Great Barn Farm in Gayton Thorpe, Norfolk – review

Great Barn Farm in Gayton Thorpe is a self-catering accommodation in a big old Georgian farmhouse and also in converted barns  – stables, piggery, tack room.

A rural idyll where you get woken up by the birds making a row to greet the dawn, we recently visited for a secluded weekend away.

Where is it?

In the middle of nowhere, and we mean that in the nicest way. It’s on the outskirts of the little village of Gayton Thorpe in Norfolk, between King’s Lynn and Swaffham, which boasts a very old small church (with actual bats in the belfry) and not much else. It’s surrounded by the owner’s land. In short, it’s perfect for getting away from London and from everything else. It’s about 20 minutes’ drive from King’s Lynn and a world away from Hammersmith.

Style

Think farmhouse crossed with Soho House, except with company of your choosing. The farmhouse, where we stayed, is a handsome big traditional building with a kitchen garden (guests can pick the produce…rhubarb and herbs when we were there), except it’s been given a contemporary interior design overhaul, not in an identity losing way, but to make it work for urban sophisticates as well as the likes of me. The barn conversions are various sizes and modern in feel – all clean lines and big windows but still cosy – and they each have their own area to loaf around in outside, so there’s a sense of privacy around each one. The garden is informal but pretty; I yearned for croquet on the grass.

Facilities

There’s a bunk bedroom with six full sized beds – which delighted the girls with me – and a play room with huge cushions plus a swing and a tree house with designer graffiti and branches and seats on the inside. There’s also a tennis court in the large garden.

The swimming pool is a real draw, with a little Jacuzzi and a steam room, and has a huge window on one side looking onto a patio dotted with tasteful prairie grass; during my early swim a pheasant landed noisily outside on the decking. On the way, a goose, a gander and three goslings crossed the path honking away. In the farmhouse three of the six bedrooms are en suite; one is four-poster. In total the rooms sleep 16. There are books to borrow and board games.

The kitchen is equipped for cooking – though be warned, it’s an induction stovetop which can be tricky – and a barbecue outside on a patio for summer. There’s a separate, spacious dining room and telly room. Really, it’d be fabulous for a house party. The driveway up to the farm has a huge rookery where the birds make a terrific amount of noise; there are housemartins’ nests under the eaves; actually the whole area is terrific for birdwatchers – our one had a great time spotting buzzards.

Food & Drink

When you arrive there’s excellent cake – fruit cake in our case – plus apple juice. You have to bring your own food or ask for Oystercatcher catering to provide a big welcome box of local food to get you going. Think homemade bread, local cheese, beef slices, smoked trout and sour cream condiment, salads, heritage tomatoes, smoked duck, ham hock cylinders and lemon meringue tarts plus moreish Morello cherries. Delicious. And a bit like the house, it’s local produce in cosmopolitan style.

The price is typically £20 per person including delivery.

Otherwise, there’s a good Saturday market at Swaffham (and bimonthly Sunday farmers’ market) with two excellent butchers, as well as a Waitrose on the outskirts. Or there are any number of good local restaurants. The information file at the house gives several. Oh and you can, if you’re lucky, get fresh duck eggs from outside one of the local houses in the village, with an honesty box for the cash…it’s definitely not London, is it?

Which room?

The en suite bedrooms are popular, but so is the four poster. They’re all bright, spacious and comfortable, calming but not at all clinical, with woollen throws and old furniture and views on the garden. There’s one room from which you can hear the swimming pool boiler spark up first thing in the morning. For children, the bunk beds are a draw.

Extracurricular

There are some lovely walks around here, depending on your fitness and mapreading skills; if you want a long walk you can make your way from here to West Acre where the walled garden next to Anthony Gormley’s house has a garden shop and café. Swaffham, 20 minutes away, is a really attractive market town with a famous fifteenth century church with the most fabulous hammerbeam roof with wooden angels.

King’s Lynn in the other direction is an historic and rather beautiful town. But the most mind-blowing place within reach, four miles outside Swaffham, is Castle Acre, an extraordinary, ruined former Cluniac monastery with much of its façade intact, dating from the eleventh century, Romanesque turning into Norman. And a fab place for a picnic.

How to get there

You can get directly to King’s Lynn by train from King’s Cross, quite the easiest way to get there and then there are taxis outside the station. However, you can’t get around easily by bus; the nearest stop is Gayton, a mile or so from Gayton Thorpe. If you want to avoid car hire, there’s a new company, Wheel Travel, that will deliver bikes directly to your door, specifically for holiday lets (but be careful; they drive like billy-o in Norfolk).

Best for

A house party. A group of friends or a couple of families wanting to get away from simply everything. A corporate away-stay. Birdwatchers. A discreet venue for diplomatic or corporate meetings. I’d say it’d be brilliant for a group reading holiday.

Details

Stays are normally for four or seven days – £2,000 for four days; £4,000 for a week. The barns go from £500. You are required to pay a damage deposit of £1000 for the farmhouse before your stay, which is refunded as soon as you leave. greatbarnfarm.co.uk

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