Gara Barton Devon Venison and Rare Breed Pork

Our New Farmhouse

We have gained outline planning to build an agriculturally tied house. The size will be approx 1,500 sq feet, which is acknowledged to be the size that holds a farming family, farming paraphernalia and on-going paperwork. It has been designed to incorporate 3 generations, if we are all still speaking with each other by the time it is built. The house encompasses the ideas of sustainability and rural re-generation.

The design should meet the requirements of being passive in that it will not require additional heating.

The house faces southwest and has a complete wall of glass. This ensures maximum light and heat gain from the sun. The walls are all extremely well insulated, approx 60cm thick, to retain heat. The floor and roof also contain insulation too.

The roof, at present, is flat, in order to hold water storage, PV panels and solar panels.

These will create heating for hot water, electricity to either be used within the house or to export to electric company. There is also a glass area to assist with thermal ventilation. It is to be sown with sedum, to give properties similar to turf but without the weight or maintenance.

There will be no fancy electrical gadget to open and close windows; it is down to the architect to design well enough for the house to sort itself out with the help of blinds and windows that manually open and close.

Water is taken from springs on the farm and we have sufficient supply for our home and business requirements. These springs may be harnessed to create micro hydro as well. Rainwater will be used for toilet flushing etc. We have looked at organic toilets but I’m really not ready for knocking off the peaks at present. A soak away is used presently for all dirty water – a reed bed may be introduced at some point.

The house and site is not visible from the Hutcherleigh Road and the design and layout of the other areas means that you look over the roof at the woodland beyond thus not spoiling the view.

The house has a wall of glass, the other walls will probably be white render, oak frames will be visible. We hope to present a modern clean building that requires little help from outside authorities.

In time we would like to add wind power, it is a windy site and there are gusts of up to 84mph so we would like to take advantage of it. We have thought about methane powered electrical system, with the number of pigs we keep it would be interesting.

The garden area, in front of the glass wall, has been designed with a ha ha. This means the deer can still roam the farm but cannot munch the garden area. As you all know we have loads of time to garden!!!!!!

We hope that new ideas will follow and that they can be incorporated into the build. We have a design that can be tackled by any competent builder; it is not so fancy to be scary. To us it seems sensible to build a house that costs little to run, is pleasant to live in and will be there for future generations of farmers.

If you want to come and see our site please ring – you could incorporate a visit whilst buying our venison and rare breed meats –

Thanks for looking at the site. Will keep you posted of developments.

Lesley and Richard Goodman

Jo and Russell

Grandparents: Jeannie and Grandma and Grandad Goodman