'One of the finest, if not the very best, of the small Cotswold Tudor houses,’ was the verdict of the late architectural historian and author Sir Nikolaus Pevsner of Temple Guiting Manor.
Historic England agree: Temple Guiting is one of just a couple of dozen or so houses in the Cotswolds that's Grade I-listed. For several years it's been run as one of the smartest places to stay in the country — with the early 16th century manor house and the five barns amid the 14 acres of grounds available to rent at prices starting from around £1,000 a night. Country Life's Paula Minchin tried out the latter in 2023 and absolutely loved both the house itself, and what owners Jane and Steven Collins had done with the place. 'Manor from heaven' was the headline.
It seems that there's been a change of approach at Temple Guiting, though. It was always possible to book the entire estate for a single party, but it's now been put on the rental market proper, with the agents quoting £55,650 per week.
What does that get you? The house and barns that include 15 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms, the swimming pool, the tennis court, the gardens, the yoga studio, the gym, the children's playground, the boating lake and the intriguingly-named secret cinema, which is built in to one of the two ancient dovecotes. (The other dovecote is home to a hot tub.)
And the gardens? They're the work of genius Jinny Blom, a psychologist-cum-philosopher-turned-garden designer.
There's no doubt that country life doesn't get much better than this. However, there's no doubt that this is a lot of money: the rental price works out at just under £2.9 million a year, which is enough to buy you a pretty fantastic Cotswolds home outright. Such as this gorgeous place in Hook Norton, or this one near Cheltenham. And with a bit of back and forth you might be able to pick up this one near Stroud.
So who is the target renter for a place like Temple Guiting? Quite simply, it's the cost of trying before you buy. Taking on a listed building is worlds away from spending a few hundred thousand pounds to rent one out for a month or two, and no doubt there will be some potential buyers who are calculating that, given the current shaky market conditions, renting for a while could end up saving more than it costs. As well as offering the benefit of seeing if Cotswold life is right for you.
Those taking that opportunity are, for want of a better term, the new jetset. 'The Cotswolds is now competing with the South of France and Tuscany for the international summer crowd in a way it simply wasn't 10 years ago,' says Olivia Conway, director of lettings at UK Sotheby’s International Realty.
'We are seeing American and Middle Eastern families take houses for a month or two, bringing children, grandparents and friends with them. They want privacy, space and enough going on that they can stay put. An estate like Temple Guiting, with separate houses, a pool, tennis court and lake, is made for that.
'There is also a growing "try before you buy" market among international buyers. A weekend at a Cotswolds hotel is one thing; living here for six weeks is quite another. You quickly learn which villages you actually like and whether you want complete seclusion or to be closer to the social scene.'
Temple Guiting isn't alone — there are several landmark Cotswolds homes available for rent at the moment. Kirtlington Park in Oxfordshire is also up for rent, with an even higher asking price of £60,000 a week, and the nearby Ardington House is up at £48,000 a week. That suggests that all those sums do indeed make sense for some.
'If you're considering spending several million pounds on a country house, renting first makes enormous sense,' adds Collins. 'By the end of the summer, clients often know exactly where and what they want to buy. Increasingly for UHNW buyers, the holiday house is becoming the starting point for the house hunt.'
The Temple Guiting Estate is available to rent through UK Sotheby’s International Realty — see more details.