Wheatland farm is great for extended families like ours- we were up to 25 over a fortnight in July/August 2007. The layout allows each family to have its own space while allowing for a certain amount of communical living (which mostly centred around meals on the 2 terraces of the largest lodge; gatherings at the fire and competitive volleyball matches!
It's also a great place for people who want a low impact holiday in style (ie not camping!) I haven't calculated our carbon emissions but I'll bet that the effect of our family of six (including three teenage girls) was about the same as staying at home!
Having given up flying and our car earlier this year (2007) we found Wheatland Farm an easy place to come to and stay in without private transport. We travelled here in only 5.5 ours from East Sussex - as much time as it would have taken to drive - and it cost £200 return for all 6 using a family railcard.
Our bags were collected from the station by Ian, who offers to collect visitors in order to promote pubic transport travel. We chose to walk to Wheatland Farm, which took us 1hour 40 mins though it could have been done in 1 hour - we were getting distracted by blackberries, animals etc.
Once here, low impact living is promoted with integrity - compost bins, recycling bins, encouraging use of eco-friendly products, local food producers.
When you give up cars, everything simplifies, especially food, transport and entertainment. With a little creativity we managed to figure out non-car access to all that.
Food: Fiona's Farm Fayre - a farm shop - is an easy walk up the lane. She delivered a pre-ordered box of food that supplied our first two days until the shop opened on Monday. She stocks all basic food stuffs - certainly enough for a basic diet throughout our stay - mostly local veggies and meat from her farm - and organic. Delicious home-made pies, cakes and pasties, warm from the oven if you time it right!
The rest of our diet was supplemented from Londis in the village, which has an excellent range of produce, including more organic, fruit and wne as well as newspapers. Our family easily provided meals for up to 24 from these two sources.
We also had delicious pub lunch in Winkleigh at the Kings Arms.
Transport. Ian is handy with bikes and there are several decent bikes available to visitors. We used these to go to Winkleigh as well as for several day trips. The teenagers especially loved the freedom of biking along the quiet Devonshire lanes, despite some challenging hills - which we walked up! Giving up cars does instil a sense of patience in a traveller.
Entertainment. There's a lot to do at Wheatland Farm itself (or should I say not do, as lazing about in a beautiful quiet landscape has got to be one of the best ways to relax. Wheatland Farm is so picturesque that some people could easily spend a week just watching the swallows, other birds and animals. The Popehouse Moor SSSI is very special and beautiful, though perhaps only to those with an eye for wildlife habitats.
Bold Try is an excellent stable with two dozen horses and a firm but patient owner who took my two beginners on an hour's hike on horses - it's 4 miles bike ride away and I visited charming Chulmleigh while waiting.
On a hot day we biked to Eggesford Woods where there's a beautiful river - again 4 miles away - quite deserted apart from us.
To get to the coast you can take the picturesque train to Barnstaple, from there we caught an houruly bus to Saunton Beach where you can hire surf boards and wetsuits. It's quite a trek but easily do-able in a day.
While planning this low impact low carbon holiday I did worry that it might be too boring or effortful - especially for the teenagers - but it turned out to be the opposite - easy, fun and very relaxing.
