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let’s try n farm stay holidays

let’s try n farm stay holidays

A national farmer-owned consortium with over 1,200 members offering farm accommodation stretching from the Highlands of Scotland to the tip of Cornwall, Farm Stay UK (www.farmstay.co.uk) celebrates its 30th anniversary next year, having originally started as the Farm Holiday Bureau. It is the largest network of farm-based accommodation in the UK. All of its members meet rigorous standards and have been inspected and quality-assessed under national tourist boards’ grading schemes and those operated by the AA.

The good life

awards Over 80% of members have been given four or five stars and many are award-winners. Blackmore Farm (www.blackmorefarm.co.uk), a 15th century, Grade I-listed manor house nestled in the foothills of Somerset’s Quantock Hills, was named AA Guest Accommodation of the Year in England for 2011-2012 in the annual awards which honour the country’s best B&B establishments.

In its citation, the AA heralded its olde-world grandeur, adding: “Guests get the opportunity to step back in time when they stay at Blackmore Farm as it retains many period features including oak beams, stone archways and medieval garderobes. The Dyer family offer guests a friendly welcome, beautiful surroundings and wonderful home-cooked meals.”

Other Farm Stay UK members have notched up awards, among them the four-star Low Urpeth Farm (www.lowurpeth.co.uk) in County Durham. It has collected six awards for its food, accommodation and service in the last three years, including winning Bronze in the Bed & Breakfast category of the North East England Tourism Awards for 2011.

With staycations increasingly popular, farm stay holidays offer an awayfrom-it-all escape with a surprising diversity and the chance to muck in with farmyard life if they want to. Peter Ellegard looks at what awaits visitors who decide to holiday down on a farm f the mention of a farm stay holiday makes you imagine draughty old farmhouses with few creature comforts and unappetising, stodgy food, think again. These days, you are likely to find a home away from home in accommodation ranging from period cottages to converted barns, coach-houses, stables, shepherds’ huts, and even pigsties, sometimes complete with swimming pool, tennis court, spa or hot tub – and always with a friendly welcome.

Spend a weekend break or longer holiday in a cosy, five-star rural retreat with a four-poster bed to snuggle into at night, bunk down in a hostel or get in touch with nature camping out in a yurt, tent or wigwam. Each of them alongside working farms, with all the sights,

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activities, sounds and, of course, smells to make you feel you are in the heart of the countryside and away from the stresses of the frenetic modern world.

You can choose between self-catering or bed and breakfast, and where there is food on offer you will find some of the best home cooking, much of it with a regional slant and using traditional recipes handed down over generations. Tuck into everything from farm-smoked bacon and kippers to home-made sausages, home-baked bread, farmhouse cheeses and freshly-gathered eggs.

There is not only a wide variety of farm accommodation available but also a huge quantity, as a quick Google search will underline. But if you find all the choice a bit bewildering, help is at hand.

n Feeding a lamb at Tregondale Farm

n Feeding Chickens at Overwood Farm

n Daily animal feeding at Clydey

All pictures: Farm Stay UK

86 tlm n the travel & leisure magazine

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Winter 2011/12

Winter 2011/12

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let’s try n farm stay holidays

spring activities For holidaymakers who want a real experience of life on a farm, spring offers a fantastic opportunity to get stuck in and lend a hand.

It’s a wonderful time for children, as many farms offering accommodation will have lambs being born then. They can not only watch and learn about lambing first-hand, they are also often welcome to help out.

Mary Pearson from Lovesome Hill Farm in North Yorkshire says: “Our Masham and Mule Sheep are due to lamb from March until April and we are expecting over 150 hundred lambs this year. It’s a busy time for us so guests are invited to

n Make friends with ponies

Latest research from VisitEngland shows that countryside holidays achieve far higher satisfaction levels from holidaymakers than both city and seaside holidays.

It also highlights the fact that more people are turning to holidaying at home – for so-called staycations – rather than overseas, with the 20 million holiday trips recorded during the first six months of 2011 representing a 3.3% increase on the first half of 2010.

Such is the growing appeal of a farm holiday that Farm Stay UK saw visits to its website increase by 20% in 2011. Besides Farm Stay UK, there are hundreds of other accommodation providers around the country where you can stay.

So what is the appeal of holidaying on a farm, and what can you expect?

When you stay on a farm, you get an intimate and first-hand view of the farmers’ world and life in rural Britain. You can look out of your window over fields of wheat and barley or pastures filled with sheep and cattle, gaze at orchards of ripening fruit, visit the milking parlour or see newborn lambs, and watch combine harvesters at work reaping the summer’s bounty or tractors scouring out furrows with their ploughs to plant next year’s crop.

“Many farms allow guests to actively participate in daily farm tasks” 88 tlm n the travel & leisure magazine

bring wellies and get involved with the lambing and for the help they give us on the farm we make sure they’re rewarded with lots of home-made meals.”

Nannerth Fawr Farm (www.nannerth.co.uk) is a 200-acre family Powys farm offering visitors organic farm holidays that has Welsh mountain ewes, Tor Wen sheep and numerous other farmyard animals and poultry. Activities to be seen during the year include lambing, shearing, gathering sheep from the hills surrounding the farm, hedging and hay or silage making. Children can sometimes help with feeding the poultry, bottle feeding a lamb or bringing sheep in.

n Easter at Nannerth Farm

n Self Catering at Harrop Fold Farm

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feed animals Activities and the chance to get close to farm animals are big attractions, particularly for youngsters. Many farms allow guests to actively participate in daily farm tasks, such as helping to feed lambs and other animals, gather eggs and groom horses. Some have nature walks and trails on the farm itself or you can use the farm as a base from which to explore the local area on foot, by bike or on horseback.

