Meet the brothers who have transformed their Northants family farm into a countryside wellness retreat
Meet the brothers who have transformed their Northamptonshire family farm into a countryside wellness retreat.
George and Josh Taylor have reimagined their family’s former dairy farm into The Shire, a countryside retreat designed for authentic connection, relaxation and escapism.
Over the course of three decades at Pury Hill Farm just outside of Towcester, the family has planted more than 100,000 trees and hedgerows, created six lakes and are slowly rewilding the grounds and attracting wildlife back to the land.
Now, George and Josh have opened the gates to welcome corporates and the local community to experience the power of simple wellbeing.
This all started for the brother duo when they opened SUKU Saunas around a year-and-a-half ago, which is a wild sauna and cold plunge experience.
This has attracted visitors from across the region and they hope to build on its success by expanding the wellness offering across the estate.
George said: “As a child I didn’t realise how lucky I was to grow up here. Now I want to share this peaceful escape with others.”
At The Shire Retreat, guests can combine yoga, breathwork and sound with sauna, wild swimming, woodland walks, tennis or reflective workshops in the renovated farmhouse.
The retreat hosts private events, team days for businesses, offsites and a limited number of weddings and weekend retreats, alongside a farmhouse boardroom for meetings of up to 20 people.
The Shire’s first winter wellness retreat for the general public is taking place on December 14. This is a chance to escape the everyday with yoga, meditation, breathwork, cacao ceremony, sauna cycles, a cold water dip, time in nature and hearty food.
‘There’s the demand and appetite’
George and Josh came up with the sauna business concept towards the end of the pandemic, and it took around six months to launch the “huge success” of a venture.
They were inspired by a business in Amsterdam where Josh lived at the time, and with the UK sauna scene starting to gain traction and nothing else like this in the county, they took the leap.
“So many people come along and we’re open seven days a week,” George told the Chronicle & Echo. “We offer a sauna and cold plunge set in nature, looking out of a big glass window over a lake.
“Six months to a year ago, we saw how that was going and thought why don’t we expand and add more wellness.”
The Shire Retreat is based on Pury Hill Farm, which was a dairy farm until the eighties when George and Josh’s parents diversified into commercial property and turned it into Pury Hill Business Park.
“We’ve continued what our parents started,” said George. “They took 150 acres and turned it into parkland with trees, rewilded a lot of it and created lakes. We’ve added more wellness to the business.
“We’ve always had the vision and this was the natural evolution to something a little bit different that tied in well with what was already happening. There’s the demand and appetite for businesses to look after their staff in this way.”
The proximity to London is a major selling point as there are few accessible experiences like this for businesses based in the capital.
“I’ve seen nothing like this in Northamptonshire,” said George. “I was in London for eight years and businesses were uninspired by team away days. The activities are there to tick a box, and it wasn’t something you came away from feeling inspired, connected or rejuvenated.”
George, Josh and The Shire Retreat team welcomed their first group booking last week, and look forward to seeing what the future holds for this new addition to the growing offering.