Stanway is truly an extraordinary village. It’s been in the hands of only two families since the 16th century. Therin of course lies its secret. Noone has been able to “develop the village into something for which it wasn’t designed.

The Tracy family owned a lease on the estate since the dissolution of the monasteries, before which it was part of the Tewksbury Abbey estate. The Tracy family built this wonderful jacobean mansion over generations. In 1620 Richard Tracy built the gatehouse outside which Ross and I found ourselves, frankly transfixed.

In 1817 the house passed through the Charteris female line into the possession of the Wemyss family and in 1859/60 they carried out several improvements and additions. The Wemyss family still own this extraordinary place.

Just round the corner from the gatehouse is an incredible working watermill. Restored and working since 2009 this mill produces fantastic stone-ground bread flour. We were lucky enough to arrive on a day when the mill was working and the lovely millers were generous enough to sell me a bag of flour for the slightly measley 2 quid I had in my pocket. A bag is usually a few pence more than that but I can tell you from experience that a loaf made 50/50 wholemeal and strong white flour produces spectacularly tasty bread.

I think the message from Stanway is that if you leave this wonderful heritage of ours alone, protect it from the ravages of the recent centuries, maintain its solidly built infrastructure it rewards you with a sense of peace and warm heartedness that is simply unique and staggeringly valuable