At Greenfields, the gardens and grounds live just as large inside the house as they do outside. With floor-to-ceiling, sliding-glass feature windows, this is a nature-watcher’s dream, with an ever-changing cast of seasons and wildlife splashed across the giant screen.
Watch out for roe deer and red kites in between games of croquet on the manicured lawn and dinners on the high-spec gas barbecue beneath the patio heater. And what’s that at the foot of the garden? It’s bedroom five, a secluded cabin with its own entrance and garden, kitchenette and shower room.
Furnished in elegant neutrals, spaces at Greenfields are built around families and friends wanting to recharge and reconnect. The focal point here is the modern kitchen, a lightwell for the house with its sliding glass walls with breakfast table for drinking in the garden views over a coffee.
Get together in the evenings in the drawing room, a refined space in subtle shades of soft grey. As the wood crackles on the open fire, get cosy on the L-shaped sofa over movies on the smart TV (bring your streaming passwords) or retire to a corner with a board game or a book from the shelves.
Tom Kerridge’s Michelin-starred restaurant is just three miles away, or you can bring in our pro chefs, but if you fancy your chances of concocting award-winning cuisine yourself, the kitchen’s not too shabby. Even if the food comes up short, the views through the floor-to-ceiling sliding-glass windows should more than compensate.
Eat around the ornate ten-seater glass table or out on the terrace, with meat from Gabriel Machin’s butchers on the premium gas barbecue and the patio heater warming the rural air. Or call up for takeaways from Smoky Flame for fried chicken, Herbie’s Pizza or Indian from Henley Spice Merchant.
Take away or book ahead for street food, classic curries and stir fries from The Giggling Squid in Henley. Tuck in to good pub grub at The Dog and Badger or head to Tom Kerridge’s The Hand and Flowers, the only pub in the country with two Michelin stars. Or try ragout of orzo pasta or the Stag Burger at The Stag and Huntsman.
Enjoy a cosy Italian at Villa Marina in Henley: maybe calves’ liver in butter and sage pancetta or grilled swordfish? There’s more Michelin-starred Tom Kerridge on offer at The Coach in Marlow, showcasing small-plates British classics with a contemporary twist. Or try Loch Duart Salmon or buttermilk-fried quail at Vanilla Pod.
There won’t be much restlessness going on with a backdrop of fields, deer and swooping red kites. And the beguiling bedrooms should help, too. Especially the cosy cabin at the foot of the garden. Greenfields sleeps 10 in five bedrooms with an extra z-bed available for the eleventh guest.
The main bedroom allows you to enjoy countryside views from the superking bed or the feature stone bath that sits in the window. You’ve three further bedrooms, one with a superking and en-suite shower, a twin room with en-suite bathroom, and a double bedroom on the ground floor with an en-suite shower and garden door.
Like the idea of a bolthole within a bolthole? Bedroom five is a separate cabin hidden at the end of the garden. It comes with its own entrance and garden, a kitchenette and shower room and sleeps another two of you.
