Old Farm, Moreton-In-Marsh

When planning the UK segment of our trip, we used Rick Steves’ website to compile a list of places to visit based on his recommended itinerary.  Visiting a town in the Cotswolds, a range of hills in west-central England, was fairly high on his priority list, so we decided to spend two nights in Moreton-In-Marsh, the only town in the Cotswolds which has a train station. I’m happy to report that, although it’s small, Moreton-In-Marsh may turn out to be one of my favorite places in England…

Part of the reason I’ve enjoyed our time here so much is because we’re staying at a B&B called Old Farm, which is actually a working farm that breeds sheep, cattle and Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs.  When planning our trip, I was hoping to stay at a farm B&B because I love animals, but it hasn’t been possible since most farms are quite far from town and we’re not driving.  Luckily, in the Cotswolds farms are all over the place, and Old Farm is only a 2 km walk from the Moreton-In-Marsh train station so it was reachable for us! 

Our first walk to the farm yesterday was quite the adventure in and of itself – we followed the directions the owners had emailed us and walked from the train station to a set of kissing gates, which led to a large field full of sheep!  I’ve only seen sheep in small gated pens in petting zoos, and it felt totally different (and amusing) to walk through a field full of them and have them run away in all different directions baahing as you get near them.  Since we couldn’t agree on what the directions “head for the top left corner of the first field” meant, we ended up making a big L-shaped loop, causing sheep run all over the place as we looked for the proper gate.  It took us a while, but eventually we found our way to the farm

Although the décor is a bit dated (think 70s style traditional country home full of flower prints and pink wallpaper), our room at the B&B is quite comfortable and the bed is huge and soft.  The best part of staying on Old Farm, though, is the breakfast – fresh free range eggs from their own chickens, bacon and sausages made from their own pigs, yogurt, milk, butter, juice and jams from other local farms, and fresh bread from a local bakery.  I kid you not, this was the best breakfast I’ve ever had in my entire life!  The breakfast (and the cute animals all over the place) makes me wish I could live on a farm, but growing up a city girl, I know I just couldn’t hack it!

Apart from exploring the farm (with the help of Sam and Meg, the owner’s children) and wandering around the town, there hasn’t been much for us to do here, but I feel like it’s been a really peaceful, down to earth couple of days and I would have spent more time here in a heartbeat.  Unfortunately, the B&B was already booked up when I was making my booking so two nights was all we could manage.  If we ever come back to the UK, spending more time in the Cotswolds visiting different towns and coming back to Old Farm would definitely be at the top of my priority list!  Until then, I’ll always think of this breakfast when I eat bacon and eggs at home…