Beneath the red kites, surrounded by peaceful meadows and lazy horses, your own three-acre slice of Oxfordshire comes with outdoor toys aplenty. Splash away an afternoon in the 10-metre garden pool, heated all year round, then soak up life under big skies in the eight-seat, woodfired hot tub.
Cook on the outdoor kitchen that includes pizza oven and gas and coal barbecues, toast your marshmallows on the firepit, and watch the kids go wild for the trampoline, slide and swing set. Keep the outdoor feel at sunset, with a little bird-watching from the conservatory.
They say people don’t grow up, they just change their toys, and Emerald Farm provides plenty of those for big kids of all ages. When you’re tired of the table tennis, you can slide into the indoor sauna, or work off your breakfast in the gym complete with spin bikes, weights and 38” wall TV to distract you from the pain.
Chink glasses in the indoor six-seat hot tub. And keep the party going in the disco room, with a cheeky mojito from the neon-lit cocktail bar. Catch a movie from Netflix or Amazon Prime Video on the projector in the cinema room over the free Starlink Wi-Fi, or warm your feet in front of the woodburner in the lounge with its 75” TV.
In between the fun, there’s finery galore. Settle back on squishy leather sofas amid panels and window seats. Escape to the snug for board games or books. Or spice things up with karaoke. Emerald Farm has everything you need to either party or be apart as the fancy takes.
Nice day? The outdoor kitchen beckons with its gas and coal barbecues and pizza oven. Wrap things up around the firepit with marshmallows. Or stay inside to cook on the four electric ovens and eat around the chunky oak table beneath the ancient beams with the open fire crackling in the grate.
Take a night off and book an external chef for anything from a full-blown banquet to a hog roast, a one-off celebration to mark a birthday or anniversary to a fully catered break. Keep away from the ovens for tasty takeaways from Vine and Spice (Indian), Tiffin’s (Tandoori) or Ask Italian.
Tuck in to chargrilled chicken Caesar salad or butternut and orange risotto at two AA rosette-holding The Mole Inn. Enjoy English or Thai in the eclectic, eccentric Crazy Bear in Stadhampton. Or try Wiltshire pork belly or Oxford college sausages and mash from The Chequers at Burcot.
Wander the lavender-scented footpath towards a culinary fairytale at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, where two Michelin stars gets you seven courses that include chargrilled Scottish langoustine, Creedy Carver duck breast and chocolate crumble. Or enjoy a seasonal menu paired with a punt on the river at The Cherwell Boathouse.
You’ve 11 bedrooms to pick from here but whichever one you choose, you’ll sleep the sleep of the truly serene, wrapped in Egyptian cotton and surrounded by three acres of silence and the meadows that flank the Thames beyond.
Stay in the Abingdon room to sleep in a unique, handmade queen bed with a beautiful balcony overlooking the garden. Choose the Henley room for a kingsize bed with bunk, or the Lechlade room for a double, or The Marlow and the Oxford, which both offer a double bed and include a large wardrobe and drawers.
Pick the Goring room for a kingsize bed with wardrobe and stone flooring or the Putney for a double with en-suite wet room. The Richmond and the Eton offer a double bed and wardrobe, while the Walton and Windsor are ground-floor doubles that both enjoy en-suite bathrooms.
Gone are the days when the only way to view a house was solely by way of poring over flat and sometimes confusing floor plans. With the emergence of 360-degree video we have an exciting new way of being introduced to the layout of a house.
With a few clicks you can be leisurely making your way through living rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, kitchens and bathrooms – the whole house in all its beauty waiting for you to step on in for an effortless and insightful virtual tour.
