Exmoor bed and breakfast, England
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
We're proud to say that we were the first accommodation provider on Exmoor to gain the Green Tourism gold award. This means that, for example, we monitor our use of energy and water and reduce it wherever possible. Detailed examples of some of the other things we're doing follow below.
Sustainable transport is very important on Exmoor. We provide plenty of information, including bus timetables, car-free itineraries and details of walks and cycle rides, to make it easier for our guests enjoy a car-free stay. We also actively promote local transport initiatives (e.g. we sell tickets for the West Somerset Railway, a steam railway operated by volunteers; we refer guests to the Moor Rover, a pre-bookable shared minibus service for walkers, cyclists and others). In 2011 Exmoor National Park have been preparing a bid for sustainable transport funding. We've been gathering information from our guests to help support this project.
Minimising waste is another very important issue; here's some information about how we reduce, reuse and recycle. As far as food is concerned, we try to buy only what we'll use. We ask guests to choose in advance what they'd like for dinner, so that we can plan the cooking in the most economical way and do not over cater. At breakfast time, everything is cooked to order so there is no wastage. We also use sugar lumps rather than sachets of sugar, make butter pats instead of using pre-packed portions, and put fresh milk in the bedrooms instead of plastic pots of UHT. We don't buy bottled mineral water.
In the guest bathrooms are refillable bottles for soap, shampoo, etc, instead of bars of soap and disposable sachets. We don't use commercial air fresheners: we make our own using essential oils, and keep them in reusable spray bottles. Newspapers (and papers from the office, once they've been reused as scrap note paper) are made into briquettes for the fire, to supplement our supply of logs. Vegetable peelings are composted, along with other suitable kitchen waste. Empty jars and bottles are reused for our home-made jams, pickles and preserves; we also offer them to neighbours for them to use. We reuse some plastic and metal containers for storage; envelopes are used again for mailing or for filing. Recyclables that we can't reuse are recycled!
Community
We support community causes, e.g. CareMoor for Exmoor, Snowdrop Valley. CareMoor is Exmoor National Park's fund for conservation and access work to benefit both the local community and visitors. Their projects include buying equipment for conservation volunteers, funding small-scale archaeological research, improving river crossings and repairing eroded paths. We have a supply of Exmoor National Park Pocket Guides, which guests can buy in exchange for a donation to CareMoor.
Our village fete raises funds for the village hall and other local good causes. We donate cakes for the tea stall each year, as well as entering many of the baking and produce classes; the entries are auctioned off at the end of the day as part of the fundraising. We also give a dinner for two as a draw prize.
Snowdrop Valley, in February, brings many visitors to the area at a traditionally 'quiet' time of year and helps our local community by providing seasonal jobs, as well as income for us and other small businesses. It also boosts awareness of the area in general, which helps everybody as tourism is such a major part of the local economy. The park & ride bus service taking people to and from the valley is run by our local parish council, with support from various organisations. We collect donations for the scheme and we also offer free tea, coffee or soup to the people who work at the park & ride bus stop and information point. We have a dedicated Snowdrop Valley page on our website, as well as links to the village website and the Snowdrop Valley blog.
We support local food producers and craftspeople: for example we buy our eggs from a neighbour who has a flock of free-range hens; goat cheese comes from a smallholder in nearby Bridgetown; honey from beekeepers in Dunster and Allerford; asparagus from a farm at Withycombe. We use local pick-your-own farms for the fruit that goes into our home-made jams; we also buy any surplus fruit and veg that our neighbours might have, on an ad-hoc basis. DJ Miles in Porlock supply us with tea and coffee. The beers on our bar come from the Wiveliscombe-based Exmoor Ales and Cotleigh Brewery; ciders are from Sheppy's near Taunton and some of the wines on our list are from Dunkery Vineyard, just a few miles from Exmoor House, at Wootton Courtenay. The village shop sells local cheeses, preserves and honey and our guests often buy these to take home with them.
We keep information to give to guests about the Exmoor Producers Association (who have a craft shop in Minehead), Arkadia Fine Art Gallery & Nutcombe Chocolates (both in Dunster), Makers (a Taunton-based contemporary crafts co-operative) and the Willows & Wetlands Centre (willow crafts gallery and museum in the Somerset Levels). The craft centre at Lynton and the exhibition centre at Dulverton are also good sources which we recommend to our guests. We've bought items like candle holders to use at dinner and several pictures for guest rooms. We sell some booklets of walks in the area, written by a Devon-based couple.
There are several cultural events happening around Exmoor each year. We take part in the Exmoor Food Festival (in October), doing special lunches that showcase local produce. We promote this - and other events, as well as local attractions - via our blog, facebook, twitter, our website, our newsletters, and leaflets for people to take away with them. We're gradually working our way around the many excellent places to go and things to do on Exmoor, so that we can recommend them from personal experience.
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