TV reality farm has snug factor
20 February 2006
THERE can be no feeling in the world quite as snug as lying in a
huge warm comfortable bed watching the snow falling upon an endless
bold bleak vista of freezing moors and tors. I'd like to say I could
hear the wind howling in the wainscoting for good measure, but the
place where I lay was very well lagged and double-glazed and the wind
was doing its business out of doors.
Which was just as well -
because last weekend the top of Dartmoor was the coldest place this
side of Scotland. While the rest of the region was suffering January's
ubiquitous blanket of murky rain, the magical, semi-alpine demesne at
Holwell Farm was wrapped in its own white world.
The starkly
beautiful region that lies between Haytor and Hound Tor is a place
where ring-ouzels go to be lonely. And that's in the summer. When the
tourists and walkers go home on a winter's afternoon, not a soul moves
up on Dartmoor's lonely eastern flank. In the gloaming there is hardly
a human entity in this high wilderness, unless you believe in the
spirits of the dead. And then, on moonlit nights, you might hear
distant whispers among the low walls of the ruined medieval village of
Great Houndtor.
No man, woman or child has lived in that
settlement for 700 years, but the remains of the old longhouses can
still be seen just a few hundred yards north of the luxurious farm
complex owned by hoteliers - and now TV celebrities - Sebastian and
Philippa Hughes.
Lying in my grand bed in one of the couple's
magnificent converted barns, I couldn't help but think of the poor
blighters who used to live among those nearby ruins. No double-glazing
for the two slaves, two villans and four bordars who, according to the
Domesday Book, used to abide in the ancient settlement almost 1,000
years ago. What did they do on a night like this, I had wondered, as I
turned up the central heating and threw another log on the
wood-burner...
I was visiting Holwell Farm as a guest of
Sebastian and Philippa ito coincide with Westcountry TV's new ten-part
series called The Forgotten Farm, which started last week. The TV blurb
goes something like this: "The programme charts the ambitious and
exciting plans for Holwell Farm - which could turn into a battle
between the forces of commerce and an army of conservationists."
New
owners Philippa and Sebastian Hughes are gambling a fortune that 500
acres of beautiful Dartmoor land can be made profitable in a modern
world. When they bought Holwell Farm, there was much scope for
development and the series follows the ups and downs of an
extraordinary farm makeover. "
Their plans are bold and
forward-looking but it is also a huge and risky experiment. As Holwell
is in the middle of the National Park, any developments must be
approved by the park planners. The Forgotten Farm follows the
negotiations and battles with builders, planners and conservationists.
There are bank managers to convince and government farm grants to claim
as Philippa and Sebastian attempt to bring the farm back to life and
pay the bills at the same time. But how will they get on?"
They
are getting on very well indeed, if the results of my brief visit are
anything to go by. I won't spoil the suspense being built by the series
- I didn't meet any bank managers or planners - but I can report that
four of the barn conversions are now finished and up and running.
We
stayed in one, and very, very comfortable it was too. The thing about
people who are used to running high-class hotels is that they are not
likely to make their holiday cottages the sort of places where you
bring your own sheets and camp out. The snow was beginning to fall when
we arrived in the bitter cold darkness of last Friday evening, and we
were delighted to find that not only had the central heating been
cranked up, but that the wood-burner was lit and roaring. What we were
not expecting was the perfectly chilled bottle of white wine and an
excellent bottle of claret left for our enjoyment - along with a fridge
full of bacon, sausages and other carnivorous substances kindly donated
by animals raised on the farm itself.
After vast hot baths had
been run, food had been prepared in the Aga-like range and wine had
been poured, we settled on large and comfortable sofas in front of the
log fire to watch satellite TV without giving a hoot that something
meteorological impersonating outer Siberia was lurking outside. Even
Monty, our lurcher, was to the manor born.
Sebastian and
Philippa are well known for running the beautiful Holne Chase Hotel -
dubbed "most dog-friendly hotel in the country" - and at Holwell Farm,
Monty had his own bed, a large doggy towel and a number of doggy
treats. The dog-friendliness reached new bounds later when the Hughes
family agreed to dog-sit Monty while we went down to Holne Chase for
dinner, but more of that later. Saturday morning was spent exploring
the working farm with Sebastian and Philippa.
Equine activities
are going to be one of the big things at Holwell come the spring, and
in light of this Philippa kindly agreed to take my daughter Nancy
riding. Sebastian helped my partner Sue climb aboard a tiny pony so
that she too could enjoy the great outdoors on horseback. Alas, either
Sebastian didn't know his own strength, or Sue is lighter than she
looks. She shot over the animal's back like a sack of spuds on its way
to market and it was only Sebastian's quick thinking that caught her by
the wellies before she catapulted overboard into the mud. But Sebastian
and Philippa are a jolly pair and we all laughed until we cried - and
none more so than Sue.
After taking a tour around much of the
500 acres, admiring saddleback pigs and belted Galloway cattle, we
found ourselves returning to the farm along one of the refurbished
ancient "green lanes" that are Sebastian's great pride. "They are
terribly expensive and difficult to refurbish once they get overgrown
and the granite walls start falling in, but we think they are beautiful
and we love them," he told me.
Late lunch saw us in the snug
bar of the Ruddlestone Inn near Widecombe in the Moor, just a couple of
miles west of Holwell - and later we joined Alona Newbolt-Young who
took us up on to the moor so that Nancy and her friend could see some
of her family's fabulous registered Dartmoor ponies. This is just one
of the many interesting outings available once you have time to spare
on top of the moors.
Sebastian and Philippa are planning all
sorts of activities for guests as the Holwell project gets up and
running - including horse riding, sea-trout fishing and falconry, to
name but a few. All this mountain air can, it goes without saying, make
you very hungry, which is why we found ourselves taking the ten-minute
drive down, down, down from high Holwell into the depths of the Dart
Valley where the Hughes's well known Holne Chase Hotel lurks deep in
its own scenic sylvan demesne.
As I've mentioned, the couple
(who live in the big farmhouse adjacent to the new barn conversions)
looked after Monty, and said they can arrange transport and
baby-sitting for cottage guests who want to dine at the hotel. Somehow,
a sumptuous meal at a sumptuous country house hotel provided the ideal
end to a weekend in what must be one of the Westcountry's most
sumptuous holiday cottage complexes.
Sebastian and Philippa's
project at Holwell might be the subject of a TV series - for all I
know, viewers might yet see all sorts of shenanigans - but what I can
report is that a night spent on the bare moors in such stylish luxury
is one that you will undoubtedly remember. The only trouble is I'm
haunted by the thought of those poor blighters living up there in their
draughty long-houses devoid of double-glazing or central heating. How
did they keep warm?
Martin Hesp
Western Morning News
17 Brest Road
Derriford Business Park
PLYMOUTH
PL6 5AA
01752 765500
The Western Morning News is the Press Gazette Regional Daily Newspaper of the Year 2005
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