The Holford Arms, Knockdown: A Cotswold Pub with Five Acres, a Working Orchard and an Award-Winning Larder
Straddling the rolling border between Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, just outside Tetbury, The Holford Arms is one of those rare country pubs that quietly refuses to be just a pub. Set within five green acres and built around a 16th-century inn, it has, since opening in its current form in 2011, grown into a working small-holding with its own vegetable gardens, heated poly-tunnels, heritage fruit orchard and a cottage-industry press for cider, apple juice and jam. Layered on top of that food-and-drink backbone are six cosy en-suite bedrooms, five heated wooden chalets, four luxury bell tents, an orchard campsite with campervan hook-ups, and a beautifully proportioned oak-framed events barn completed in 2021.
It is this combination of an unassuming Cotswold inn, a deeply productive garden and a genuinely flexible hospitality business that has won The Holford Arms a string of national accolades, including Sawday’s England and Wales Pub of the Year for Local, Seasonal & Organic Produce in 2018 to 2019, plus listings in The Times, The Telegraph and The Sunday Times for dog-friendly stays, Sunday roasts and autumn walking breaks.
Location and Setting
The pub sits at Knockdown, a tiny hamlet about four miles south-west of Tetbury in the Cotswolds AONB, and roughly fifteen minutes’ drive from both Badminton and Westonbirt Arboretum. The coordinates place it at approximately 51.5937° N, 2.2387° W, deep in the kind of slow, hedge-lined lanes that make the south Cotswolds feel like a step back in time. The postcode is GL8 8QY.
What the map doesn’t capture is the site itself: five acres of garden, orchard, camping meadow and event lawns that wrap around the pub and stretch towards the Wiltshire border. Westonbirt’s famous autumn colour is close enough for a half-day walk, and the pub has specifically been highlighted by The Telegraph as one of the best places to stay when exploring the arboretum’s tree walks.
Eat With Us: The Food
Food is the heartbeat of The Holford Arms, and the kitchen team is led with a clear philosophy: grow what you can on site, source what you can’t grow as locally as possible, and keep the menu tied tightly to the seasons.
What grows on site
The grounds do serious work. The kitchen draws daily from:
- The vegetable garden, a productive plot for heritage vegetables, salads and herbs.
- The poly-tunnels, extending the season for tomatoes, chillies and tender crops well into autumn.
- The orchard, with apples for the cider press and juice, alongside dessert fruit for the kitchen.
When the kitchen can’t grow something itself, it reaches into the immediate neighbourhood. Venison comes from the Badminton Estate, wagyu beef is sourced from within the Cotswolds, and other ingredients are chosen with the same short-supply-chain ethos. The pub runs an ever-changing seasonal specials board to showcase whatever is at its peak.
On the plate
The menu swings from traditional pub classics, the kind of dishes that make Sunday lunch here one of the most celebrated in Britain, alongside more far-flung influences. The kitchen has been recognised by The Telegraph as one of the best places in the country for a long, lazy Sunday roast, and the same publication has noted the breadth of its international and classical range.
A table can be booked directly online via the Book a Table page, or by emailing info@theholfordarms.co.uk. Booking ahead is recommended, particularly at weekends, as the dining rooms fill quickly.
Drinks
Behind the bar you’ll find a familiar rotation of local ales, plus the pub’s own pressed apple juice and its small-batch homemade cider, both made from apples grown in the on-site orchard. Soft drinks and juices are largely house-made too.
Home-Grown Press: Cider, Apple Juice and Jam
One of the things that distinguishes The Holford Arms from the average country pub is its tiny but determined orchard-to-bottle operation. The pub now produces three lines of its own:
Homemade Cider
A still and lightly sparkling traditional cider, pressed from dessert and culinary apples grown in the pub’s own orchard. It is fermented in small batches and is sold on site by the glass and in take-home bottles. It is the same cider that helped the pub win Sawday’s Pub of the Year for Local, Seasonal & Organic Produce.
Pressed Apple Juice
A non-alcoholic, single-orchard apple juice, pasteurised but otherwise unadulterated. The juice follows the seasons, so flavour will vary from sharp and thirst-quenching in early autumn to richer and more honeyed as the season progresses.
