Having loved this particular area of the farm for decades, we were very mindful of effects the excavation and construction works would have - to both the environment and appearance of landscape. Having stressed this to our architect we achieved a design that was sympathetic to the surroundings and the wildlife we share it with. For example, we used as much of the original cow track as possible to minimise change to the landscape.

We’ve planted 600m of new Devon Bank. In the odd corners created by the new track we’ve planted new native woodland. In total the planting will be in excess of 5 acres, which will improve the wildlife habitat along the riverfront. We have also lined the track with indigenous Oak trees, which in time will disguise the track further.

We have been committed to keeping the visual impact of our development to a minimum and realise the process looked raw at times. We hope that now the works are completed, people can see what we were aiming for and agree that the impact is as minimal as possible for a project of this scale.

This project is supported under the England Rural Development Programme by the department for environment, food and rural affairs and the European Agricultural Guidance and guarantee fund. None of this would have been possible without a partial Rural Development Service Grant to promote farm diversification, so thank you to all at RDS.

Our initial planning application was backed up by a survey done by Devon Wildlife Trust and we had input from the Environment Agency and English Nature. We are members of the Countryside Stewardship Scheme. We appreciate the continued support for the project received from DHNA, DEEM, SHDC and all of our customers!