“Every Pig is different. What makes us different is the cool history.“

Pulling off a Canterbury country lane, down a tree-lined driveway to reach the 17th-century brick mansion that houses the Pig at Bridge Place, the hotel’s most obvious charms are clear. This is the heart of southeast England’s prettiest countryside, all hedgerows and wild fields blanketed in a low-lying, early morning mist that frequently gives way to surprisingly brilliant afternoon sunshine. Head into the hotel under the stately stone arches of the Pig’s front door, and you’ll find yourself in a faithfully-preserved historic building that’s the lovely facade for a deeper commitment to local agriculture, sustainable details, and holistic approach to body and soul.

Bridge Place is just one of 11 properties from the Pig, a B Corp-certified boutique hotel chain specializing in the English countryside aesthetic to the umpteenth degree — think vintage furniture, wallpaper, comestibles in jars, maximal coziness, and lots of velvet. But “every Pig is different,” Jamie Banner, the hotel director for Bridge Place, tells me. “What makes us different is the cool history.” From the 1960s until the Pig took over, renovated, and opened in 2019, Bridge Place was the unlikely site of a nightclub. “Absolutely no idea why here,” Banner says, but “back in the 1960s and 1970s, we had some mega-famous people down here, such as Led Zeppelin, the Kinks, and a group called the Yardbirds.”

From Nightlife to Farm Life

The nightclub’s star power dimmed after the 1980s, and today, people flock to the Pig at Bridge Place for very different reasons. The hotel is a five-minute cab ride from Canterbury, which itself is only 55 minutes by train to London. But resting on a sun lounger on the mansion’s lawn (the property is about 10 acres in total), the city feels much farther away than an hour’s commute. It’s an ideal getaway for total countryside immersion, starting with dinner at the hotel restaurant, where the specialty is the 25 Mile Menu, prepared entirely with ingredients sourced from within 25 miles of the property. What doesn’t come from local farms and waterways is grown just outside the front door — across a small creek next to the drive is the Pig’s organic kitchen garden, where the hotel’s gardening team nurtures about an acre’s worth of hundreds of flowers, herbs, and vegetables. In autumn, every type of cruciferous veggie imaginable seems to be sprouting from Dr. Seuss-like stalks. 

In addition to the 25 Mile Menu, the homegrown produce also goes into the hotel bar’s infusions and the kitchen’s condiments like homemade chutney. They say the easiest way to pair food and wine is to match wines from the same terroir as the cuisine, and maybe the same could be said for chutneys. The Pig’s carrot chutney is a sweet and tangy revelation, and it goes well with any and everything from the kitchen, particularly the vegan English breakfast, a filling, credible competitor to the meaty original.

A Hotel in the Heart of English Wine Country

On the topic of wine and terroir, remember that sunshine? “We’ve got this up-and-coming wine culture, that’s quite a cool thing about the area,” Banner says. “The reason the wine is so good here is because of the climate. It’s slightly warmer and dryer than the rest of the country.” As climate change has made southeast England hospitable to wine-growing, similar to France thirty years ago, this part of Kent and neighboring Sussex have become home to a growing number of wineries. These tend to focus on sparkling wines (the chalk below the soil here is the same as that in Reims, where Champagne is produced), but they also all seem to make a similar light, very dry red, like that from nearby Roebuck Estates, which I found made an excellent partner to the 25 Mile Menu’s smoked trout, ray wing, and thrice-cooked chips. 

Relax and Rejuvenate with a Seaweed-Based Facial

Should you make wine tastings a part of your local itinerary, de-puff the morning after with a massage or facial in the Potting Shed. I didn’t expect to be so relaxed, having an anti-aging facial in a cozy wooden shed adorned with accoutrements like rusty shears, but the path to the treatment rooms is through the hotel’s actual garden, and thus the shears feel like another part of a whole. While not from the garden (that’s just for food), the spa’s products keep it in the Anglo-Celtic Isles. 

All of the Pig Hotels’ facialists use skincare from Voya, which is made from seaweed hand-harvested off Ireland’s Atlantic Coast. I have fussy, difficult skin even on a good day, much less after several days of wine flights, and I emerged from the shed looking and feeling refreshed. 

Unwind in 17th-Century Style

In addition to local wineries and a can’t-miss visit to the 11th-century Canterbury Cathedral and winding lanes of downtown Canterbury, a big part of any Bridge Place stay is making the most of the hotel itself. You’re welcome to stroll through the kitchen garden or set up and read on a lounger on the lawn as weather permits.

Indoors, explore plush, quiet nooks for putting your feet up, reading, or having a drink by a roaring fireplace. The main house was completed around 1638 by Sir Arnold Braems, then the manager of Dover Harbour.

“Obviously, now, if you’re head of the port, then it’s not such a big job, but back then, it was the main way in and out of the country,” Banner explains. Sir Braems’ estate was built to be grandly appropriate to his position, bested at the time in East Kent only by nearby Chilham Castle.

Though much of the house was taken down in 1704 by its next owner and then left to ruin for 200 years, the wing left standing was saved by the house’s nightclub days. Soon after, it underwent a respectful architectural renovation into its current iteration by the Pig. What could have been private rooms (there are seven total in the main building, and more in a newer adjoining structure behind) have been made, or perhaps re-made, into welcoming sitting areas and bars instead. The result: no matter where on the property you stay, settling into a 17th-century-style respite can and should be a restorative part of your time here.