Oxwick Farm

With green hills, clear streams, cute villages and country pubs, the Cotswolds has a reputation for being rather lovely. So whether you’re looking for camping or glamping in the area, you’ll no doubt be after somewhere that lives up to that reputation. How about the camping and glamping at Oxwick?

Situated on a part re-wilded farm three miles from the market town of Chipping Sodbury, it’s certainly rather lovely. It has just five spacious camping pitches and five lotus belle tents a short walk away from Oxwick’s striking heritage farmhouse. It’s a relatively simple set-up with off-grid pitches, campfires allowed and a composting loo; all eco-friendly but not completely back to basics. There’s a biomass boiler for hot water and a wind turbine on site for power. Both supply The Quad — a communal, open-sided but undercover space for cooking, eating and generally hanging out. It’s mostly used by glampers, but the halogen hobs, fridges and wooden dining tables are open to all and make serving supper easy, whatever the weather.

With cooking facilities taken care of elsewhere, the pre-erected lotus belle tents are uncluttered and comfortable sleeping spaces, pitched in the wilder end of the camping field. Each is kitted out with beds, bedding and solar or battery-powered lighting inside, with seating and a fire pit outside for nights under the stars. Grass, which has been left to grow long, separates the bell tents and affords each glamping family, couple or group a little privacy. Camping pitches, meanwhile, are free-form and a short walk away in a mowed area of the field.

It’s a short walk back up the drive, which is lined with re-wilded meadows, and over the road to the 700-acre Lower Wood. It’s ancient woodland and grazing land owned by the Avon and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust; the perfect place for a walk. There are more of those all over the Cotswolds with its honey-stone villages. Lacock and Castle Combe are two of the best and a short drive away. This area has long been regarded as a place for quintessentially English countryside getaways but with a location on the southern side of the Cotswolds, it’s also close enough for day trips to Bath and Bristol. Both are just 30 minutes away, making Cotswold Meadow Camping not just rather lovely, but rather convenient too.