Selgars Mill — whole estate

Selgars Mill sits in the Culm Valley on the edge of Uffculme, a few minutes off the M5 and a two-hour train ride from Paddington. The old mill house and the cottages around it have been converted for groups, and hiring the estate means the eight acres of grounds come too: a millpond and a stretch of river with a little jetty and a footbridge by the weir, a walled kitchen garden, woodland, and the old waterwheel under a wisteria-hung gallery.

Indoors there are 22 beds spread across five buildings: the Mill House, Mill Lodge, Pond Lodge, the Waggon and the Annex. Share a few doubles and around 30 people can stay inside; through the warmer months ten summerhouse cabins, each sleeping two, make room for a bigger gathering.

Inside it’s beams, wide old floorboards and whitewashed stone: an open-plan lounge, long wooden tables for shared meals and a farmhouse kitchen with room for several cooks. It suits groups who want to be together without being on top of each other — there are enough separate buildings that everyone can find a bit of quiet.

The Barn is where the estate gathers: a timber-clad room over an old brick plinth, with open roof trusses, big windows and paper lanterns, seating up to 100. Hosts have laid it with long banquet tables, filled it with rugs and sofas, set a circle of chairs for a retreat or draped the ceiling for a party, and there’s a projector and screen for talks.

Out in the gardens there’s a black, wood-fired barrel sauna — pale timber benches, round windows and a stove in the middle — with an ice bath beside it, a walled garden with a stone pergola that turns crimson in autumn, raised beds in the kitchen garden, and lawns for a circle of chairs and straw bales under a woven willow arch.

From May to early October the estate hosts retreats, team offsites, breathwork weekends and workshops. From October to April it turns into a coliving house for longer stays — a good fit for small teams, writers and anyone wanting a slower winter in the country.