The sun is out over Dartmoor when we arrive in South Brent. A quick walk seems a good way to kill a few hours before checking in. Optimistically, I put on shorts and soon we’re on a rough track that takes us up to the Avon Dam, with its wonderful stepped waterfall. We head out over wild moorland – Dartmoor is all open access – enjoying views over the South Hams to the sea. It’s February, so the snow flurries are to be expected, though not by my knees, and it’s sunny again when we get back to the car.
The beautiful, Georgian Glazebrook House Hotel reopened last May after major refurbishment. New owners Pieter and Fran Hamman, from South Africa and San Francisco respectively, bought a going concern but gutted the place to transform it from a frumpy, Fawlty Towers-ish place into a cool, stylish nine-room hotel with a restaurant overseen by former MasterChef quarterfinalist Ben Palmer.
The owners are fans of the sort of strident, vintage-style fixtures used by designer Timothy Oulton, and they have combined them with period reproductions. In the lobby there sit an emu skeleton, a stuffed flamingo and a bulldog sculpture; the reception desk is in the shape of a Spitfire wing, A cod-Victorian birdcage fits well with a real Victorian fireplace. It’s bold and playful and the mix of old and new, urban and pastoral, works well.
Two themes stand out. One is collection. Cloches and cabinets showcase crockery, pipes and a wasps’ nest, and the walls are decorated in themes: bowler hats, bugles, snare drums, saddles. The other is Alice in Wonderland. Fran, on seeing the 200-year old garden, exclaimed: “It’s like Alice in Wonderland!” Rooms are named after characters in Lewis Carroll’s novel – which celebrates its 150th birthday this year.
We are in Mad Hatter, which is decorated with plates and has top hats as its main display and dolls’ houses on the wall above the bed, so you wake up looking into the dimly lit windows of a miniature world. The bed is a huge, high, leather-backed affair. We have a big modern bath, as do two other higher-end rooms. Others have walk-in rain showers. There’s a wheelchair-accessible room, a lovely single room and a cool twin with two sleek, angular four posters.
All the minibar contents, including chocolates, Luscombe drinks and small bottles of wine, are complimentary. There’s an iPad, a huge TV, free Wi-Fi and cheap phone calls.
Before dinner, we go for a short walk. The little hamlet of Glazebrook has an impressive Victorian structure as its backdrop: an original Brunel viaduct, standing beside the main Cornwall-London railway line. The train no longer stops at South Brent, but Totnes is only 15 minutes’ drive away and the A38 is on the hotel’s doorstep, making Glazebrook very popular with holidaymakers breaking their journey to the south-west.
A huge marble bar is the centrepiece of the well-stocked lounge. There is also a library room and a small winetasting space. Pieter worked with a sommelier from nearby Ashburton Cookery School to come up with a superlative wine list. The pinotage from his homeland went well with a succulent fillet steak and rack of lamb. The restaurant was packed on a Saturday night with guests and incoming diners from villages around the edges of the moor.
Dartmoor’s weather is thrillingly changeable. It’s chucking it down when we leave on Sunday, and Glazebrook is filling up with lunch guests. In less than a year, this reinvented hotel has tapped a local market in need of fresh ideas about food, drink and accommodation. The Oulton touches won’t be to everyone’s taste, but only stuffy, staid, stuck-in-the-mud types will not find a night or two here anything other than great fun.
• Accommodation was provided by Glazebrook House Hotel, South Brent, Devon, 01364 73322, glazebrookhouse.com. Doubles from £139 B&B. Singles from £119. Dinner for two costs about £100, including wine
Ask a local
Tim Ferry, Dartmoor walking guide
• Walk
Take the route from Peek Moor Gate (a mile from the hotel) to Ugborough Beacon and, in half a day, you’ll see buildings and monuments dating from the stone age to the early 20th century, plus fabulous views. Use OS Explorer map OL28.
• Pub
The Church House Inn at Holne has well-kept real ales from the Dartmoor Brewery in Prince-town. Landlord David offers a warm welcome.
• Secret spot
In South Brent, a tree-shaded path leads along the Avon from St Petroc’s Church to an 18th-century packhorse bridge, flanked by a waterfall and the recently restored Lydia Mill – a real beauty spot.
