This week we had another small step forward – our fifth (and hopefully final!) planning application was submitted. This one is an amendment to our very first application – our structural survey found that the front wall of our shippon was unstable due to the lack of foundations and rust damage on the supporting beams (in some cases the beam has completely disintegrated at the bottom and isn’t attached to the ground at all). Because the shippon is a curtilage listed building (it’s listed because it’s in the vicinity of another listed building – our Elizabethan cottage), it means we can’t do major works without council permission – which is what the application covers. It feels strange to pay for permission to protect our own building, but if there’s one thing we’re learning, building projects aren’t cheap – especially with a listed building!!
We’ve taken the opportunity to add two wood burners as well – originally we hadn’t planned to include them in the newer cottages but one of the holiday cottage companies who came to look round said they’d boost winter bookings, and seeing as though we need to maximise our revenue to fund the work on our Elizabethan cottage, we decided it was worth including these in our application (the flues will be visible from outside and therefore require planning permission).
It still feels like there’s a lot to get done and prepare before we theoretically start build in October – and we’re still waiting for some of the quotes we’d been promised weeks ago – but at least it’s one more step taken.
With John’s birthday on Tuesday, we took a few days off at the start of the week to explore slightly further afield to the normal places we go, to look for other places we can recommend to our future staying guests. We spent a day at Tarr Steps in Exmoor – about an hour’s drive from here. Exmoor was one of the places we were looking to move to, and so it was quite special to go back for the first time. While we expect most people wouldn’t go on holiday to then drive another hour to go out, we’re hoping to get guests who come back year after year, and so might fancy doing further day trips at some stage. We walked up to Withypool village – a beautiful route that took us along the river, through forests one way and across the moor the other way. A pretty good option for a hot day.
We then spent a day walking part of the South Coast walk. We’ve done different stretches within Devon (Seaton to Beer, Beer to Branscombe, Salcombe Hill to Sidmouth), but this time we drove to Lyme Regis in Dorset (25 minutes away), and walked the opposite direction up to Charmouth. The route there was a little random – originally going along the cliffs but due to cliff falls it had been diverted through a wood, then along a road and through a golf course. But once there, we had lovely views overlooking Charmouth and along the coast as we walked a little further up Stonebarrow Hill. We timed our walk back perfectly (and accidentally!) with the tide going out, and walked back along the beach, looking for fossils as we went.
For our final day, we drove to Castle Drogo at Dartmoor – a more reasonable drive at 45 minutes. It was boiling hot so we were quite glad when the walk to Wooston Castle (an Iron Age hillfort) turned out to be mostly along the bottom of a wooded valley, with plenty of shelter and places for the pup to cool off in the river (although the current confused her when her sticks kept disappearing before she could get to them!). A steep climb at the turning point of the walk (up to the hill fort) rewarded us with great views over the fields of Dartmoor. We’ll definitely be recommending this trip to our future guests.
Ley Farm Cottages 