The Ox Barn

The story

The Ox Barn, Lechlade: Modern British Dining in a Converted Cotswold Barn

EAT

At Thyme, a country estate in Southrop near Lechlade, the nineteenth-century Ox Barn has been reborn as a contemporary restaurant. Originally home to the oxen that ploughed the surrounding fields, the building was a piece of state-of-the-art agricultural architecture in its day. Caryn Hibbert worked meticulously to preserve its extensive beams, soaring arches and original Cotswold stone rubble walls, creating a dining room that honours its farming past while feeling thoroughly modern.

The kitchen is led by Chef Director Charlie Hibbert, and the philosophy is direct: food that is all about the best ingredients, cooked simply. The menus change with the gardener’s harvests and the seasonality of local partners. Picked-that-day produce drives dishes such as garden lovage, fennel and pea risotto, or confit guinea fowl with borlotti beans and baby gem. The result is a clear, confident expression of Modern British cooking that lets the Cotswolds speak for themselves.

This approach has earned the restaurant a Michelin Recommended distinction, a recognition that feels natural rather than forced—the cooking is quietly accomplished, never showy. The Ox Barn is open for lunch and dinner, with a dress code that shifts from relaxed smart-casual by day to a more polished, sophisticated look in the evening.

Sample menus hint at the kitchen’s range: a spring lunch set might offer orecchiette with braised escarole and cotechino, followed by poached rhubarb with meringue and lemon curd. The à la carte dinner could begin with carpaccio Cipriani and salmoriglio, then move to Iron Age pork with borlotti beans or Fresian Holstein beef with turnips and tomato-anchovy butter. Desserts include a Basque cheesecake with poached apricots and a tiramisu. Throughout, the thread is clear—ingredients chosen for their quality, handled with restraint.

The restaurant also hosts a series of Wine Supper Clubs and guest chef takeovers, from Tuscan wine estates to London’s Honey & Co. These events add a lively, convivial layer to a room that already feels like a destination in itself.