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Review 251: Heath Farm, Walnut

www.heathfarm.com

Recommended. Review by Randy from TX

2bed/1bath, sleeps 2-4 apartment on farm in the Cotswolds, Heart of England

When

June 2000, one week

Location

Heath Farm is on the main road between Banbury and Chipping Norton, a road lined with farms and an occasional tiny village. It's a little, winding two lane road but a pretty important thoroughfare, and people drive very fast on it. But Heath Farm is set back from the road, and there is no traffic noise. It's absolutely beautiful there in the Cotswolds, and the views out all our windows were lovely. There are four other apartments, plus the owners' home on the property, and you could hear them if the windows were open, but there wasn't any unpleasant noise. One weird thing was that, in the parking area near the house, there were these businesses - a contractor's office, a computer graphics company, like that. You couldn't see them from the house, but they were on the property. I assume it's just one more thing this tree farmer has to do to make ends meet. And it was the only thing that made me wince sometimes about the choice of this place, because the farm itself, the gardens, the surrounding area, and the apartment were green and lush and like something out of Barry Lyndon.

Nearby Amenities

There's nothing very nearby. We had to drive to Chipping Norton, about fifteen minutes away, to get groceries. Chipping Norton is a pretty good sized village, and it had modern supermarket type places and drug stores where you could get whatever you needed. I didn't love driving on the left side of the road and the right side of the car, with people zooming around me all the time, so I would have enjoyed some stores we could walk to. There were a couple of nice restaurants a little closer - in Hook Norton, for instance, and along the road to Chipping Norton.

The House/Apartment

The farm buildings were built in the 18th century, and the Barbours have renovated them wonderfully in the past few years. Much of the furniture was handmade from wood grown on the farm, and it's really fine. The decorating is lovely, and the bathroom (in Walnut, where we stayed) was just to die for - really big with green and ochre slate tile, a giant shower, impeccable fixtures.

Garden

There are lovely gardens with all kinds of herbs and flowers such as they can only grow in England. You can see them on the web page, and they look even better in person. There were some farm animals about - sheep, ducks, geese, chickens - and nearby horse farms, and the animals all made the hillsides just more picturesque. There were tables and benches all around the garden, and there are thousands of places around the grounds to sit on one's own, but we had no private patio or terrace. I don't recall missing it at the time, but I suppose it would have been nice. This is a farm, and there are acres and acres of land to walk, connecting by walking path to just about the rest of England.

Furnishings/Cleanliness/Living Areas

Our apartment was the upper story of a converted barn and is called Walnut. It's supposedly the nicest apartment there, though the others looked nice, too. Everything was very clean and comfortable, and there was seating in the living room for about six people. The dining table is huge - could probably seat ten - and its oversize, along with that of the thronelike chairs, just made us feel rich.

Bedrooms/Bathrooms

The bed we slept in was comfortable, and there was a little bedroom behind a heavy curtain you could draw (both of these in a loft above the living room). That other bedroom had two twin beds, which also seemed fine. The bathroom, as I've already mentioned, was magnificent.

Kitchen

There is a full, usable kitchen, and it was well-equipped. We cooked a couple of real dinners there, and it was fun. The oven was, of course, English, and so was a little mysterious for Americans. We left a chicken in there for an hour without ever successfully getting the power on. But that's foreign travel, right?

Problems or Bonuses

The apartment was nicer than we expected, more luxurious and bigger. The countryside, the views out the windows, brought more tears to our eyes than we would have expected. We would have expected to feel less private than we did in a cluster of apartments; really, it didn't trouble us at all. As far as unexpected negatives are concerned, I guess I would say the businesses on the property, though it was nothing more than an annoyance, an anachronism, when we pulled out of the parking lot. And it only bothered me; my wife couldn't figure out why I was troubled by it.

Agency and Representatives (and price)

The booking was easy, no problems at all. I think I had one email exchange and one phone conversation with Mrs. Barbour, and that was that. She (along with her dog and cat) were waiting for us when we drove up the driveway. The hosts were kind and relaxed and solicitous but never intrusive. We are delicate about our privacy, and we never regretted staying in an apartment connected to someone's home. As I mentioned, this is a tree farm, and Mr. Barbour was very willing to explain the workings of the farm for as long as we asked questions. I don't think there is anything about the place that was different from the published information except that the businesses surrounding the parking lot are not pictured on the website.

Do you recommend this vacation rental to others?

We would stay here again, and we recommend it to others. I suppose, if we were staying in the exact same area of England, we might look around and see if there was a new place to explore. But even the problems I have mentioned are not a big deal. It would be easy and pleasurable to go back, and we not only would but HAVE recommended it to friends and people in our family.

Things to do in this area

Mostly, we investigated the lovely little towns in the Cotswolds like Chipping Camden, Stow in the Wold, Moreton in Marsh. We went to Oxford for a day and another day went to Stratford upon Avon (this house is about equidistant between them). We also made a trip to a place called Owlpen Manor, which was nice but a little too far to go. Hidcote Manor is on the way to Stratford and has very beautiful gardens, my wife's favorites. All these towns have little bookshops and antique shops. There are also very ancient druid sites in the area, sort of like Stonehenge, though the name of the most famous one here is escaping me at the moment. There are walking trails that go across the whole area, along centuries-old fields and houses. I didn't hear about any "don't-miss" restaurants, though the food in pubs wasn't bad. Still, if you want vegetables or fibre of any kind, you'll be hitting the grocery store, and you'll be glad to have a fridge.

This review is the opinion of a Slow Travel member and not of slowtrav.com.

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