1 place
Quiz on Thursday, need a fourth
The Bell, Ramsbury
1.2 miles
The Countryside Club
Membership, by introduction
A members' club for people who would rather be outside.
There is a map of very nearly everything worth doing out here. There are invitations from other members, which is to say actual people asking you along to things. And there is Norris, who is a gamekeeper, and who knows where the good stuff is. We are opening slowly and by introduction, which is the polite way of saying there is a queue. Do join it.
No payment today. No account to make. We simply write to you when there is an invitation to send.
What it is
A map, a great many invitations, and Norris.
Members put up cards, which are really just invitations to things, and every one of them is arranged by how near it is to you. Over eight thousand real countryside places are on the map already, found rather than advertised. Membership works by introduction, so an existing member vouches for you, and nobody is asked for a thing until they are properly through the door.
01Over eight thousand real places, found rather than advertised
02Every invitation gets looked at by a person before it goes out
03Your membership lives on your phone, not in your wallet
Around here
It starts with a map, and rather a good one.
We went looking for every decent pub, walk, shoot, farm shop and place to stay in the country, and turned up over eight thousand of them, which was frankly more than anyone expected. Ask for what you want in ordinary English and the answers land as pins. Press and hold on an empty bit of map and you can add somewhere yourself.
Invites
Nearest first
Two spare seats at supper
Coombe Farm Kitchen
3.8 miles
Walking the ridge on Sunday
Kennet & Avon
6.4 miles
Shepherd's hut going spare midweek
Barrow Hill
9.1 miles
Invites
Every card is somebody asking you along.
A quiz that needs a fourth. Two spare seats at supper. A shepherd's hut going begging on a Tuesday. Members put them up, we stack them by how near they are and what you actually care about, and a real person has a look before any of it goes out.
Norris
Your concierge
A dog-friendly walk with a pub at the end
Your concierge
And then there is Norris.
Norris is a gamekeeper. He is well read, faintly amused by most things, and he genuinely knows the ground. Ask him for a dog friendly walk with a pub at the end and off he goes to find one, then quietly builds the rest of the day around it while you are still deciding on socks.
Widgets
What are you up to?
Selling something
Putting something on
A bed going spare
A job wants doing
Needing a hand
Somewhere brilliant
The clubhouse toolbox
Say what you are up to. Somebody will bite.
Selling something. Putting something on. A bed going spare. A job wants doing. Needing a hand. Somewhere brilliant. Each one has two doors, so you can either put yours up or have a good nose at everybody else's.
Crimson Fox
Base member
Waiting for scan…
Your membership
There is nothing to lose in a drawer.
Your membership lives on your phone. Your club name, and a code that quietly changes itself every thirty seconds. You hold it up, somebody scans it, and that is the entire ceremony. No plastic, no lanyard, no fumbling at the door.
Good turns
Coming soonOne day soon, your pass will pay too.
Here is the bit we are rather pleased about. The same little code you show at the door will settle the bill as well, using a card you tucked away months ago and have not thought about since. You do nothing. The club counts your good turns while you get on with your lunch.
Behind the bar
···· ···· 4242
The bar
One
Pop a card behind the bar.
You do this once, in the app, and then you genuinely never think about it again. Keep several if you are the sort of person who likes options.
1
Open your Hub
2
Tap Behind the bar
3
Add a card, once
My QR code
Two
Show your pass, exactly as you already do.
It is the same code you show for everything else. Hold up your phone, someone scans it, and that is the whole of your involvement.
1
Open your Hub
2
Tap My QR code
3
Hold your phone up
The Bell
£12.40
That's paid.
Nothing else to get out.
Three
Wander off. The club settles up.
Your card pays the bill, the receipt turns up in your pocket, and your good turns go up. No wallet, no fumbling, no card machine held out at arm's length.
1
Show your pass
2
Walk away
3
Good turns mount up
The Countryside Club
Member
GOOD TURNS
1,1781,2031,2401,240
It keeps the tally itself.
You just carry on.
And here is the good part
Every single thing you spend earns you good turns.
Not the odd promotion. Not only on a Tuesday. Lunch, the round you did not altogether mean to buy, a night in a shepherd's hut, the farm shop you went into for eggs and came out of with a wheel of cheese. If you paid for it with your membership, the club counts it.
It works rather like a stamp card would, if a stamp card covered absolutely everything you did and you never once had to produce it. Your good turns mount up quietly in the background while you get on with your day. Nothing to remember, nothing to carry, and never again that small indignity of asking whether they do anything for members.
The queue
Put your name down.
A name and an email address is genuinely all we need. We will write when there is an invitation to send, and not a moment before.
Only so we know which corner of the country to open first.
No payment, no account, no obligation of any kind. We write to you when there is an invitation to send.
Let us be straight with you about where this has got to. The club is built and the map is live. The card behind the bar, the part above wearing the Coming soon badge, is not switched on yet. This page is how we work out who wants it first.
Putting your name down takes no payment, makes no account, and signs you up to precisely nothing. It puts you in a queue for an invitation, and we will write when there is one to send.
We will only ever write to you about the invitation. Nothing else, and nobody else.
The Countryside Club