Features editor Rosanna Rothery reveals her 2025 highlights, including a beguiling concert, coal-roasted seafood scoffing and a luxe hotel and spa review …
What a thrill to interview fashion designer Alice Temperley and her amazingly talented siblings earlier in the year. The family’s Somerset cider farm, Burrow Hill, could be worth a jaunt in springtime for rustic family fun, circus acts, foodie pop-ups and live music.
A nosey around the grounds of Iford Manor on the Wiltshire-Somerset border was like stumbling across the secret garden in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel. The gardens were a secluded haven of romantic Roman, Italian and Japanese architecture – and the food in the Manor Kitchen was utterly delicious too! Read our fermenting feature with Iford’s chef Matthew Briddon.
Another great find this year was pop-up Pilchards restaurant in Port Gavarne, Cornwall, which does a superb line in seascape views, laid-back terrace dining and sizzling coal-roasted seafood (check the website for openings). And who wouldn’t love idling in the bubbling cauldron of stress relief (the alfresco hot tub) at Budock Vean hotel on the stunning Helford River in Cornwall? Read my review of the hotel in the winter issue of Food Lifestyle magazine.
For me, the winter solstice wouldn’t be complete without the beguiling ethereal voices of the Mediaeval Baebes, who often kick off their tour with South West dates. This year, Exeter Cathedral provided the magnificent acoustics to showcase their haunting harmonies.
