Coombe Farm News

Sustainable Wood plus more

Last Updated on Thursday, 24 March 2011 10:21

March, the month of change.

Alot is happening.  We, The Coombe Farm Trust, with the help of our website manager Peter Morgan, have set up a new page on our website 'Logs & Timber for sale'.  So please, go and have a look at that, let us know of any changes you think we need to make, bombard us with questions and let us know what you think.

The sun is out, the daffodils are out, snowdrops have been out for a while now, in fact, come to think of it hares, foxes and other forms of wildlife have been spotted round  about as well.  Please take care whilst driving at this beautiful time of year, there are too many casualties on the road.

Tim is loving BB, Angela has achieved Business Excellence for the farm.  Bookings are going well.  'Reapers Healthfoods' shop in Bampton Street, Tiverton is under new management and has a welcoming new layout.  Their contact details if you're interested are:

Farm and Woodlands

Last Updated on Tuesday, 05 July 2011 12:41

There has been quite a lot happening this past month (February) here at Middle Coombe:

We have just commissioned a massive wood boiler/burner to replace 90% of the gas and oil use at Middle Coombe Farm, a massive dream come true for us, (see below for pictures of completion).

We have completed building one storage barn in the woodland and the second drying barn we hope to complete next month, in order to commence our sustainable logs business for supplying to our local community.

We have made a stone pathway with hand rails starting at the pond and bringing you up to the middle road track on the way to the oak tree, to make it safer for all to walk.

This month we are resurfacing the middle track which the 4-wheel drive uses to bring guests up to the oak tree, and we have also cleared out trees around the oak tree to make wooden benches for seating instead of using hay bales.

The barn itself has had lots of work done regarding wind drafting, having erected the biggest curtains ever over the doors, dont't worry, these can be tied back if it is not windy, and we have doubled up all the sheeps wool which we use to insulate between the thatch and where it meets the cob walls, together with replacing the small windows with draft proofing material.

We are in the top scoring of 40 out of 400 members of The Green Business Tourism Scheme, and have been nominated for a Goldstar, AND are in the final group of 10!

I (Angela) am completing my Business Excellence Course this March and Tim is a very happy man stoking the new wood burner, which he's named "BB"!!

The Boiler Room

The Fuel in the Boiler Room

The Old Cider Press and Threshing Barn

Last Updated on Friday, 11 June 2010 11:41

One of the barns here on the farm is an old threshing barn with massive doors either side so the wind could blow the winnowed chaff out the door leaving clean wheat behind. Then sometime in the eighteen hundreds a sophisticated twin screw cider press was installed. In those days agricultural labour was paid for largely in cider. Unfortunately parts of the barn's roof and walls were allowed to collapse in the early nineteen forties, The walls were constructed from cob, a mixture of stone, clay and straw which is an excellent building material but no use if allowed to get wet. And the roof was thatched from local straw.

Read more: The Old Cider Press and Threshing Barn

Future projects to improve sustainability

Last Updated on Friday, 11 June 2010 11:43