, Camilla.