A Local's Guide to Witchcliffe

Witchcliffe sits five minutes down the road from the farm, or twenty if you take the bike. It's a small town, a handful of shops on a quiet main street, but it's where we run our own errands and it rewards a slow look around.

Start at Yardbyrd. We call in most days for the coffee and the food, served in a courtyard packed with herbs, flowers and veg. The staff are warm and the savoury muffins are hard to walk past.

Where to poke around

The old Red Cross shop is a good hunt for second-hand finds, and so is the Flying Wardrobe further along the main street. Next door, Guy Pathe builds custom electric bikes, worth a look even if you're only curious. Witchcliffe keeps the rest of the essentials close: a bakery, a fuel station, the bottlo, and an e-bike shop.

Watch the noticeboard at Druids Hall, across from Yardbyrd. The space hosts yoga, acupuncture, intimate concerts, fairs and markets through the year, and you never quite know what you'll catch.

There's also the Witchcliffe Eco Village taking shape on the edge of town, a development built around sustainability and self-sufficiency. It's adding to the town without changing what people came for.