Opening Dates

All year

What makes this great accommodation for School groups?

Inside: Down a long drive, our listed grade II* Tudor barn together with adjacent hall farmhouse provides comfortable but highly unusual accommodation for up to 30 guests (+ more camping) in which groups can, if they wish, step back in time. Guests sleep in oak four-poster beds, truckle beds and box beds and feast at candle-lit oak banquet tables. In the barn guests can meet, feast, work, sing, dance, play and relax.

Outside: Step outside and explore our beautiful environmentally friendly farm where you can explore the farm trails, orienteer, pond dip, hug trees, sew leaves, weave a garland, explore meadows and woodland, and feed the farmyard pigs and chickens. Our 500-acre farm grows arable crops, grassland, happy pigs and wild game, ancient hedges, woodland, ponds and houses the earthworks of a Norman castle – and lots of wildlife! Twice the national winner – and three times regional winner - of the Wildlife Trusts’ Wildlife Watch Award in the last five years, and with ten years of hosting school visits, we are experienced in looking after and teaching groups of children and using our farm as an exciting outdoor classroom and activity centre.

Learning and playing: Outdoor adventure, eco-challenges, World War II and Tudor activities, rural crafts, outdoor classroom… You can use our barn and farm as a base to do your own thing or we can provide guidance, support, tutors and help design activities or local itineraries that suit your particular needs. We’re especially keen on history, the environment and the big outdoors – any time of year! But we also have an A-Z of local offsite activities that include visits to medieval villages, nature reserves, historic re-enactments, leisure centres and high wire activities in the forest.

Minimise your carbon and water footprint: We are proud of our award-winning environmental policy – the barn is heated by hedge-coppice firewood, we avoid packaging wherever possible, we recycle and compost as much as we can, and encourage you to use your feet and our fleet of bicycles! And we try to pass on an environmental message to all students staying.

Property Description

The Tudor barn and Milden Hall farmhouse are situated down a long drive on our environmentally friendly 500-acre farm. This farmyard has been described as “one of the finest 17th century farmyards in the country” by an East Anglian historian. Layout of the Tudor barn is complicated!

Disabled facilities:

The barn and loo/shower block are all at ground level and used by special needs groups, accessible by wheelchair. However, the barn is on a farm and outside the ground in winter is soft and unsuitable for wheelchair access. We advise all groups to assess the barn for their own special needs.

Catering:

You can self-cater or we can provide you with home-cooked meals for half or full board with seasonal food sourced on farm or locally wherever possible and practical. If you want to go Tudor, you can eat ‘Tudor’ style too!

Kitchen:

There is a large, well equipped kitchen with a cooker, two dishwashers, fridge, freezer and plenty of everything. And outside a BBQ.

Dining Room:

In the main barn there are three large candle-lit banquet tables down the middle that seat 14-50 guests, and additional trestle tables are set up as required for indoor sessions and craft activities. This is where you feast, work, play and sleep (see below)! At one end there is a cosy sitting area with woodburner and at the other a curtained off end where you can dance or perform a play.

Bedrooms:

Sleeping accommodation is unusual and visiting staff say they love the fact that they can keep an eye on everyone in one place and no one gets left out. The enormous open plan 16th century barn serves most needs all at ground level. In addition to above, it also sleeps 16+ all in Tudor style four poster beds, single box beds and truckle beds and then there’s room for additional camp beds.
There are three bedrooms adjacent to the barn providing good, close supervisory accommodation for staff and three more bedrooms in the hall farmhouse for more staff or children.

Linen:

All beds are made up and towels provided.

Bathrooms:

There are three bathrooms for staff and a loo and shower block with separate facilities boys and girls.

Sitting room:

There is one sitting area around the woodburner and another small sitting room with TV.

Meeting room:

Barn can provide meeting facilities with break out areas

Games room:

In the barn guests can feast, sing, dance, play and relax. There’s a dressing up box, adult Tudor costumes, table tennis, table football and other games and books.

Projector etc:

Screen, stands but BYO projector

TV and Music Facilities:

TV and sound system.

Internet:

Occasional wireless connection can be arranged.

Heating:

Electricity, woodburner and diesel heater in winter.

Outdoor Facilities:

Tennis court, table tennis (2), table football, badminton, croquet, 20+ bikes, BBQ, and a 500-acre farm with ancient meadows, hedges, woodland and Norman castle earthworks to explore.

Parking:

Plenty

Activities available on and off site:

On Site: Most themed activities are cross-curricular - science, geography, PHSE, PE, English, art – and can be adapted to suit KS2/3 students.
• Eco-adventure activities explore help develop an understanding and respect for the environment, and how to minimise our impact on the environment with, for example, days on trees and woodland, water, adaptation to habitat, habitat orienteering, country crafts and skills.
• History adventure activities use our small farm museum and farm finds to offer a flavour of different eras, with in-costume re-enacting if you like, for example on Tudor Farm life, WWII evacuation and archaeology on the farm.
• Art, crafts & the environment are usually woven into other days but we can arrange tutors for drawing and painting wildlife, working with willow and rush, art-in-nature creations and others.

Off Site: We are in the heart of an incredibly rich historic rural area full of beautiful villages which grew wealthy on wool and cloth in medieval and Tudor times, so we recommend that you explore the local area as part of your itinerary. We have an A-Z of local activities that include visits to medieval villages, nature reserves, historic re-enactments, leisure centres and high wire activities in the forest.