When Padel Meets the Perfectly Crafted Stay

There are invitations you accept politely, and then there are invitations that make you lean forward in your chair. When the mail came to join a select group of padel aficionados and influencers for an overnight at Crafted at Powdermills — the brainchild of founder Chris King — and to be among the founding members of the Crafted Padel Club, I leaned in hard. (Check out the carousel of images below!)

An Estate That Earns Its Acres

Located near Battle, East Sussex, just 70 minutes from London, Crafted at Powdermills sits on 78 acres of ancient woodland, wildflower fields, and private trails, centred around a breathtaking seven-acre lake. The estate has 54 rooms, suites, and lakeside cottages — intimate enough to feel curated, spacious enough never to feel crowded. Described as a “life-friendly” lifestyle hotel and members’ club brand, it is the kind of place that makes you wonder, almost immediately, why you don’t live like this all the time.

Luxury Without the Show

And yet — crucially — it never shows off. There’s no gold leaf, no hushed lobbies policed by over-groomed staff. The luxury at Crafted is of the kind that gets under your skin quietly. In your room, you find locally crafted goods — artisan products sourced from the surrounding region, displayed and offered with quiet pride rather than fanfare. Throughout the hotel and grounds, the same ethos plays out: local, honest, beautifully made. Crafted-for-you, not crafted at you.

Something for Every Kind of Alive

The activities alone could fill a week. There’s a genuine pub — not a pastiche of one, but a proper, convivial spot with a menu that runs noon to 9:30pm. A relaxed bar for lingering. A restaurant that takes its produce seriously, drawing on Sussex ingredients (esp the chard!) with the kind of confidence that doesn’t need to announce itself. Then step outside: a heated saltwater pool, hot tub, lakeside sauna, and ice bath for the brave (count me among the reluctant, but converted). Kayaks on the lake, paddleboarding, wild (and refreshing) lake swimming, woodland walks — the estate invites you to inhabit it fully. And we can’t forget the wellbeing centre (as well as a great gym).

The Padel, the Tequila, and the Tournament

And then, of course, the padel. Two outdoor courts, and Chris King is — it should be noted — a genuine superfan of the sport. The Crafted Padel Club launched with exactly that energy: purposeful, playful, and community-driven. The festivities started properly with a lunch infused with a Casamigos Tequila session — because the right spirit, in both senses of the word, sets a tone. Then followed a padel tournament, complete with prizes, and the friendly competitive banter that only this maddening, beautiful sport seems to generate.

A Table Worth Lingering At

Dinner was, in a word, marvellous. The kind of table where the conversation flows as freely as the wine, where you find yourself still seated long after you’d planned to leave, not wanting to break the spell.

What Crafted at Powdermills has achieved is something genuinely rare: a place that feels abundant without feeling excessive. It gives you a lot — activities, flavour, community, nature — but it holds it lightly. It’s what hospitality feels like when it’s been thought through by someone who actually cares.