We try to make our guests as comfortable as possible during their stay and we hope we meet their expectations, however we do try to take into consideration the impact our business has on the environment. All of the small measures we are trying to take apply to us in our own home day to day as well as to the cottages.
We try our hardest to advertise and support our excellent, reliable, local bus services and the amazing Moorlands Connect service (a cross between a bus and taxi service - click on the link on the tariff page for 'Your Arrival Notes for more information about this).
In order to discourage use of cars when guests are here, we have devised a substantial number of walks from our doorste or altrnatively A-B walks whereby guests catch the bus out from the end of our drive and walk back to the farm.
We offer minor concessions to those who arrive by public transport, namely including towels in the rental and offering free use of our bikes (electric or otherwise, the former have pannier) for the purpose of obtaining provisions or visiting the local hosteleries. If you are thinking of coming to Cotterill Farm by public transport, please read 'Your Arrival notes' accessable from our tariff page and we also suggest you e mail us so we can advise you about the possibilities and limitation of not having access to your own vehicle.
We encourage cyclists and walkers and have recently become a “Cyclists Welcome” and “Walkers Welcome” establishment- and we provide secure bicycle storage.
We rent out at well below commercial rental rates a limited number of bicycles, (thus saving the necessity of driving to the cycle hire premises), with profits being donated to an environmental charity. We also lease two electric bikes, making them available for daily hire at the same rate which the commercial hiring bases charge for conventioanl bikes costing a fifteenth of the price of the electric bikes; they are not only excellent for encouraging non-cyclists to try cycling in place of using their cars, but also for more experienced cyclists when the wind or state of their health might otherwise mean they might resort to use of a car. Also in the past we have often had members of a party where the disparity between cyclist prowess makes joint cycling inappropriate, so use by the less experienced cyclist of the electric bike 'levels' things up. The amount of electricity used when charging up these bikes is absolutely minimal, so rest assured, they are a very green option.
We have replaced standard bulbs with energy saving bulbs.
Where possible we have used solar lighting – for example up the drive.
We heavily encourage the recycling of plastics, cardboard, bottles, tins and newspapers and compost kitchen waste both from the house and the cottages – in fact about 75% of the waste from the cottages and our house is now recycled.
We have two wild flower meadows with numerous species of limestone upland plants. One of these meadows was a crocquet lawn when we arrived here and we scratched it up and seeded it with traditional limestone upland plants.
There are also three traditional hay meadows which have no pesticides or fertilizer applied and which are only cut for hay after the grasses have seeded. We do not make sileage but only hay thus allowing the wild flowers to have time to seed.The field borders are not mown which allows wild life to flourish.
Thermostatic controls are fitted to all radiators.
Our latest conversions have state of the art insulation throughout the buildings and are very energy efficient.
We use reusable washing up liquid , hand wash and washing powder containers and we use environmentally friendly washing up liquid.
Recycled toilet paper and kitchen towels are supplied.
We use A rated appliances to save energy.
All cottages have wind up LED torches – reducing the number of batteries used.
We collect rainwater from the roof to water our animals.
We strongly oppose battery farming of hens so we have free range hens which not only supply our guests with the best eggs but also all the proceeds of sale (not profits - there aren't any!) go to our local hospice.
Where cottages have baths, there are also showers, thus offering the option to save water.
We also offer ready made home cooked frozen meals made locally for our guests, reducing the number of trips out.
We provide clothes airers in all cottages and ample outdoor hanging space to discourage use of tumble dryers
We recycle printer cartridges.
We supply amazingly detailed information folders, which firstly reduce the need to travel to visit tourist information centres (we suppy considerably more literature then they do themselves!) but also, as the commercial literature is shown in order of proximity to our cottages, we hope there is a marginal reduction in distances travelled by our guests when out and about.
We appreciate that what we do is only small in the grand scheme of things, but we have to start somewhere. Our next steps are more significant cost wise, we propose installing solar panels and also we are investigating ground source heat pumps, the first step along the road of actually installing it hopefully.