Ridge & Furrow Farm is situated in the Purston estate, near to the historic town of Banbury. It consists of two high-end glamping cabins, Red Kite which sleeps 2-4, and Skylark which sleeps 2.
The cabins are designed (and insulated) for winter and as well as summer use, as is the wild swimming lake, so you can enjoy the stunning countryside, fabulous walks and convenient location all year round. Both cabins sit away from each other offering privacy and exclusivity.
Purston itself is so ancient it features in the Domesday Book, owned by Robert, Count of Mortmain, who was William the Conqueror’s uncle. Its value in 1086 was 10 shillings a year. The landscape that Robert Mortmain would have surveyed remains remarkably similar; the field you are staying in (and the field you drive through) retain the distinctive mini hills of the medieval cropping system known as ridge and furrow.
This ancient pasture has not been ploughed for at least 500 years. In the spring and summer you can find wildflowers twinkling in the meadows, watched over by the red kites who love hunting here. If you listen carefully on a summer’s day you will hear the passionate warbling of a sky lark as it releases its song high in the air.
Look out too for hare, badger, deer and of course foxes. The combination of ancient pasture and little spinneys (small woods) make for perfect habitat. In May the spinney at the bottom of the meadows is filled with cow parsley, hiding the gurgling stream, home to minnows and fresh water oysters.
From the top of the farm, up Sandy Lane (the old road, now a bridle path) you can see across two counties, and beyond the eye’s view the long sweep past towards Birmingham. We are on the edge of 4 counties: Oxfordshire with the Cotswolds and Gleaming Spires, plus Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire and Warwickshire, Shakespeare’s country, where “This our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” (As You Like it).