It’s often said that The Cotswolds offer visitors the very essence of England. If that’s true, then the holidays at Hidcote Manor Farm distill it even further. This farm, on a Cotswolds estate, is surrounded by thatched-roof cottages, walled National Trust gardens and rolling chalk hills, while a delightful footpath leads you through Kiftsgate Court to a 350-year-old honey-coloured pub, a 35-minute walk away. The market town of Chipping Campden lies four miles south and Shakespeare’s birthplace nine miles north. It's England in a perfectly packaged up form.
Hidcote Manor is a Feather Down farm; part of a network of farm stays offering off-grid holidays in roomy safari tents (or ‘tented cottages’ as the Feather Down team likes to call them). Lit only by candles and oil lamps, the rustic but homely accommodation is invariably lovely, with log burners, en-suite loos and cute kids’ cupboard bedrooms as particular highlights. And while the well-set up accommodation varies little from location to location, the on-site experience is as unique as the farms you’ll find it on, with hosting left in the capable hands of Feather Down’s partner farmers.
Here, that farmer is John. His family have farmed this 300-acre mixed farm since the National Trust took over the site during the Second World War. Their interest was in the garden designed by Lawrence Johnston, which surrounds the house. Now open to the public as a popular visitor attraction, farm stay guests have free access included with their stay. A short walk away, in a field on the edge of Hidcote’s farm is where you’ll find Feather Down’s safari-style tents. There are just five, each sleeping a maximum of six people, meaning guests are always outnumbered by the 450 sheep who graze in the surrounding fields. Come in spring and you may even have a chance to help with bottle feeding some of the lambs.
From here, you can follow long-distance footpaths, including The Heart of England Way, across fields to the popular market town of Chipping Campden (the walk takes an hour to an hour and a half, depending on your fitness). Jump in the car and, to the south, all of the Cotswolds is yours to explore and, to the north, is Stratford-upon-Avon. With the half-timbered cottages of its high street, the canal boat-studded river bank, Shakespeare’s birthplace and Ann Hathaway’s cottage, there’s plenty to see and do. And when the action is over there it’s back to the farm for the final scene. It’s a romantic one where the main players sit outside their safari tent and look over what Shakespeare himself might have called: “This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England”.
