Down on the farm: a summer cabin stay on the Somerset Levels

The Guardian

a day ago

In Old English its name meant 'the land of the summer people', after the local practice of coming down to the Somerset Levels after the winter flooding receded. Today, Somerset is still somewhere where seasons are felt vividly, as Sophie Brendal and Panu Long discovered when they and their two children moved to Thornfalcon, their farmstead in a village of the same name, 15 minutes' drive from Taunton, at the end of 2022. Here, they are on constant weather watch, tending their young vines (Panu, now a winemaker, has a background in the drinks industry) and harvesting daily from the kitchen garden. They are also busy making plans for the apple harvest, which will go into the 150-year-old cider press.
In addition, they have created a handful of places to stay on their 16-hectare (40-acre) site, which sprawls through woods, orchards and vines to a reed-fringed lake. Walking around it at the end of May, you feel the cusp of summer, from the water lilies coming into bloom and the nesting swan, guarded by her mate. 'Soon the eggs will hatch, and later she'll teach the cygnets to fly, before taking them down to the Somerset Levels,' says Sophie.
My cabin, the Vine Hut, is surrounded by wildflowers overlooking rows of champagne grape varieties. Inside, nature is just as enveloping: nasturtiums climb over the bedroom wallpaper, a blousy bunch of homegrown peonies sits on the dining table. Behind the orchard, the Lambing Shed's interior is clad in textured band-sawn planks and the bed's headboard is painted with apple blossom. In front of the family's blue lias stone farmhouse is the two-bedroom Coach House, filled with antiques and beautiful textiles, which hint at Sophie's years spent among pattern and design as a director at the V&A. The latest arrival is a vardo Gypsy wagon with floral patterned ceiling, which sleeps two children as extra accommodation for families staying in the cabins.
As the sun creeps out, I wander back to the lake, Mr Swan still patrolling in case I had a mind for a dip. Instead I sit in the wooden sauna – the big picture window frames the scene as swifts dip, and the mental ticker tape of to-do lists begins to melt away. There's a hot tub outside too, and nearby an old boat house has been turned into the wild treatment room, where local therapist Gemma undoes some of the rest of my knots as the bird calls carry in off the water. Both cabins have outdoor baths of their own, although the plum spot at the Vine Hut after dinner is a pair of adirondack chairs, positioned just so to catch the sunset.
The next morning, in the sunny, green-painted kitchen, I make breakfast with blue-shelled eggs from the brood of Legbar chickens. There's the option to have a box of just-picked Thornfalcon produce in your cabin on arrival, or Sophie and Panu are full of recommendations for eating nearby, from roasts at the Dinnington Docks to something smarter at the Barrington Boar. Afterwards, I take the short stomp through the village and up Thorn Hill (known as 'the clump' for its wooden top), where baby bunnies dart from hedgerows. A patchwork of green rolls away to the edge of the Quantock Hills. There are other walks from the door, looping round through the village of North Curry – where you can pick up a duck sausage roll at the Bird in Hand pub, which is in the process of reopening and is currently serving pints and street food from a converted wagon outside. Slightly farther away, you can strike out around Cothelstone Hill to spot the herd of Exmoor ponies and bronze age burial mounds, or rent paddle boards from the Somerset Boat Centre to float along the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal.
A current of creativity also flows through this corner of Somerset, and later that morning I meet Buc Dennis at his family's Dennis Chinaworks in an old stable block outside Shepton Beauchamp (open Monday to Friday, and weekends by appointment). Visitors can buy beautiful vases and jugs, with patterns hand drawn by Buc's mother, Sally Tuffin, a former fashion designer now in her 80s.
It's not the only creative family hub in these parts, and afterwards I swing by the Temperleys' Burrow Hill Cider Farm. The familiar Glastonbury cider bus is parked outside, the pumps fired up on Saturday afternoons, when local families spread picnic blankets between the apple trees, entertained by food trucks and circus troupes. Across the yard, Mary Temperley's Make store is stocked with zesty body washes (also in bathrooms at Thornfalcon), baskets woven in Ghana and suzanis stitched in Jaipur.
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Sophie and Panu, too, fizz with ideas. 'When I developed long Covid, creativity and making were one of the key things that made me well again,' Sophie told me when pointing out a framed needlepoint she had stitched in one of the cabins. This summer, the first bottles of wine and cider will be ready; there are plans to take beekeeping courses and plant lavender fields; and to host feasts, yoga classes and painting workshops in a lovely old barn. It's inspiring to be around, and equally, easy to dip into as much or as little as you choose. A place to get fired up or sink into a slower way of living, or, as I tried, to find a balance between the two.
Accommodation was provided by Thornfalcon Winery & Press: the Coach House sleeps five from £125 a night; the Vine Hut and the Lambing Shed sleep two from £170 a night, and the Gypsy Caravan an extra £70 a night (all two nights minimum), thornfalcon.com. Train travel was provided by Great Western Railway, which travels directly from London Paddington to Taunton, gwr.com.