Premier Hospitality

Pig at Combe

Pig at Combe
Written by Roma Publications

The Pig at Combe

Pig at Combe

The Pig Hotels, part owned by Robin Hutson the CEO and Chairman, has recently opened another site in Devon.

The Pig at Combe is a hotel and restaurant set within 3,500 acres of countryside in the Otter Valley, Devon. The main property is a Grade I listed building, with Grade II listed out buildings and stables. The development project was a full refurbishment that began in November 2015 and was opened in August of this year.

The large, boutique Devonshire hotel is one of the chain’s five hotels located in the south of England. The PIG is a concept that developed in 2011 and since then has grown into a small chain of luxury hotels that are self-described as ‘restaurants with rooms.’ The main focus for each hotel is their restaurants that use home-grown produce from their very own kitchen gardens in order to create their menus. Each hotel has won numerous awards and accolades since the very first site in 2011. These range from the ‘Sustainable Hotel Restaurant of the Year 2014 & 2015’ to the Good Hotel Guide’s 2016 ‘Editor’s Choice’ for Boutique Hotels to ‘Best Hotel’ for the 2016 GQ Food & Drinks Awards.

The full refurbishment of the Pig at Combe was developed with its main contractor Tekne Shopfitting Ltd in order to keep most of the original features and the original buildings. The architect working on the project, Ian Venn the Associate Director of PWP Architects Ltd said “The materials that were chosen were used to keep the PIG hotel’s more rustic style.”

Both the main building and the stable yard had extensive refurbishment in order to make use of each building. The main hotel building includes 17 bedrooms, a kitchen and restaurant, a bar, unique and private dining areas as well as lounge areas.

Interior Designer, Judy Hutson designed the bedrooms in a way that kept their individuality. The rooms have rustic timber flooring and all feature a luxury monsoon shower. Each room is designed to highlight their own features and furnishings, and have colour schemes that reflect the chain’s rustic feel. A few of the rooms within the hotel also feature a free-standing bath.

Two of the more unique rooms within the main building of the hotel are ‘The Laundry’ and ‘The Attic,’ and are located on the first and second floor respectively. ‘The Laundry’ has a super-king four-poster bed, a spacious lounge area and a bathroom with a circular copper bath and a walk-in monsoon shower above. ‘The Attic’ has original wooden beams and a super-king size bed. It also features a freestanding bath, a separate lounge area and a walk-in monsoon shower.

Within the main building there is the main bar which has been converted from the Great Hall. The bar houses oversized sofas and chairs along with a large, inviting fire. In the building, there is the expanded restaurant, set in newly refurbished pre-existing panelled rooms, which uses produce grown from the hotel’s three walled gardens to develop the menu. The menu includes dishes such as ‘Piggy Bits’ which is venison and pork sausage rolls, and crackling with home grown apple sauce. Depending on what is grown and available from the gardens will determine what dishes will feature on the menu.

Separate from the main building restaurant is ‘The Folly,’ which is a semi-restored dining area that gives guests an indoor/outdoor bar with a wood fired oven. The design of this area focuses heavily on rustic wooden furnishings and large windows that let in plenty of daylight. An enhanced feature of the hotel is the original Georgian kitchen that has the old range that still works. This kitchen has been converted into a private dining room that is available to hire.

Pig at Combe

Along with the internal refurbishments, there was extensive external refurbishment as well. ‘The Stable Yard’, previously used mainly for storage, was converted into 10 luxury suites. The regular rooms in the main hotel such as ‘comfy rooms,’ ‘comfy luxe rooms,’ and ‘big comfy luxe rooms’, can also be found within this build. Along with these rooms, there is also ‘The Horsebox,’ ‘Family’ and ‘The Hayloft’ that are available for guests.

The Horsebox is on the ground floor of the Stable Yard and was designed around the original stable partitions. Like ‘The Attic’, it has a super-king size four-poster bed as well as a cosy lounge area, a freestanding bath and a walk-in monsoon shower. The ‘Family’ suite also contains a super-king size four-poster bed, separate children’s room with a bunk bed and small monsoon shower room. Like other rooms it also has a free-standing bath and a walk-in monsoon shower. ‘The Hayloft’ is an open plan room with a large bedroom and seating area. Along with a super-king four poster bed in the bedroom there is a freestanding bath. The room also features a dressing room and a separate monsoon shower room.

The walled herb, vegetable and infusion gardens are considered to be the heart of the hotel. Within the gardens are the Potting Sheds that have been refurbished into treatment rooms that have a range of massages on offer.

Further external work consisted of creating a car parking space behind the garden pavilion, allowing the gravel drive and natural landscaping to be the first thing visitors see as they approach the country house.

The feedback for the hotel has been nothing but positive. “I sat down with the owner the other day looking at some projects and he said that so far the feedback for the Pig at Combe has been that it’s the best one so far,” said Ian.

Pig at Combe

Tekne Shopfitting Limited

Tekne Shopfitting Limited have been established for over 40 years bringing expertise and experience to a wide variety of projects including private residences, restaurants (for Rick Stein, Jamie Oliver and Mark Hix), and hotels. Tekne’s head office is situated in Poole, Dorset where they also have a 32,000 ft2 factory producing high quality bespoke furniture and fittings. Tekne can provide their clients with a full Contract Management service and / or bespoke joinery manufacture.

Tekne pride themselves on providing a personal and expert service to their clients and were delighted to be appointed principal contractor by Home Grown Hotels on this prestigious and challenging project: To renovate Combe House and update it to reflect the well-respected Pig brand of boutique hotels.

Works have been undertaken to update the building’s services whilst maintaining the character and charm of the structure. Many of the building’s features and original materials have been retained and replicated in order to ensure the property did not lose its charm during this process. Due to the nature of the listed buildings and their surroundings, works were carried out in collaboration with the local Conservation Officer and Natural England to protect the buildings and the habitat of the rare bats that are present.

A complete refit of the venue included the installation of new floors, new ceilings, modern water and heating systems, and electrical system. Almost all of the property’s timber floors have been replaced and a new kitchen has been installed. Tekne manufactured all the bespoke joinery and produced the fixed furniture for the bedrooms and public areas; including the bars, wardrobes and wall paneling.

Edd Sevestre, Tekne Shopfitting Ltd, said:

“It was a pleasure to work with the HGH team and we wish them every success with The Pig at Combe.”

ATS Commercial Projects Ltd

Pig at Combe

Since operations began one year ago, ATS Commercial Projects Ltd has specialised in mechanical and electrical design and installations to high-end hotels, members clubs, cinemas and restaurants.

Despite only being in action for a year, the company have worked on a range of projects for Soho House and Home Grown Hotels including working internationally on projects in Berlin and Courchevel in the French Alps.

For the Pig at Combe project, ATS Commercial Projects Ltd designed and installed all the mechanical, electrical and plumbing services.

Pete Dimmick of ATS Commercial Projects Ltd told Premier Hospitality:

“It was important for ATS Commercial Projects Ltd to get involved with this project because Robin of Home Grown Hotels is at the forefront of the industry, so when he asked us to be a part of the project it was a huge honour and a pleasure”

“Here at ATS Commercial Projects Ltd we pride ourselves on being fully committed to service and quality, we do things a little differently because of our personal but professional approach to every project. We are also a big investor in our staff with the training and development we do, which will make the company better in the years to come. We are constantly progressing in both our business and development of employee’s, we have employed four new apprentices this year as well enrolled one of our existing Mechanical Engineers on a degree course.”

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