Clare Savage tried out a new style of camping with her family; and you can do it near here

It's Friday and we're off on a weekend camping En Famille only without a tent, or sleeping bags or a gas stove. Not because we're brave or bonkers but because we're camping at a Feather Down farm and Mrs. Fairweather Camper herself (me) is actually looking forward to it.

There are 22 Feather Down farms all over the UK and we've chosen to visit one at the foot of the Malverns in Hereford, Hollings Hill Farm, and are greeted by our farm hosts, the super-friendly Knowles family: Fay, Austin and their four children. Guests leave their cars out front, walk through the gates, and step back in time.

The farm setting is traditional, it's a dairy farm on 300 acres, and the tents are designed to take you back to simple living. You pick up a wheelbarrow to put all your bags in from the car, find your tent, there are seven in total, and get the wood burning stove into action.

'This is the key to a happy weekend" says Austin, giving us the idiots' guide to stove lighting. "Get the fire going and youâ're ready to cook, brew up and stay warm." My other half attempts to coax a flame from the stove while I explore the tent.

Inside is pure 1950s austerity chic: a wood floor, canvas walls, no electricity but running water and a flushing loo.

There's a double bed for us romantically candle lit, and the choice of bunk beds or a cot bed tucked away in a cupboard for the kids. When they see the latter, they're sold and they clamber in shut the door and we hear nothing but giggles for the next 48 minutes. Which is coincidentally the time it takes to get the spectacularly large kettle from cool, through tepid to luke warm.

"Tea?"

"Err, no thanks! Glass of wine?"

And with candles lit and the pair of us reclining in large canvas deckchairs we can feel every last ounce of work and home stress ebbing away as we gaze at the rainbow that's arcing over the Malverns from the comfort of our cosy weekend retreat.

Outside, life is joyously sociable. We select from the modest range of local groceries in the honesty shop and stop to chat to other campers En Route. The boys get invited to bottle feed the farm's two goats: Hopperty and Feather before tearing off with another group of kids to terrorise a chicken, stroke ponies, pet rabbits and watch the cows being milked. After a tour of the farm, all the families watch a log-fired bread oven as it spews smoke and then select their delicacies to be baked inside: baked banana and chocolate is a favourite with the kids while pizza tops the savoury list.

Being in such beautiful surroundings you feel slightly guilty not heading out for a spot of sight seeing, but when there's so much here to keep the kids entertained (animals and other kids) and to keep the adults mentally occupied (that frustrating wood burner) we're all having too much fun to think about leaving.

A local Feather Down camping experience

Actually there's a Feather Down farm near Stamford, says our host Fay. "It's run by Richard and Katie Machin you'll have to check it out."

So we do, and the following week we head to Pettywood Farm in Holywell where it' clear that the Feather Down ethic is just as strong. "The whole idea is that it's good to be able to let the kids run around whilst you sit and relax in your tent," says Katie, an Oakham lass born and bred, as she shows us the farm. "Weâ've had quite a few local campers because you can collect your kids from school on Friday afternoon and be here by four, have the fire lit and enjoy the rest of your evening together. The kids sleep like logs and we have a large woodland, around 400 acres with plenty of deer, red kites and other wildlife. You can walk through the woodland to the Olive Branch in Clipsham."

And Richard is clear about the benefits of this kind of business model for rural communities. "Feather Down is great PR for farmers and it shows us embracing the best of conventional and organic farming. We like to give a farm talk with maps to take around the farm, it's a good thing for people to learn about their environment."

For more information:

Website www.featherdownfarms.co.uk

Telephone enquiries for all farms:

01420 80804

Prices range from £195 - £795 depending on season and length of stay.