Old Hall Farm

Arrive early and you can watch – even help! – the beautiful Jersey cows being milked in this nurturing microdairy. Freya, Gaia, Juno and the other cows then head out to the meadows for the rest of the day, where they suckle their calves at leisure. Unlike most dairy farms, the calves at Old Hall Farm aren’t taken from their mothers at birth, producing calmer, happier cows – and richer, tastier milk.

Rebecca and Stuart Mayhew adore their ‘Jersey Goddesses’ and in the farm shop you can buy their award-winning raw milk, milkshakes, cream and butter. The farm’s milk-fed pork is sold here too, along with its free-range chickens and eggs, local jams, honey and artisan bread. In the café you can tuck into a sumptuous farm breakfast after watching the milking, or later in the day enjoy a lunch of sandwiches or omelette made with the farm’s produce, or a cream tea or ‘cheesecake of the day’ to set you up for the journey ahead. With a vineyard now planted, Old Hall will be selling its own wine down the line too.

Look out for the peacocks – they roam free and let out piercing calls from their age-old perches.