The Escape

Drop your bags, throw open the doors and take in the setting. Sit out on the lush green lawn, pour a glass of leathery Bordeaux and throw yourselves down on a blanket in front of a crackling log fire. Stay there all weekend if you like. We can arrange daily deliveries of freshly prepared artisan kitchen supper or our private chef to cater to your every culinary whim!

For a change of scenery take the winding staircase up to the cinema room or lounge in a bubble bath till you have started to grow gills. If the outdoors starts calling, pull on your wellies and take a walk - ending in Batcombe at The Three Horseshoes, for a great local ale or something delicious from the locally sourced menu.

The Somerset town of Bruton 5 minutes drive away

is booming thanks to a mix of a new contemporary art gallery and national media attention. Points West Business Correspondent Dave Harvey visited what Londoners are calling "the new Notting Hill".

Friday nights in Somerset have never been quite like this. Once a year there’s Glastonbury, of course. And then there’s the timeless pleasure of taking bottles of scrumpy up the hill with some mates and waking up Monday morning. But now an unlikely mix of artists, musicians and fashionistas are being drawn to a farmyard in the middle of what used to be nowhere.

It recently took the top spot of The Times' 30 best places to live in the UK.

Most agree the arrival of international art gallery Hauser & Wirth has cemented its reputation and made this already popular place to visit even more of a magnet.

Since the gallery opened in July 2014, more than 100,000 visitors have come from all over the world to see artworks such as the gigantic underpants that light up in the dark, the large Louise Bourgeois spider in the gardens and the work of Turner Prize-winning Martin Creed.

Traditional cottages on medieval streets, the 14th century Church of St Mary and the 16th century dovecote on a nearby hill provide a suitably pretty and historic backdrop but it's not as sleepy as it was in the day Steinbeck wrote: "The peace I have dreamed about is here".

Its popularity means Bruton has come alive with modern art galleries, quirky shops and restaurants such as Matt's Kitchen, where Matt Watson serves a single dish of the day in his own living room.

One of the first businesses to arrive was At The Chapel, a restaurant, bar, bakery that opened well before the gallery.
Bruton ought to come with a health warning: If you come here for a weekend, you'll soon be back property-hunting!"

There can't be many towns with Cameron McIntosh hosting film evenings and 15 published authors on the doorstep to give book talks.

Medieval Wells, Georgian Bath and mystical Glastonbury are nearby and the schools include King's Bruton, Bruton School for Girls and Sexey's.

"Bruton has a hip and cool environment that will remind you of Notting Hill in the early days,"
Aaron Johnson, Phoebe Philo, Alice Temperley, Stella McCartney and Don McCullin are amongst those helping this little corner of Somerset rival the Cotswolds.