It may simply be a reaction to urban sprawl and people feeling increasingly divorced from nature
. It might even be partly due to the desire of parents to provide a more educational experience for their children. Whatever the reason, there is no doubting the rise in popularity of rural activities and farm-based holidays in the UK.
It all fits in with the trend towards schools having vegetable gardens in their grounds where children can enjoy the thrill of watching plants growing from seed.
The desire of so many city dwellers to savour a taste of nature comes at a perfect time for the countrys farming community which, for the last decade or so, has seen tourism as a natural diversification from their daily activities. Most of them have outbuildings surplus to requirements and these have been sympathetically converted into comfortable and well appointed holiday accommodation. Todays visitors can not only expect all the novelty of waking up to all the bustle of a working farm but also a range of modern amenities like secure childrens play areas and heated swimming pools.
The desirability of opening up the nations countryside for the benefit of all and reconnecting the urban population with its natural heritage has also been recognised financially by government agencies such as Objective One and the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund who originally backed farm holiday marketing agencies like Devon based Cartwheel which has been encouraging farmers to raise the bar in terms of holiday facilities for over a decade.
It seems that more and more people are discovering the joy of farm fresh food and introducing their children to memorable new experiences like seeing where milk and eggs actually come from.
The West Country doesnt have a monopoly on the best farm-stays. Among the other regions that offer good variety in this type of holiday are Mid Wales (pretty black-and-white houses; castles and steam trains to ride); the Scottish Borders (wild, sparsely populated landscapes but close to cities such as Edinburgh) and Cumbria (the scenic Lake District and Hadrians Roman Wall and forts).