Stories of Devon with Hugo and Olive, Glebe House

Stories of Devon with Hugo and Olive

Glebe House

November 8, 2026

Just outside the village of Southleigh, Devon sits Glebe House. Tucked between the red cliffs of the Jurassic Coast and the white chalk of Beer, and overlooking patchwork fields and the river Coly, the late Victorian vicarage is home to Hugo and Olive, who run the guest house, farm-to-table restaurant and fifteen acre smallholding set amongst the ancient woodlands and rolling hills of the South West.

Formerly Hugo's family home, Glebe House, the couple explain, still runs as a family house would. Downstairs are three dining rooms, two sitting rooms, and a garden room that overlooks the working rooms of the house: a kitchen garden, bakery, and ageing room. Upstairs are five bedrooms, "each with its own character" -- the Rose Room, for example, offers views both ways down the valley, while the Copper Beech room looks out onto the tree it is named for. At the outskirts of the house sit cabins, "more private and a little wilder", for guests who like somewhere of their own.

With Hugo bringing decades of knowing and loving the House -- "he knows which room gets the morning light, and where the frost sits" -- Olive has brought her and her family's experience of painting, art and decoration, influences that are felt throughout Glebe House: "I wanted Glebe to warm and inviting -- a place to be enjoyed by all generations, where family can come together and feel inspired." Filled with hand-painted furniture, and slowly collected, long cherished pieces, the House is ever-evolving, a personal endeavour in mixing the couple's collection with Olive's artwork and local, contemporary art.

Craft, Hugo and Olive impress, "is at the heart of everything we do." From interiors and objects, to the food eaten by guests and family alike, "we make as much as we can by hand and from scratch." Bread, butter, salumi and ferments are as lovingly cultivated as furniture and fabrics -- "everything is made well." Most of what is made, and later, eaten starts as a raw ingredient on-site, with naturally leavened bread baked daily, accompanied by fresh butter and yoghurt, granola and pickles. Coppa and salumi are cured for months by Hugo, a skill taught to him in Tuscany by norcini whose families have cured meat for generations. Curing is one of the oldest ways of making good food last, he enthuses, "it rewards patience".

At Glebe House patience is indeed a virtue, with good practices rooted in the Slow Food movement. Centred around three words: "good", "clean", and "fair", Slow Food "tastes of where it is from, is produced without harming the land, and is a fair price for the people who make it." Olive and Hugo are proud members, emphasising food that "tastes better, and wastes far less."

The principle is simple: "we grow what we can, preserve what can't be used instantly, and buy the rest from people nearby who we know and respect." Simple, however, does not mean idle. A summer glut means pickling and bottling, fermenting and drying, with sauces and cordials stored for future seasons or sold in the gift shop. Old bread becomes breadcrumbs and crackers, bones become stock. A near-daily changing, single set menu informs the rhythm of each day, using the whole ingredient and finding use for every part. "The menu is written around what's ready in the garden and what our neighbours have," rooted in nose-to-tail dining and nodding to the culinary traditions of Italy and France.

Seasonality is naturally at the heart of each dish, with Hugo re-training as a chef at the Ashburton Cookery School and learning both the discipline of the kitchen and the importance of local produce. Combined with Olive's keen eye for beauty and affinity for how place truly inspires feeling, the pair, who first met as teenagers in Cornwall, turned their dream of cooking where they could grow and rear ingredients themselves, into a reality, nearly a decade in a making. Today, with the exception of occasional signatures -- "really the simple things, porridge bread, cultured butter, salumi, vaccino" -- Hugo and Olive wake up each day and allow the place and the season to decide what they cook -- "we're simply cooking what's here."

With food coming from the land and neighbours, Glebe House is built in the agritsumo tradition. Informal and comfortable, the agritusmo is a family-run working farm that takes in guests. The point, Olive explains, is not luxury -- "it's being looked after by people who grow and make things." Familiar in feel, staying at Glebe House should feel like "the best version of your own home, or your friend's family home." In amongst a rest in the wood-fired sauna, a dip in the pool, a course in breadmaking in the bakery, and a seasonal dinner by the fire, "it's made personal."

Sitting in the history of the agritsumo, but also the history of Hugo and Olive's family itself, Glebe House is indebted not only to the land, but the people who have lived in it. With Hugo's family originally running the House as a bed and breakfast, "having strangers sat at the table was normal growing up, and some of the same team still work here." Friends nearby round off the seasonal menu -- "Beer mackerel in summer, Lymbe Bay scallops, crab and cuttlefish. Castlewood wine that keeps improving, and vegetables from Connor and Chiara at Half Penny Farm". Even the South West's rainy reputation inspires gratitude from the couple, as Devon's red, clay-rich soil grows "brilliant vegetables", and grass for livestock. Locality of both people and place, is central to Glebe House's sustainability:" keeping money in the valley means that our suppliers do well, and there will still be fisherman working in ten years' time."

At Glebe House, locality and history go hand in hand, passed down to a new generation in the form of curiosity. "Our children," Olive tells us, "have an amazing sense of wonder and curiosity about how things are grown, how things are made and where their food comes from." A home to that curiosity, Gleve House offers a place for children and adults alike to appreciate the world around them, approaching life with care and a sense of stewardship.