REVIEW: MALTING FARM, COLCHESTER

2 days ago
3 min read

Our bucolic breather from the city in a luxurious lodge fit for Santa’s most stylish elf

London is fizzing with exciting experiences, but every city family needs a bucolic breather from the concrete blur, to reacquaint themselves with nature beyond pigeons and foxes.

Enter stage left, Farm Stay UK, which offers countryside stays on farms, cottages and glamp-sites not far from the capital - but far enough to pause the hamster wheel.

We choose Malting Farm, a small, family-run holiday site tucked within the picturesque wildflower meadows of a 300-acre working farm in Little Bentley village. It’s an hour’s drive from our London home, but a world of tranquility away.

We pass their chickens, honesty shop, and boutique bell tents and follow the signs to our home for the weekend, Otter's Lodge.

One of three luxury cabins, the cosy, Scandi-style lodge is an immediate hit with the children, who excitedly explore the rooms, and squeak at the hot tub discovery, before leaping outside to run in circles like a Benny Hill sketch.

It’s the sort of cosy, immaculately finished lodge you’d expect Santa’s most stylish elf to live in.

There’s a comfy, king-sized bed, dappled in golden hour sunlight with French doors opening to our private hot tub.

Next door has a four bunk-bed room with a fun wooden hatch which opens from the children’s room to ours - a constant source of delight to them during the trip, popping out like excitable jack-in-the-boxes.

We have an ensuite bathroom with shower, which also opens onto the open-plan kitchen, lounge and dining area.

A homemade lemon drizzle cake awaits us in the kitchen, beside the Nespresso machine. An oak dining table is studded by sunshine filled windows framing the beautiful views outside.

And soft sofas and chairs beckon us into the lounge area, by the wood burner and a TV which our children barely notice.

It opens out onto a raised porch, with swing chairs, squishy sofas, and a barbecue.

Our children are hardly acquainted with shoes for the remainder of the stay.

They discover the zipwire outside and befriend children from the other two lodges, to go full Secret Seven in their wholesome new environment, whizzing along the line, kicking balls in meadows, endlessly running and picking wildflowers.

Apart from our children, it’s wonderfully peaceful, so time (and blood pressure) slow down.

My partner and I sizzle steaks on the fire pit, drink wine, and enjoy conversations uninterrupted by small people, as they tear around outside.

Later, we all hop into the hot tub, then toast marshmallows and sip hot chocolates on the porch, cuddled beneath blankets on the swing, looking for stars - an ambitious move on a cloudy day, that only a Londoner would attempt.

The children are enthralled by the giant pheasants, drumming the night air with their wings and emitting their curious, raspy cackle.

The following day - after dragging the children off the zipwire - we explore the farm’s beautiful nature trail with onsite reservoir for paddle-boarding - equipment can be hired from the farm.

They also offer animal feeding at Brook Meadow, where Malting Farm’s lovely owner Emma keeps pigs, goats, sheep, ducks, chickens, guinea pigs and quail.

The cabin is perfectly positioned for us to explore the Blue Flag beaches of Frinton-on-Sea, studded with pastel beach huts.

The UK’s top fossil hunting location, Walton-on-Naze is also nearby, to hunt 50-million-year-old shark teeth, luminous orange fossilised shells, and ancient, pyrotised wood.

Our children are excited to return to the lodge afterwards for one more, green and screen-less night.

The following morning, the are reacquainted with shoes and school uniforms and have one last whizz on the zipline - we’re not complete monsters - before grudgingly driving back to The Big Smoke for school and work, but with rosier cheeks, less jaded eyes, and the odd cornflower in our hair to remember a dreamy city escape.

Malting Farm Cabins & Glamping, Tendring Road, Little Bentley,Colchester, Essex CO7 8SJ
From £120/night for a minimum two-night stay
Available from Farm Stay UK