News
Click here to see the now News.
Up here at Holestone Moor Barns all sorts of exciting things
happen! Below is a selection of our news ... !
Another new baby!!
13 November 2009
This is an Austin A30 called Risky! We first saw her for sale at the Crich Transport Extravaganza.
She's in superb condition. Steve now takes turns driving Risky and Bluebell down to Matlock, but only when it's not raining. Vicki can't drive either of them, having long legs that don't fit under the steering wheel!
100% record
12 October 2009
We've
just received our Quality in Tourism Grading Assessment results.
The Stables had an overall score of 92%, and The Barn scored 93%
so both cottages have been awarded '5 Star Gold'.
There are 5 'areas' on which each cottage is marked - Cleanliness, Bedrooms, Bathrooms, Kitchens and finally, Public Areas. All of these reached level 5 in each cottage. For four years in succession we've scored 100% for cleanliness, and this year is no exception.
Thank you again to our wonderful housekeepers, Louise and June. What would we do without you?
The wind turbine
28 September 2009
The
Wind Turbine is now up and running and it's great. Steve now
gets up in the morning and says "What lovely weather" - when
it's windy! The turbine has a 15 metre mast, with 9 metre
blades.
It will supply two thirds to three quarters of what we need for our house and cottages. We can't store it, so the extra will go into the Grid. We haven't yet completed the contract with Good Energy who will buy our surplus, so at the moment, E.on are getting it free. We will continue to buy from E.on when necessary.
Natural Energy is the company who supplied the turbine, which is manufactured by Proven Energy, based in Scotland.
Schmap success!
25 August 2009
Hooray! My photo WAS accepted for the Schmap Birmingham Guide.
And amongst the busy weeks we're having our Quality in Tourism annual Assessment next month, so we'll have some news for September.
Silver
and Flickr!
15 July 2009
We got SILVER again in our Green Tourism assessment a few weeks ago. We scored higher marks than at our last Assessment, but apparently we're not allowed to say what the marks are!
Another of my photos has been selected on Flickr to be shortlisted for the Schmap Birmingham Guide. Fingers crossed that it's accepted.
Wind Turbine Project gets go-ahead!
6 July 2009
After more than a year of wrestling with planning requirements and grant applications it's great to be able to say that everything is now sorted out and that we have ordered our wind turbine. All being well, it should be installed and working by the end of August 2009.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but we think it’s a handsome looking machine; well away from the cottages it will make no more noise than the natural wind flow. Unbelievably more than 20% of the income generated from our holiday cottages has been spent on electricity and heating oil over the past few years. With rising energy costs this could soon make it unviable to let the cottages over winter months, when energy costs rise and income falls. We looked at lots of options to reduce energy costs and maximise our 'green' potential. Living on the top of a windy hill it seems that windmill energy is a good part of the answer – after all windmills ground most of Britain's flour for hundreds of years.
Many thanks to Tony Carver of Natural Energy for his invaluable help and advice and to the staff of BNED-Leader for awarding us the invaluable grant contribution without which the project would have been delayed for years while we saved up more money!
 The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas |
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Furry
baby
29 June 2009
She's here - she's a Bedlington Terrier and was born on 6th May. Her coat colour is blue. Her kennel name is 'Hyacinth Blue Beauty Girl'. Rather a mouthful. The owners had called her Bluebell, which is why Steve chose her - like his Morris Minor. However, we thought we might get mixed up between the car and the dog, so we've named her Flossie!
Lots of news!
22 June 2009
Congratulations to Mr and Mrs
Sharp who celebrated their first
wedding anniversary on the 14th of June! Rob and Heather held
their wedding celebrations here at Holestone Moor Barns -
read more ...
We now have planning permission and have been awarded a grant to help (40%) towards the cost of a wind turbine. Work will start around August time for this. The electricity we produce will come to the house and cottages first and anything left over will go into the National grid. If we need more than we are producing we will take it from the National Grid and pay as we do now.
And finally ... we are expecting a little furry baby on 27th July ... if you want to know more you'll have to keep checking here!
Gold awards!
11 May 2009
On
7th May 2009 we were delighted to receive a surprise in our
post; Gold Award certificates for both cottages for 'Exceptional
quality of accommodation and customer service'.
Almost 1,500 of the 20,000 individual self catering units have achieved the Gold Award, and for 5 star graded properties like ours the score had to be 91% or above. Apparently 624 Gold Certificates were awarded, amounting to 31% of the total.
The Gold award is valid for a year until the next round of awards are announced in April 2010. It's great that our hard work to maintain our consistently high standards has been recognised nationally.
Do
you remember ... ?
29 April 2009
Last year I mentioned that I'd been contacted by a chap in Chicago - about using one of my photos he'd found on the website Flickr.
It's a Birds Foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), and is considered an invasive species in Chicago!
Click here to view the brochure (pdf) - is the photo is on page 7, with the credit on page 15.
Neil
and Gemma
21 April 2009
CONGRATULATIONS to the new Mr and Mrs Clemerson!
We had the most wonderful day recently when our youngest son Neil got married the very lovely Gemma.
They married in the beautiful setting of nearby
Hodsock Priory, Blyth in
north
Nottinghamshire - famous for its springtime snowdrops.
Even our lovely classic Morris Minor Bluebell got dressed for the occasion!
Did I mention it was wonderful?!
Trip Advisor
20 April 2009
We've had another review!! Check out Susan85's recent review of her short stay here at Holestone Moor Barns - take a look.
What's
included?
25 March 2009
We've added a What's included? page to the website - we thought it might help you to see exactly how inclusive our 5* fully inclusive really is.
Grand plans for expansion ...
24 March 2009
Well not really - but we are expanding the car park! It'll help when we get larger parties in the cottages and allow more space between the vehicles.
AND ... drum roll ... we've now got 9 fans on our Facebook page - take a look.
28 January 2009
We've
also created a page on
Facebook, and you can access that directly from our 'Home'
page. People can set up discussion forums and Mary started this
off with Attractions in the area. I wonder how many fans of
Holestone Moor Barns we'll attract?
Trip advisor
26 January 2009
Holestone Moor Barns holiday cottages are now listed on Trip Advisor and can be accessed by putting 'Holestone Moor Barns' into the search box. We have one review already, which was put on in October last year, way before we even thought of putting our information on.
We'd be delighted if guests who have stayed with us, would also be kind enough to post a review of our cottages.
Treetops update
5 January 2009
What
a super way to start the year. I did a quick check on the money
raised for Treetops
Hospice by people buying my
Greetings cards and postcards through 2008 - which totalled
around £200.
Then I got to thinking - I've actually raised over £500 and a lot of that is from donations, and quite a lot of those donations have been from some of our cottage guests too.
So THANK YOU!
Wishing
you a very fine 2009!
1 January 2009
To all our previous, present and future guests, we wish you a great 2009!
Old news - click here to see our 2008 News page.