Our Environmental Responsibilities

We are committed as a business to minimise the impact our cottages have on the environment in this beautiful area, which means making some commitments and asking our visitors to take a few easy steps with us to minimize our impact on the environment. Some of the ways we are doing this are detailed here.

Having been a Gold Award member of the Green Tourism Business Scheme for 10 years when we greatly benefited from the guidance they gave us during that time, we decided in 2024 “to strike out on our own”, but we continue to operate our business in as environmentally way as we can.

Here are a few of the areas we have concentrated on:

Recycling and Purchasing

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Recycle paper, cardboard, tins, plastic and glass bottles, batteries and silver foil and garden waste. Compost caddies are provided in our cottages and there is access to compost bins. We provide shopping bags in the cottages to avoid using disposable bags.
Have installed water butts and use the recycled rainwater for the garden and vegetable patch.
Re-use office paper, plastic bags, feed bags etc and try to keep refuse to a minimum.
Use phosphate & chlorine free cleaning materials to avoid the risk of damaging animal & plant life
Use toilet paper, kitchen roll etc made from recycled paper.
Provide 100% degradable refuse and waste bin sacks for your use for refuse that cannot be recycled.
Provide guests with dogs with a supply of bio degradable disposal bags.

Use of Energy

We have opted for electricity produced from renewable sources. We make regular reviews of electricity prices and suppliers from renewable sources.
Thermostatic valves on radiators save energy.
To conserve energy we have replaced all light bulbs, with low energy bulbs.
We line dry washing where possible.
We have installed efficient oil fired boilers or electric heating, which we ensure is regularly serviced
When purchasing new electrical appliances we ensure they are energy efficient.
We use e-mail & our website to promote and administer Old Rectory Cottages where possible, reducing the amount of paper used.

Enjoying Nature

Binoculars, books, maps and guides are provided for bird-watchers, walkers, nature-lovers etc.
Birds are encouraged with nest-boxes and bird baths
We have planted large amounts of native hedging and trees to attract birds and other wildlife.
We also encourage other wildlife by creating dead wood piles and using insect attractive plants.
We have created a large wildlife pond, which is lined with naturally occurring puddled clay rather than a plastic liner.
The trees that we have planted create ideal food sources and habitats for other wildlife to use, such as mosses and lichens, fungi, and numerous species of mammals, insects and birds.
In our field & orchard we try to follow a mowing programme that is sympathetic to plants & wildlife. This has resulted in many varieties of wild flowers
We try to minimise the use of chemicals in the garden.
We comply with the requirements of environmental legislation and approved codes of practice and have minimised our risk associated with environmental and social emissions.
We are happy to show guests around and talk about what we’ve done and other nature conservation projects we are planning.

Keeping it Local – Saving Fuel Emissions

Cakes or biscuits in your welcome pack are made by us.
We promote local food suppliers to our guests and provide a welcome basket for them to sample local produce.
Local workers are used for all building & maintenance work to the cottages.
We involve ourselves in local community activities and enterprises.
We use flowers and greenery picked from our garden in the vases in the guest accommodation – a great, but simple way of eliminating air miles and avoiding the use of pesticides.

Guest Participation

Hope that guests will support us in our efforts to conserve energy, by simply turning off lights that are not needed, ensuring that the heating thermostat is not unnecessarily high, and we ask that guests use water considerately.
Encourage guests to recycle and we provide facilities to recycle glass, cardboard, paper, tins and plastics
Encourage guests to shop locally, and to visit local pubs and restaurants.
Provide bags for guests to use for shopping instead of plastic bags.
Ask guests to follow our suggestions for the disposal of various types of waste so that they cause minimum pollution
We welcome guest’s comments and suggestions on how we can improve on our environmental policy.