Channel 4’s Jimmy Doherty is best known for bringing British farming to the masses and while his farm in Suffolk’s Orwell Valley often offers a filmic backdrop for his agricultural antics, since the mid 2000s it’s also been open to the public, who can visit the working farm and butchery and, more recently, a wildlife park, restaurant, flower gardens and play areas. This year they’ve added another feather to their cap, ‘Fancy Camping’. And there’ll be plenty of folks who fancy staying there this summer.
Just a hundred yards or so from the main farm entrance, the fancy camping is set in a quiet field of its own, with festoon lighting leading you down an entrance walkway and a copse of trees in one corner. As the name suggests, this isn’t a regular pitch-up-your-tent affair. Instead, a spread of 30 fully furnished bell tents are provided, with real beds, soft furnishings, bedside tables, bunting and fairy lights. Guests can turn up with little more than a toothbrush and they’ll be well catered for, especially when you consider the bar opposite the entrance and all the good food available on the farm.
Access to the farm and wildlife park is all provided as part of your bell tent booking. Guests are given a wrist-band on arrival that gives them entry to the park, where they can meet the rare-breed pigs, hear talks from the rangers and learn more about farming and animal husbandry. Along with the farm animals there are also a few more exotic species, like monkeys, camels and giant anteaters, and you can sign up for animal encounters each day (see the changing notice boards for the specific activities on offer).
When five o’clock comes and most people head home, campers can idle back to the meadow and enjoy an evening around the communal campfire. The festoon lighting, the bar, the space for the children to play… the place almost has a family-friendly festival atmosphere. Thugh, when morning comes and the farm cockerel crows, there’s no doubt you’ll be glad you had a proper bed for the night and enjoyed the fancier side of ‘festival’ camping.
Most people glamping here are coming for the the farm and wildlife park, rather than hunting around for things to do elsewhere. Alongside the foodie offerings that Jimmy Doherty has become so synonymous with, the farm gives visitors the chance to get close and involved with the animals. You can feed anteaters, alpacas and pygmy goats, listen to a range of daily keeper talks, walk in the butterfly house and plenty more – see the boards near the entrance to find out what animal encounters and experiences are on that day. If you do decide to head elsewhere, it's a 10-minute drive into historic Ipswich and a half-hour drive to one of the National Trust's most famed attractions, the Anglo Saxon burial grounds at Sutton Hoo (01394 389700).
You're already on the farm so there's no need to go far to eat. The site is home to The Barn Restaurant and Coffee House, The Field Kitchen, The Snack Shack and Hair of the Hog Woodland Bar. Jimmy's Farm Park closes at 5pm to visitors each day but breakfast is still made available to campers and dinner and drinks are available to purchase between 6pm–8pm. The farm is also renowned for its rare breed meat. The farm shop is situated in a beautiful converted barn. From the butchery you can order sausages, bacon, joints and steaks, while the larder includes all the best seasonal vegetables. Further afield, it takes less than 15 minutes to drive to Waitrose and it's 10 minutes to both The Belstead Arms and The Brook Inn.
