Featherdown Farms

We’ve just had a Featherdown Farm experience! We stayed at Knaveswell Farm in Corfe Castle, Dorset (an area I am very familiar with after having spent a lot of time there in my younger days).

I saw Featherdown Farms in Country Living – it’s basically, very posh camping. It started in Holland, spread to France and there are now over a dozen farms in the UK. The farms that want to become a Featherdown holiday have to fulfill strict criteria (including being a working farm), and all the tents are identical: 3 bedrooms (although the 3rd ‘bedroom’ is like a cubby hole that fits either one adult or two children), toilet, running water, wood burning stove, proper beds and an Honesty Shop where you can buy bread, eggs, milk, meat, candles, etc., etc. All of which has to be as local as possible. So as I said, we chose Knaveswell because I really wanted to take my wife there and show her what a beautiful part of the world it is. I’m also a massive Famous Five fan and Corfe and the Purbecks are known as Blyton country with the castle allegedly providing inspiration for Kirrin Castle.

The farm is a dairy farm and you’re welcome to go and watch the cows being milked which further adds to the experience, and on one of the days we were there, you could hand feed young calves. There were also pigs and chickens and you could help yourselves to eggs.

Our stay was Monday to Friday and by chance, we had lovely weather. A little rain but lots of hot sunshine as well! The tent was fantastic, but we were particularly taken with the wood stove as we plan to buy one before next winter. The beds were really comfy and having a toilet in the tent is fantastic! (There are showers available but these are shared, just like a traditional campsite). To get to our tent we had to walk through a small woodland of bluebells. We were surrounded by trees and hills and the birdsong, including owls at night, was amazing. After milking, the cows would amble up to the top field next to our tent and would low to each other until they all settled down for the night. At night we would light the oil lamps and candles and read or play gin rummy (I wasn’t very good!). And because there were no artificial distractions like TV we ended up going to bed early, sleeping really, really well and then getting up early, too.

By day two we already felt like we’d been there for a week which was glorious because we relaxed so quickly; the dogs, too. They loved being out and about with us all day and curled up by the fire all night.

We visited Studland beach, the Monkey Sanctuary, the Tank museum, the Swanage Steam Railway, Lulworth Cove and Kimmeridge. We found the best place to have breakfast in the whole of the Purbecks and ate cream teas and lots of icecream. The farmer lit the bread oven on the Wednesday and we bought pizzas which literally cooked in 2-3 minutes because of the heat of the oven. And they were so delicious that I ate mine too fast and got hiccups!

It really was a lovely holiday and because you pay in advance for the whole thing, you didn’t get a nasty bill at the end of the holiday! (Although you do have to settle up your Honesty Shop bill). We would thoroughly recommend choosing a Featherdown holiday. And as much as we would love to return to Knaveswell, we will probably choose another farm next time and go to a part of the country we’ve never been to before.

We’re still really relaxed and have even got a bit of a tan! I’m not back till work until Thursday and my partner is off all week. It was lovely to come home again, and the weather is fantastic here, too. Today we’re off to the beach and having lunch out.

The next two weekends we have friends and family staying!