South Beer farmhouse and Hill Cottage Devon UK

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About us The Story of the Greens - What now seems like a long time ago, in the year 2000, Dick and Elaine Green (that’s us) made the decision to bring our family here to Beer Mill, Devon. Determined to have a go at ‘the good life’ , we immediately set about tree planting and creating a large fruit and vegetable garden.
We garden organically without the use of artificial fertilisers or pesticides and we are members of the Soil Association and HDRA, both wonderful sources of advice and inspiration. Guests at Hill Cottage, South Beer Farmhouse and the Stone Barn are welcome to share excess produce. Also in 2000 we fell in love with nearby Hill Cottage because of its history, its traditional character and its beautiful location with fabulous countryside views. Not far from the North Cornwall coast, Hill Cottage was our idea of everything a holiday cottage should be: plenty of space, wonderful, private garden, away from noisy traffic and lots of nearby outdoor activities. We opened our holiday cottage business in 2001.

In 2002 South Beer Farmhouse was a natural addition to our own home and land when our neighbours retired from farming. Combined, Beer Mill and South Beer encompass 45 acres of mixed and ancient pasture, woodland and newly planted trees with a stream flowing through and feeding our wildlife ponds as it journeys on to join the river Claw.
	Beer Mill Nature Trails is a network of routes throughout the land for the use of all our holiday guests and local interest/school groups. We have created a private wildlife reserve where we are gradually rebuilding the traditional devon banks and hedgerows, restoring and creating wildlife habitat including culme grassland,for such creatures as owls, bats, badgers, foxes, rabbits , deer and we hope to encourage the return of other wildlife such as otters, hare and dormice and the marsh fritillary butterfly.
The Stone Barn and Wildlife Activity Centre open in 2008. We have always tried to run our business in the most environmentally friendly way possible, for several years running we have received a Gold Award from the Devon Wildlife Trust approval scheme and in 2007 were awarded a Gold Award from the GTBS ( Green Tourism Business Scheme) for Hill Cottage. The Stone Barn takes our efforts one step further and we hope to create a luxury holiday cottage which does not cost the earth. Using environmentally friendly and reclaimed building materials, rainwater harvesting system, ground source heat pump, solar panels, triple thermal insulation we hope to create a completely carbon neutral holiday cottage for you to enjoy and maybe take some ideas home with you.
We try to consider our environment and wildlife in all that we do: local and reclaimed materials are used on the houses when work is required, all laundry and cleaning products are environmentally friendly, we provide facilities for and hope that customers will join us in recycling glass, plastic milk and other drink bottles , drink and food cans, foil, paper and cardboard and we are now able to offer customers the chance to compost all raw fruit and veg matter. We buy local, organic, recycled and Fair Trade goods whenever possible (check out our local shopping guide on the local info page), all new electrical appliances are A or A+ rated, energy saving light bulbs are used throughout our cottages and we purchase electricity from ‘green’ sources. The list could go on, but most importantly we remain open to new ideas and love to exchange ideas with guests who also care about the future. Since we moved to Beer Mill life has been anything but quiet, not least because of our ever expanding animal family - at the last count we had 2 dogs (black labradors, Willow and Madi), 2 cats (Millie and Mackeson), 2 ponies (Oscar and Gertrude) and a small flock of free range, organically fed black rock chickens and ducks.

We hate to be parted from our animals and quickly realised that many of our holiday guests were just as attached to their pets. So we welcome well behaved pets and owners at all our properties. Kennels are available for the use of guests at the Stone Barn and will soon be in place at Hill Cottage and South Beer Farmhouse, in the meantime guest pets are welcome to spend the day with us at Beer Mill , please check regarding availability of the kennel.

Families and children are welcome at all our properties and travel cots and high chairs are available opon request (please bring your own linen). As each of our properties sleeps up to 10 guests they are ideal for family gatherings and special celebrations. (Please talk to us about local florists, caterers etc) At Christmas and New year you arrive to Christmas tree, decorations, log fire all laid and ready, fresh local turkey/goose (organic and free range available) ordered for you, and lots of other homemade/local festive treats. Since the Stone Barn and South Beer Farmhouse are located quite near to each other very large parties (up to 20) might choose to hire both houses, please talk to us about your requirements. Guests with any special needs are also welcome to discuss their requirements with us and we will do anything we can to help you enjoy your holiday.

We are personally involved in every aspect of our business and we will do our very best to ensure that your holiday is relaxing and enjoyable and that you will come back and stay again.