Newick Park

Fluffy white tow­els, comfy sofas, log fires and fine food – just some of the ingredi­ents that go to make a coun­try House stay a pleas­ur­able exper­i­ence. They are all here at Newick Park and more besides.

Newick Park is set amidst the green and pleas­ant coun­tryside of East Sus­sex near Lewes. It is a grade II lis­ted coun­try house sur­roun­ded by 255 acres of its own lis­ted park­land over­look­ing the South Downs. Part of the present build­ing dates back to the 16^th cen­tury when it was an Ironmaster’s home. The extens­ive Dell gar­dens at the rear of the prop­erty were his ori­ginal excav­a­tions, but now in spring it is a riot of col­our with snow­drops, daf­fodils and blue­bells being fol­lowed by aza­leas, camel­lias and rhodo­den­drons. Later own­ers included the Chief Justice of Bengal, who is said to have bur­ied treas­ure from India in the grounds.

The house was in a poor state of repair when it was pur­chased by the present own­ers, Michael and Vir­ginia Childs, in 1990. Tak­ing advice from Eng­lish Her­it­age, they have turned the build­ing into a very fine example of an Eng­lish Coun­try House. Being privately owned, how­ever, it retains the feel of a fam­ily home, but now with 16 en-suite bed­rooms and a renowned restaurant.

Head chef, Chris Moore’s hard work in the four years he has been here has been richly rewar­ded with a third AA rosette awar­ded this year, pla­cing Newick Park firmly in the top 10% nation­ally and the only res­taur­ant in East Sus­sex to hold this accol­ade. His cuisine is mod­ern European in style with the emphasis on the use of sea­sonal and local pro­duce. Much of his veget­ables are grown and har­ves­ted from the organ­ic­ally run walled garden, with game com­ing from the estate itself. If there is one dish that sums up Chris’ tal­ents it would be his “Newick Park pheas­ant with pom­mery mus­tard cro­quette, gar­lic creamed cab­bage and con­fit root veget­ables” which appears reg­u­larly on the menu between Novem­ber and February.

Hotel Man­ager, Adrian Clifton, recalls his first encounter with his cof­fee sup­plier, Café du Monde: “We first met them at the Johansen’s award din­ner in 2007 and imme­di­ately knew their ‘Ser­vice en Chambre’ was the answer to our bed­room bever­age ser­vice.” The eleg­ant leather-bound box con­tains a cafetière, two mugs and all the ingredi­ents for guests to make tea and cof­fee in the pri­vacy of their own room. Since that first con­tact, the Com­pany now sup­plies all Newick Park’s cof­fee require­ments includ­ing cafetière ser­vice and espresso-based spe­ci­al­ity coffee.

Adrian sums up his sat­is­fac­tion with his sup­plier: “We were first attrac­ted to Ser­vice en Chambre, but their strength lies in hav­ing a tailored solu­tion to indi­vidual cof­fee ser­vice prob­lems. What sets them apart is they over­lay that with qual­ity products and a very high level of per­sonal ser­vice and training.”

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