Longtable

A stone barn with one oak table down the middle. It seats sixty-eight, it has been there since 1804, and we let it for one party a weekend.

What a Saturday costs
A long table laid down the middle of a stone barn.

Longtable

A party under lights in a high, open room.

01

The barn

Sixty-eight at the table, a hundred and ten standing. Stone floor, oak roof, underfloor heating that we put in so that February would work.

You get it from nine in the morning until noon the next day. Nobody else is in the building at any point in that.

The barn set for dinner, candles down the table.

02

The field

Four acres, a marquee footprint that is already levelled, and a gate wide enough for a catering van. The trees at the bottom are older than the barn.

Twelve places to park a camper, which is what people actually ask for and what nobody lists.

A gathering outdoors among trees in late light.

03

What we do not do

Food, flowers, music, photography, or anybody standing at the front telling you what happens next. We let you the barn and we keep out of it.

We will give you the list of people who work here often. There is no commission in it for us and we will tell you that on the telephone.

Guests gathered outside after a ceremony.

One a weekend, forty a year

We could do two a weekend and we did, for one summer, and everything about it was worse: the grass, the neighbours, the building and us.

So it is one. Friday to Saturday or Saturday to Sunday, from April to the end of October, plus eight winter dates when the heating earns its money.

How to hold a date
A couple walking away from the barn across the field.
The table full, late in the evening, doors open to the field.

What a Saturday costs

Saturday, April — October£4,800

Friday or Sunday£3,600

Winter date£3,200

Extra night in the field£400

Tables, chairs and the heatingincluded

Cleaning afterwardsincluded

Camper pitch, each£30

Damage deposit, returned£500

One price, one invoice, no per-head charge and no minimum spend on anything. What is on this list is the whole of it.

Before you book

Holding a date
We will hold one for fourteen days on a phone call, free, no questions. After that it needs a third to confirm it.
Paying
A third to confirm, a third at six months, the rest four weeks before. Bank transfer, and the deposit comes back within a week.
Cancelling
Everything paid is refundable up to twelve months out, half up to six, and nothing inside three unless we can re-let the date — which we usually can.
Noise
Amplified music inside until midnight, acoustic outside until ten. Two farms can hear this field and we intend to keep living here.
Your own suppliers
All of them, always. We have no approved list and take no commission; we ask only that whoever cooks has seen the kitchen first.
Looking round
Any weekday, by appointment, and we would rather you came twice. The second visit is when people ask the real questions.
A quiet corner of the barn before the guests arrive. Two hands, rings, on a linen cloth. Flowers laid out on the table before the doors open. The barn doors open onto the field at dusk.