The roads around Monmouth are quiet but have their attractions; they cut through valleys and woods, past castles and churches. My host, soignee interior designer Neil McLachlan, explains that this part of the world is a well-kept secret, popular with minor gentry and Londoners in the know but protected from the crowds that flush in and out of the Cotswolds.
To some, Newland is known as the ‘Chelsea of the forest’ – but it lacks the hordes of red-trouser wearers
Keen to stretch our legs after the drive from Lydney station, we stopped at Tintern Abbey and met with the medieval reenactors camped on the lawns before heading on to Woofield House in Newland, a village in the Forest of Dean on the River Wye so pretty it could come out of an American advert for quaint English villages. To some, Newland is known as the ‘Chelsea of the forest’ – but it lacks the hordes of red-trouser wearers. Instead, we met a young woman seeking refuge from a jet-set life; a dog-loving couple from Birmingham and, of course, us – self-styled metropolitan connoisseurs, my boyfriend born and bred in south-east London and me firmly from north of the river.
Woofield House is extremely grand (and flashy, opulent, and fun), with a suite of impeccable and reasonably priced guest accommodations in the back of the main house. It is set to begin offering immersive interior design weekends involving hands-on seminars with McLachlan and his business and romantic partner Raymond Roche, an Irishman and also an interior designer. These will begin ‘when the house is completely refurbished’, with plenty of G&Ts all around. Woofield is a Grade-II listed house that was once a residential home for men with learning disabilities; it was then bought by McLachlan and Roche. McLachlan is a genteel and genial New Zealander who made a name for himself over there as a screen designer for Changing Rooms. He is also an interior designer for hotels and restaurants, as well as private clients, and is known for a strong, playful, and somewhat bling style. The result in his new abode is quite spectacular, though not for the faint of heart.
The vast house has been painted ‘coral heritage pink’. Two giant stone dogs guard the glossy black door and inside there are marble floors in black and white diamonds, a stained-glass window in the ceiling of the kitchen and eye-popping wallpaper of parrots in tropical shrubbery. There are glamorously appointed nooks, numerous staircases, themed period bedrooms, and a stunning upstairs living room, complete with a grand piano, 18th-century dog bed and a real palm. McLachlan and Roche have designed the whole place with a gentleman’s sense of space and order, so that each has his own dressing area and ‘toilet’ table (in the Victorian sense) quite separate from the bedroom. There is a serious study too on the ground floor, full of samples of wallpaper, paint colours, drawings and photographs – including those depicting what the house looked like before the gents began work on it in 2021 as a kind of turbo-charged Covid project. Their task was enormous.
The grounds include a large greenhouse that Roche and McLachlan built, where I was helplessly drawn to the chaise longue under yet another palm. As for the guest accomodation, we didn’t manage to book the ‘palm house’, the two-bedroom cottage whose sitting room walls are covered with palm wallpaper; but ours had a stained glass partition between the bed and kitchen-living area, and a cute gothic window at the end. A fire and wood pile makes it a cosy option for winter. But it was sunny and warm when we arrived, so we grabbed the waiting bottle of prosecco and packets of crisps and nuts, and sat on the terrace, admiring the double whammy of fields and Newland’s 13th-century church.
If sitting at the pretty Ostrich pub up the road or with a bottle on the Woofield terrace isn’t enough, there is much to do. There are walks, meandering through pastures dotted with sheep and wildflowers, over fords and old railway bridges – it’s the sort of landscape that makes one feel the pricklings of jingoism. My favourite walk was an hour’s ramble to The Boat Inn at Pennalt in Monmouth. The pub was built from local stone in the 17th century and sits right on the banks of the Wye in a sort of tropical microclimate.
Nearby are the Clearwell Caves, mysterious with an industrial edge and used for hundreds of years by ‘freeminers’ – a Forest of Dean custom whereby a miner can claim an area and work it for iron ore, coal, stone and other minerals. The caves were opened to the public in the 1960s and are packed with geological and historical details.
More athletic types can book paddle boarding, kayaking, rock climbing, golfing and cycling. But for those looking for the kind of low-key, quietly fashionable weekend break one used to have in the Cotswolds, there are pleasures aplenty in simply drinking and eating local fare in old stone pubs by river, field, and castle.
Where to stay
Woofield Accommodation. From £120 per night. Design weekends to start next spring and will be ‘reassuringly expensive, unlike the competitively priced Woofield Accommodation’.
woofieldaccommodation.com
Tudor Farmhouse Hotel, Coleford, tudorfarmhousehotel.co.uk. From £147 per night. Chic refurbished old buildings, lots of exposed brick and a snug spa. The restaurant is described by Tatler as a ‘culinary oasis’. tudorfarmhousehotel.co.uk
The Boat Inn, Monmouth. One nicely appointed two-bedroom apartment above the riverside pub, from £100 per night, with a minimum two-night stay. theboatpenallt.co.uk
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