The Women Who Bring the English Countryside to Life
“The past year, nature has been our sanctuary. Let us celebrate Mother Nature and recognise how our bond with the natural world can nurture our wellbeing.”
When the Princess of Wales spoke these words about the restorative power of nature, they felt quietly profound. Anyone who has spent time in the English countryside will recognise the truth in them immediately.
Nature does restore us.
It slows the pulse, softens the noise of the world and gently reminds us that not everything needs to happen quite so quickly.
At Humphreys of Henley, we see this transformation often. Guests arrive from cities across the world – busy, curious, sometimes a little tired – and then something shifts. A walk through a beech wood, a view across a vineyard, the simple pleasure of standing in a meadow at dusk. The countryside does what it has always done: it steadies us.
And perhaps it is no coincidence that we have always described the natural world as female.
We call it Mother Nature.
When I first looked into the origins of that phrase, I found it unexpectedly fascinating. The idea stretches back thousands of years. The ancient Greeks spoke of Gaia, the great earth mother who gave life to everything. The Romans followed with Terra Mater, the generative force behind the harvests, the seasons and the land itself.
It turns out that humanity has long understood something instinctively: the earth feels maternal.
Stand in a quiet Oxfordshire meadow or walk along a beech-lined ridge in the Cotswolds and the idea feels less like mythology and more like common sense. Nature is steady, restorative, endlessly generous.
But once you begin thinking about the countryside this way, you start to notice something else.
So much of the English countryside is brought to life by remarkable women.
At Humphreys, we meet them constantly.
Sometimes they are the custodians of ancient houses. Walk through the doors of a Tudor manor and it is often a passionate host – someone like Caroline – who brings centuries of history vividly alive, weaving together tales of kings, rebellions and family life across generations.
Sometimes they are historians. In Oxford, guides such as Tabby and Isabella have the rare gift of turning quiet streets into living theatre. A college quadrangle becomes a stage where scholars, poets and philosophers seem only to have just slipped around the corner.
Sometimes they are artisans and makers preserving ancient crafts. In workshops and mills scattered across the countryside, women like Jacqui devote themselves to traditions that might otherwise disappear entirely.
And increasingly, they are pioneers.
Across England’s vineyards, female founders and winemakers are quietly reshaping the reputation of British wine. Women like Fiona have shown that the chalk soils and cool climate of southern England can produce wines that rival the great regions of the world.
Each of these women is remarkable in her own way. But what truly sets them apart is the way they connect people to place.
Spend time with them – walking through vineyards, exploring ancient houses, listening to their stories – and the countryside becomes something different. No longer just a beautiful landscape, but a living story.
That belief sits at the heart of Humphreys.
Yes, we are proudly female-founded. But more importantly, the company was born from a simple love of the countryside and the people who bring it to life.
From Mother Nature herself to the historians, winemakers, hosts and makers who care for the landscape today, the English countryside has long been a story shaped by women.
At Humphreys, we have simply been turning left, not right, to find them.
And if you follow that path yourself, you may discover that the countryside still has many remarkable women waiting to welcome you.