Kevin Rushby stays at Henley Cottage in Shropshire, an authentic 19th-century farm featured on a recent BBC series.

Henley Cottage, near Church Stretton in the Shropshire Hills, is a genuine time-warped gem of Victoriana. It will be familiar to some as the location for the BBC series Victorian Farm (if you missed it: don't worry, a second series is in production). Set in magnificent English countryside on the 1,500-acre Acton Scott Estate, the cottage offers no electricity, no running water, no central heating - nothing, in fact, that could not be found in an agricultural labourer's cottage of about 1900.

When I arrive, Rupert Acton, the man behind this unusual accommodation, shows me around with glee. "I've just got hold of some genuine 19th-century hot water carriers at an auction," he tells me. "I'll put one in your bedroom."

The house, it has to be said, is delightful: a traditional black cooking range dominates the well-scrubbed kitchen. There's nothing plastic or frivolous. Everything feels solid, well-made and enduring. No fridge, of course, so there's a pantry with cold stone slab. Cheese goes under a fly guard; milk goes in a jug - no modern abominations like organic milk in plastic bottles are allowed. There is no piped water either, simply a well and a hand pump in the laundry around the back.

For those who cannot fully integrate with the 19th century, there is some consolation in the brick outhouse at the end of the garden: a barn door opens to reveal, Tardis-like, a modern hot shower unit, hand basin and flushing toilet.

Next day is sheep-keeping at Acton Scott Historic Working Farm. Rupert Acton's father decided to preserve this old farm back in the 1970s. It was either that or update the place, which he did not want to do. It was a prescient decision because a generation later historic Victorian farms are in demand, both by the public and television production companies.

As I arrive a man in a waistcoat is ploughing a field with a heavy horse. Elsewhere a cow is being milked. In the farmhouse a woman in an apron and mob cap is baking drop scones on a griddle over the range. They are delicious. The gently bucolic atmosphere is beguiling. I love the feeling that the Victorian farm was a self-reliant, self-contained universe, one that predates pesticides and hormones.

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