For horse owners, more than 170 Farm Stay UK members now offer stabling for them to take their own horses. Many farms also allow guests to bring their dogs – provided they are kept under control when near farmyard animals.

Some also organise special activities for holidaymakers. Clydey Cottages Pembrokeshire (www.clydeycottages.co.uk), another award winner honoured as Best in Wales 2010 and Best in Pembrokeshire 2011 with 15 cottages set in 68 acres, organises an Easter Egg hunt for youngsters while, on a daily basis, children can join the Clydey Young Farmers Club and help feed the resident pigs, sheep, lambs, pygmy goats and donkeys before letting off steam in the adventure playground, which is set in 20 acres of grounds.

You can also do other things on farms. Farm and Country Cottages (www.holidaycottages.co.uk) features soft and hard cheese-making courses at Hagley Bridge Farm (www.hagleybridgefarm.co.uk) near Taunton, in Somerset, for £60 (one day) and £120 (two days). Courses run monthly from the first one-day soft cheese course, on April 5. Accommodation is in a converted barn sleeping four at Lovelynch Farm, five miles away, with prices from £310 per week.

Your accommodation may be anything from rustic or period to newly-built and will often include a host of amenities, such as a fully-equipped kitchen, flat-screen TVs, Wi-Fi, comfy sofas and armchairs, en-suite bathrooms, log fires with outdoor children’s play areas and

Winter 2011/12

let’s try n farm stay holidays

farm holiday facts

n Wood Farm Trampoline

farm stay uk Farm Stay UK publishes a variety of guides, maps and leaflets covering accommodation offered by its 1,200-plus members. Its main Farm Stay UK brochure details all its UK accommodation and can be ordered online from www.farmstayuk.co.uk. The website allows visitors to search its database of properties by accommodation type or region, and has regional microsites.

sometimes your own private garden.

You can also choose to stay somewhere small and intimate, perfect for just the two of you, or at the other extreme go for somewhere that can take the whole family and in-laws or a group of friends.

farm holidays information Responsible Travel: www.responsibletravel.com/accommodation/farmstays VisitEngland: www.enjoyengland.com/Where-to-stay/Rural-escapes/Farm-stay.htm

other farm accommodation websites

easy reach Among VisitEngland’s top farm stays – some of them former farms rather than working facilities – is Compton Pool Farm (www.comptonpool.co.uk), in Marldon, Devon, which won the accolade of best self-catering business in Devon for 2011 in Visit Devon’s tourism awards. This 12th century farm has been converted into 10 luxury holiday cottages sleeping between two and 11, with activities including tennis courts, an indoor pool, games barn, fishing lake and a fenced-off area where children can meet the resident goats and pigs.

Another top pick has star appeal. Yew Tree Farm (www.yewtree-farm.com) is a working Lake District sheep farm set among hills near Coniston that was once owned by Beatrix Potter and featured as Hill Top in the movie Miss Potter, starring Renee Zellweger. Its three guest bedrooms feature oak-panelled walls and period décor, while breakfast is served in a room furnished by Beatrix Potter herself.

VisitEngland also suggests Common Barn Farm (www.cottages-with-a-view.co.uk), a traditional working sheep farm in the Peak District National Park near Macclesfield with five B&B en-suite bedrooms and two self-catering holiday cottages in converted stone barns. It has its own tea shop and sells fresh lamb from the farm.

While a farm stay is a great away-from-it all escape, that doesn’t mean it has to be remote or take hours to find down winding country lanes. Many farms are within easy reach of motorways and cities.

Overwood Farm (www.overwood.net) offers a peaceful farm cottage B&B surrounded by Worcestershire woodlands and farmland where you can watch bats hunting and hear owls hooting at night, yet it is less than three miles from Bromsgrove and 15 minutes from both the M42 and M5 motorways. It has won an EnjoyEngland award for its breakfasts, which include eggs gathered daily from its own chickens.

One thing is certain – if you opt for the peace and quiet of a holiday down on a farm, you won’t be short of things to do.

90 tlm n the travel & leisure magazine

n Feeding The Clydey Sheep And Lambs

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National and regional farm stay websites include: www.holidaycottages.co.uk/farms www.stayonafarm.com www.holidaycottages.co.uk www.cheshirefarmstay.co.uk n Barns with www.farmstays.co.uk spring flowers www.pembrokeshirefarmstay.co.uk www.stayonamanxfarm.com www.devonfarms.co.uk www.farmholidays-southwest.co.uk www.farmhouseaccommodation.co.uk www.farmstayanglia.co.uk www.wiltshirefarmstay.co.uk www.irishfarmholidays.com www.peakdistrictfarmhols.co.uk www.cornishfarmholidays.co.uk www.wightfarmholidays.co.uk www.farmstaysomerset.com www.cotswoldsfarmstay.co.uk www.farm-stay-kent.co.uk www.lakesfarmholidays.co.uk n Guest kitchen www.nfag.co.uk

food for thought Autumn stays on farms bring tasty delights for visitors, with the chance to go foraging for mushrooms, nuts and berries.

Autumn activities on offer at Farm Stay UK member farms include: l A Mushroom School at Kirkwood Farm in Scotland; guests can get tips on where to forage and tuition from a professional guide. l Take a bottle of gin to Damerons Farm in Suffolk, gather up sloes and head back to the farm kitchen, where you can create sloe gin. l Pick blackberries and hazel nuts at Cyfie Farm in Wales, then taste them while lazing in the hot tub in the farms’ converted pig sty. l Stay at Upperfields Farm in Herefordshire, where local foodie Raoul Van Den Brouke offers groups a guided food forage.

Winter 2011/12