Pack away the Peloton — Daylesford owner launches luxury health club
Imagine you’re a lawyer based in the Cotswolds. Over lockdown, your chinos got a little tight, so you decided to turn your barn into a home gym. Out went the wife’s pottery wheel and in came the Peloton.
Initially, reading business books while you cycled 20k was bliss. But then exercising alone started to feel sad. Yes, Soho Farmhouse has a gym and spa, but it’s bursting with selfie-ing weekend warriors sweating out cocktails on the treadmill.
Fear not! A sociable solution has arrived in the form of The Club by Bamford, a super swish new health complex with everything from “farm fitness” classes to ice baths.
It’s the latest addition to Daylesford’s flagship organic farm and wellness business, owned by Carole Bamford (wife of Anthony Bamford, chairman of JCB). Near the Cotswold village of Kingham, it encompasses Daylesford farm, a farm shop, restaurants, cookery school, cottages for rent, The Wild Rabbit and The Fox pubs and the Bamford Spa.
A picturesque complex of honey-coloured stone buildings with pale sage woodwork, daffodils, fairy lights strung from apple trees and branded electric Land Rovers, it’s almost a caricature of the English countryside. There’s no hint of the struggles faced by UK farmers, such as labour shortages and inflation, and it’s a world away from Jeremy Clarkson’s less photogenic Diddly Squat farm six miles away, considered a mecca for petrolheads.
As for the clientele: plenty of Barbour jackets, felt fedoras, camel-coloured cashmere, Le Chameau and Dubarry wellies and even the odd monogrammed blazer. Though there’s no sign of Boris Johnson, who had his wedding party at Daylesford House last July (Anthony Bamford is a donor to the Conservative party).
Like Disneyland, it has the feel of its own, luxurious kingdom: some find it magic, others a little contrived. But my sneak preview of The Club before it fully opens at the end of March tells me it’s going to be country club heaven for Daylesford disciples.
The aesthetic in the existing (non-member) Bamford Wellness spa is 50 shades of white and giant crystals — but The Club has been decorated in a more traditionally masculine manner, with shades of black and moss green and leather club chairs. Its stealth-wealth rustic chic is a mix of Moroccan plaster, granite, marble and wood, with natural accents such as a table made from weathered elm and lights strung from a silver birch branch. Forget water coolers making that soul-sapping gulping sound as you fill a plastic cup. Instead there are minimalist iron taps that dispense water from the farm borehole.
£2,250 Starting rate for annual membership
I have signed up for a personal training session that reflects the new “farm fitness” concept: classes that entail lifting bales of hay, pushing loaded wheelbarrows, flipping tyres and carrying logs for “those who are more used to city living” according to the brochure.
Classes will take place outdoors, but the dedicated area is still being finished, so I’m improvising in the indoor gym with its surprisingly authentic view of a field, a tractor, some cows and a haystack. With the door open, there’s even an enjoyable fruity whiff of silage.
Charming personal trainer Andy, who has a hipster beard and man bun, humours my questions about how strong an actual farmer might be. “Farmer strength is a thing,” he confirms, “but it’s not so much about lifting heavy things, it’s the ease. When my farmer friends are baling hay, they would pick up these giant bales in one motion and make it look easy.” So, I ask, can they lift sheep? “Sheep are pretty heavy and skittish.”
So no lifting sheep, but as part of the strength and cardio workout, we do swing around a Bulgarian bag, which was invented by Olympian wrestler Ivan Ivanov to mimic the tradition of sheep-lifting by the winners at traditional Bulgarian wrestling festivals. Meanwhile, the tyre weighs 60kg which is the same as I do, and being a desk-bound weed who initially understood “baling” to mean cancelling a night out rather than putting hay into blocks, I decide against flipping it. Instead, I try to roll it as Andy pushes against it for resistance.
Quirkiness goes a long way in the world of status fitness and wellness, but Bamford offers the kind of state-of-the-art equipment and “proactive” health services usually only available in a major city. Bamford has teamed up with Effect Doctors, a healthcare company that offers medical assessments including biometric and blood tests.
As well as a sleek pool made from recycled stainless steel, a sauna, steam room and an “experience shower” that mists fragrance, there are ice barrels, an ice bath and a cryotherapy chamber for anyone who wants to join the Wim Hof set. I like cold water but even though I’m assured that the cryotherapy chamber isn’t that claustrophobic because your head pokes out of the top, I think giant fridges are more suited to frozen peas.
The Club by Bamford will ramp up the Cotswolds’ reputation as a buzzy destination. Soho Farmhouse arrived in 2015, and has reportedly welcomed guests such as the Beckhams (who have a house nearby) and Meghan Markle. It has recently pimped its wellness offering with hot tubs by the lake, and locals are gossiping about who will favour which club. Other new openings nearby include private country club and hotel Estelle Manor.
Membership starts at £2,250 a year, plus £500 joining fee for the occasional out-of-village visitor; meanwhile the top tier (for individuals rather than corporate) is £15,000 plus a £1,000 joining fee, which includes two personal training and cryotherapy sessions a week, two spa treatments a month, 20 guest passes and various other perks. To join, you need either a referral from one of the committee members or to sit for an interview.
The real action at The Club will probably happen away from the gym floor in The Nest, a social area and restaurant with an outdoor terrace overlooking an orchard. The founders want people to hang out, as well as work out, and given the successful crowd that this country club is likely to attract, expect a hotbed of members-only networking. The Cotswolds answer to Camelot? Maybe. A lot of camel-coloured cashmere? Certainly.
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