Sanctuary Breaks is a registered charity (no 1204540). We arrange retreats, workshops, away days and residential stays for forced migrants, including refugees, those seeking asylum, and survivors of trafficking and torture. We have access to the dedicated use of Hill House as a venue. If you choose to stay at Hill House for your own retreat, you will be helping us to give sanctuary breaks to refugees as well.

Volunteers are central to how we work, supporting those who visit and caring for the beautiful house and gardens so that those we support can fully enjoy the space.

Sanctuary Breaks

Sanctuary Breaks is a charity (no. 1204540) enabling people seeking sanctuary to have some time away from the city, and to enjoy a few hours or a few days in the countryside, based at Hill House. We arrange regular day trips for Gloucestershire’s asylum seekers and refugees, and welcome people from further afield for shorter or longer visits.

Daily experience in the city for anyone without basic security is hard.  People who have fled conflict or persecution in their country of origin can often feel anxious and overwhelmed by the difficulty of securing protection in the UK. If granted refugee status it is still a struggle to settle in to a strange culture and a new country that can sometimes be unwelcoming or actively hostile.

The quiet beauty of the Cotswold countryside, Hill House and its garden, allow friends to relax, feel at home, and reconnect with more peaceful times.  We trust our guests will return rested and resourced for the next stage of their journey.

Successive government have deliberately created a hostile environment towards refugees. Nevertheless, from its beginning in 2016, local residents have responded generously to this project, and shown that a majority of people wish to welcome migrants to the community. Friends drop in to prepare meals, assist with transport, take visitors on local walks, join shared meals, or do garden or craft activities together. As far as we can, we meet as equals and listen to each other’s stories. Our refugee visitors can be encouraged by the welcome they find here. Over a few hours or days, together with people who have had to leave their first home, just for a time, we create a new sense of family.

As a person seeking sanctuary in the UK, you may be in touch with an organisation that is working in support of refugees and asylum seekers or others in trauma, which can arrange a trip to Hill House. The house is freely available for you.

Local refugee support agencies are welcome to use the house for respite, for away days and for arranging activiites in the area for their members and service users. We can help to arrange your programme of activities.

For those supporting groups in the refugee sector, anywhere in the country, you are welcome to use the house for self-catered stays of up to a week at subsidised cost.

Contact us to discuss how we can make any of these activities work for you.

There is wheelchair access to the ground floor and to the main lawn. 

Find out about volunteering ⟶

Hill House gardens, sanctuary

Upcoming Events

“It feels like home here”

- Anne

Woman wearing a butterfly-patterned apron preparing food at an outdoor cooking event under a tree, with other women and children in the background.
Group of people walking and waving on a paved rural path near houses and grassy hills.
People sitting around a table outside, decorating colorful Easter eggs with paints and brushes.
Three people working in a vegetable garden on a sunny day, planting or tending to green crops with a background of houses and trees.
Group of people sitting on grass and steps outside a building, posing for a photo, with children, adults, and elderly, surrounded by flowers and greenery.
Two women watering plants in a lush garden. One woman is holding a garden hose, and the other is standing nearby. The garden has green grass, flowering plants, shrubs, and trees, with an overcast sky above.