This property has so much potential, but sadly it fails to deliver. Located just on the outskirts of the Richmond village, it's an easyish walk to the historical bridge, shops and bakery.
Although highly rated, possibly due to a lack of competition in the hotel genre, I arrived to find no-one in the reception area. A man working in the next room, who was later referred to as "the Chinese man, he's here to fix the Internet - he doesn't speak English" suggested I go to the restaurant. This is in a separate building and, once there, I located the woman I was looking for - she came bustling out of the kitchen and back to the phone where she was handling a reservation. Finishing that conversation she turned to me and said "Hang on, I've just got to check something in the oven" before scuttling back to the kitchen. While she was in there a lunch guest helped herself to a beer from the fridge, and all I could think of was Fawlty Towers! After serving the meals she'd gone back to the kitchen for, my 'host' guided me back to the reception area, complaining about her husband who was supposed to be in reception and commenting on how she couldn't be expected to be in two places at once (and explaining the 'Chinese man' as she referred to him).
In the meantime another couple, whose car I'd seen outside the reception area when I arrived, also returned to check-in. They were asked to wait while I was checked-in and then shown to my room, which was clean and spacious. Unfortunately, it was also underneath a loft room and the ceiling/floorboards were paper-thin, so I could hear every footstep my upstairs neighbour took - and she took many, up until 11pm - and was woken early the following morning by her walking around when she was 'up with the birds'.
Another problem is the bathroom - there is almost no shelving for toiletries (the vanity is totally inadequate); the saviour of this problem is the ironing board which became a pseudo shelving system. And the (glorious) morning sun shining through the bathroom window reflected off the mirror, rendering it useless. Improvisation for this problem was to relocate my toiletries to the sitting room, which had a hall stand complete with mirror. I also had to request a hairdryer - apparently 'husbands' pack them with their belongings, believing them to belong to their wives, so they're kept in reception - perhaps 'built-in' dryers would be the way to solve this problem.
So, although it sounds wonderful, Hatcher's Manor sadly doesn't live up to expectations. It seems as though too few people are trying to do too much. The grounds are lovely, as is the setting, but the devil, as always, is in the detail.