Homemade Jam
A short rotation of small-batch jams is produced each year from the orchard, soft fruit and any surplus from the polytunnels. Stocks are limited and tend to appear on the breakfast tables in the B&B rooms and the chalets before being released for sale.
These products are sold over the bar at the pub itself, in take-home bottles where applicable.
Stay With Us: Accommodation
Accommodation at The Holford Arms is split across the original 16th-century inn and a small village of wooden chalets, bell tents and orchard pitches. There are essentially four layers to choose from.
The Inn: six en-suite B&B rooms
Upstairs in the old pub are six warm, characterful bedrooms with king-size beds, TVs, en-suite shower rooms and the kind of muted country styling that lets the beams and fireplaces do the talking. Despite being directly above the pub, the rooms are notably quiet. Room 5 can sleep up to four and Room 6 up to three, making them useful for families. Dogs are not permitted in any of the inn rooms.
Chalets & The Shack
Five standalone wooden chalets sit in the grounds and are available all year round. Each has a king-size bedroom, an en-suite, a small living room and a covered outdoor seating terrace. They sleep two as standard but can accommodate up to four by converting the sofa/day beds. The Shack is the smallest of the set, a snug two-person chalet. Well-behaved dogs are welcome.
Glamping bell tents
Four permanent luxury bell tents are tucked in among the orchard trees and hedgerows. Each tent comes with a king-size bed, tea-and-coffee-making kit and electric sockets, with the bespoke shower and loo block a short walk away. The glamping season runs from 1 May to 30 September, and tents sleep two guests.
Orchard camping and campervans
For guests who prefer to bring their own kit, there is space for 50+ campers in the orchard meadow, plus eight dedicated campervan pitches with electric hook-up. As with the bell tents, facilities are a short walk from the bespoke loo and shower block, and the camping season runs from 1 May to 30 September. Dogs are welcome on the campsite.
Stays at The Holford Arms can be booked through the online booking engine at holfordarmsdirect, or by emailing info@theholfordarms.co.uk.
Weddings and Events
The Holford Arms is licensed for civil weddings and exclusivity-hires, and events of every size can be staged across the site.
The Barn (2021)
The newest venue on the site. A versatile oak-framed indoor space with its own bar and loos, it seats up to 160 guests for a banquet or hosts a cocktail party for up to 220. It works equally well for the wedding breakfast, evening dancing, a long-table dinner or a live performance.
The Covered Garden
For outdoor celebrations, the covered garden transforms into a magical setting, a real draw for summer marquee-free weddings.
Bespoke catering
The kitchen handles everything from a small intimate dinner to a 300-cover banquet, with a dedicated events manager assigned to each booking. The team is comfortable working across the pub, the barn and the gardens, and the same farm-to-glass ethos that drives the kitchen applies to the event menus.
Awards and Press
The pub has won or been shortlisted for a string of national awards since 2011:
- Sawday’s England and Wales Pub of the Year for Local, Seasonal & Organic Produce 2018 to 2019 (Gold Award).
- The Times: ‘20 cool dog-friendly hotels in Britain’.
- The Telegraph: 30 best winter pubs in Britain (Best for Rooms).
- The Telegraph: Britain’s best pubs for Sunday lunch.
- The Telegraph: 30 best pubs for a long, lazy weekend lunch.
- The Telegraph: 20 most welcoming pubs for autumn walks.
The Owners and their Dogs
The pub is owned and run by Pete and Tor, who have shaped The Holford Arms into the four-season, multi-strand business it is today. They have two dogs of their own, and the team is unapologetically dog-friendly: dogs are welcome in the pub, on the campsite and in the chalets, with treats laid out for visiting four-legged guests, and the seven-acre garden provides plenty of room for a proper off-lead leg-stretch.
Visiting and Booking
For current kitchen opening hours and to secure a table, the easiest route is to book online or to email info@theholfordarms.co.uk. For overnight stays and camping, the booking widget at holfordarmsdirect shows real-time availability across the inn rooms, chalets, bell tents and the campsite.
The full address is The Holford Arms, Knockdown, Tetbury, Glos, GL8 8QY, and directions can be found on Google Maps.
If travelling specifically for the on-site produce, plan a visit around autumn. That is when the apple harvest is pressed into cider and juice, and when the surrounding Westonbirt and Cotswold landscapes are at their most photogenic.