“It’s been amazing to see the locals again,” says George Dean, general manager of the Wild Duck. “They’ve naturally fitted back into their places round the bar.” This was just what Dean was hoping would happen once the 16th-century gardener’s cottage turned coaching inn, in the Cotswolds village of Ewen, reopened in March, seven years after shuttering.
“People who met here on their first date are now bringing their families,” he says fondly. “And we’re really excited to see new faces, too.”
The Wild Duck is the latest pub-with-rooms venture by Sam and Georgie Pearman’s Country Creatures group, following the success of the Double Red Duke and the Mason’s Arms, both a 45-minute drive east in Clanfield. (The Pearmans also founded the Cubitt House Group – behind Mayfair’s Barley Mow, Belgravia’s Thomas Cubitt and Notting Hill’s Princess Royal among others – which was recently acquired by Young’s for £30 million pounds.)
Its age and Grade II-listed status meant the Wild Duck’s restoration was slow but sensitive, with 19 bedrooms cleverly inserted in its old structure, new parts added, and communal areas restored, repaired and refreshed. Georgie led the design, working with British designers and local artisans, incorporating Fermoie lampshades, Edward Bulmer natural paints, Zardi & Zardi wallpaper and rugs by Amy Kent, who worked with Georgie on bespoke designs that soften old flagstones and wooden floors throughout.
As quiet, charming and comfortable as each individually styled room is – particularly the ones with antique rolltop Lefroy Brooks bathtubs or the few that come with private terraces – the hearth-warmed bar and the hearty fare served by head chef Richard Sandiford, formerly of Bistrotheque and Hawksmoor, will soon lure you out of bed (try the whole roast duck). Now spring has arrived, the sun-trap terrace has come into its own for sipping locally brewed pints, dining alfresco and admiring the famous Cotswold stone at its honey-hued best. There’s also an enclosed garden planted with nepeta, lavender, roses and jasmine coming into bloom.
Ewen is thought to have been an Anglo-Saxon settlement, and its name – as the in-room fact sheet suggests – is believed to derive from the Old English “eawen”, meaning something akin to a meadow stream. Today there’s plenty of surrounding countryside to explore, and with Kemble station only a short cab ride away, it makes for an easy escape from the city.
Come evening, Dean has been known to pour comically oversized bottles of post-dinner port for groups, and will regularly leave a freshly made Negroni by your bedside as an unexpected nightcap. It’s all part of feeling like a local, he says. “The best part of it so far has been making the Duck into the place it always was.”
The Wild Duck
Drakes Island, Cirencester GL7 6BY
