In North Devon water can often be a problem. Usually there’s too much of it! In this instance however there was one 100 acre block of land that was served only by two natural drinking points limiting the effective use of land for our Red Ruby cattle.

Two ‘rings’ have now been installed adjacent to one of the drinking points creating a reservoir from which to pump water to two 10,000 gallon tanks which now feed water troughs in every field on the previously ‘dry’ land. 

Today saw an exciting event at Mornacott. While fishing on the river at dusk an otter was sighted. We have noticed previously the existence of several otter holes along our river banks but never until today had we been privileged enough to see one.

The otter was completely oblivious to our presence and dived into the river before swimming off in search of supper. 

The final touches to William’s Wood were completed today.

The small area, located on the Southern edge of Mornacott and comprising a dew pond surrounded by a few trees and bramble thickets had obviously been used as a local rubbish tip some years ago. The final haul comprised three cookers, two fridges, various sinks and kitchen hardware in addition to old axles and various farm implements together with a huge quantity of plastic and general rubbish. Several skip loads later the area was cleared, planted with trees and properly fenced.

A central area was stoned up to allow for vehicle entry and it now provides a glorious viewing point over Mornacott and the surrounding area.

Despite the initial larger financial outlay of buying Landrovers as opposed to competitor makes, we are now buying only Landrover vehicles for use at Mornacott due to their more robust build and higher residual values.

We now have seven Landrover variants in use throughout the estate and are proud to be supporting the Solihull workers who make them. 

The tree planting project finished today with 1,500 native broadleaf trees planted in conjunction with the Woodland Trust. The trees were planted by Army Cadets from North Devon as a part of their nationwide project to plant 150,000 trees to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the UK Cadet Forces.

The largest planting, which has been named ‘Octavia Wood’, after Octavia Hill the founder of the Army Cadet Force, comprises nearly 900 trees and is easily visible from the North Devon Link Road.

The young Cadets, all from C Company of the Devon Army Cadet Force, spent their whole weekend planting the trees, sleeping overnight in barns and enjoying an impromptu barbecue of spit roasted lambs on the Saturday night.  

Renovation works which have taken nearly one year were completed today in what has been an extensive rebuild of a wonderful old cob and stone barn.

The works were undertaken using traditional materials, cob, stone and slate and the resulting rebuild has blended sympathetically with all of the surrounding buildings. The reclaimed slates used in the rebuild were particularly difficult to source but fully justify the effort involved.