Atke the A38 for Plymouth
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Instructions for reaching Shepherds’ Cottage, Lambside Farm, Noss Mayo, Plymouth, Devon PL8 1HQ Approaching from the East (M5/A38): From the M5 take the A38 for Plymouth. One mile west of South Brent and shortly after passing the Shell garage on your right , turn left at the WRANGATON intersection signed to Ermington A3121 and Yealmpton A379. Turn left at the give way at the top of the intersection. Proceed 1 mile to crossroads with give-way sign and turn right onto A3121. Keep on this road for several miles past Ugborough and Ermington. Half a mile past Ermington stop at halt sign and turn right on the A379 towards Plymouth (DANGEROUS TURNING). After about half a mile, as you come to the top of the hill turn left following signs for Holbeton and Mothecombe. *Continue along this road. You will see signs to Holbeton village off to the left but DO NOT follow these. Continue on along the same road, which is signed to Stoke Beach. Still following signs for Stoke, go carry straight on through the hamlet called Battisborough Cross. You keep going along this road for about half a mile. You will pass the entrance to Carswell Farm on your left and the entrance to Poole Farm on your right. Take the next road on the right (signed Lambside Farm) and go down the lane for about 300 metres where there is a sharp left hand bend. Soon after this bend, take the next right, just before Corner Cottage. You will then see Shepherd’s Cottage straight in front of you on the left. Please park your car in the designated parking spot (to the hedge-side of the garage on the right), making sure you leave enough room for a tractor to pass in the road. There is room for 2 cars if parked carefully. Please do NOT park in the garages as these are used by the tenant of Boundary Cottage (next door). Arrival is any time after 4pm and when you arrive please go round to the BACK DOOR. On the wall to the left of the door is a keysafe and the code is 9102. Inside is one set of keys, with another spare set on the kitchen table. There is a telephone in the cottage for incoming calls and for making local/national calls and the number is 01752 872846. If you get lost please call the office on 01752 830020 or 07593 439781 if within normal office hours. Outside of office hours call Sam White on 07814 481400. Or call the owners Geoff or Zoë Sayers on 07970 409722 / 01752 830492 / 07729 817781. Approaching from Plymouth: Leave Plymouth on the A379 for Kingsbridge. Stay on the A379 for about 6 miles, through Brixton and Yealmpton. About 1 mile from Yealmpton you will climb a hill (not very steep but quite long) and at the top is a crossroads. Turn RIGHT following signs for Holbeton and Mothecombe. Then follow the instructions above from the *. NOTE: We strongly recommend that you do NOT use a GPS or Sat. Nav. system on the minor roads in Devon, as they often try to take you down very narrow lanes, mud tracks and dead ends! HISTORY OF CARSWELL AND LAMBSIDE FARMS Carswell Farm The name Carswell derives from ‘Cress Spring’ because of the excellent water supply from the underground spring. Before mains water was commonly available, houses had to be built next to a reliable source of water. We don’t know exactly when the first house was built on this site, but we know that a John Fford sold it in 1598. It was purchased in 1715 by a Thomas Prideaux who built the present house about 1720 and his descendants owned it until about 1896. One of Thomas’s daughters, Elizabeth, married a Hugh Bickford from Brixton, returned to Carswell as a widow and died there in 1828 aged 92. Mr Arnold Sayers (Geoff’s father, who was born at nearby Alston Hall) purchased the farm, all 153 acres, 2 roods and 1 perch of it, in 1950. The two farm cottages were built to house farm workers in 1952 – which was also the year that mains electricity came to the farm. Previously tilley or oil lamps had been used, which were not very efficient. Arnold Sayers has researched the history of Carswell and has found a diary of a Michael Evens who was the village constable in 1839. He used to come to Carswell as he was the village tailor, but he was also a smuggler and his diary is full of mentions of landing ‘things’ (we suspect brandy and tobacco!) along the coast, and a continued battle to outwit the Revenue Men. For instance, an entry on 7th October 1838 says “Mended a pair of trousers for Capt. Bignall (who lived at Carswell), took out 6 things H Crocker.” An entry on 18th March 1839 says “Carswell at work Captn Bignall’s. Landed 86 things at Ryders Hole being the last of Leonard’s cargo.” There is also an account of him sailing in 1834 to Roscoff in France to organise a cargo of things! Lambside Farm This was a Domesday property being known then as Lammeseta. It was part of the Membland estate which for several centuries the Hillerdon family owned. Unfortunately they were on the wrong side in the Civil War of the 1640’s and were heavily fined by Cromwell’s people. We have not been able to discover when the existing farmhouse, Lambside House, was built as many records were lost by fire during the blitz on Exeter in 1941/2, but by its style it was probably built in the early 19th century. The Tithe Map of 1839 shows a Robert Giles farming 200 acres at Lambside – quite a sizable farm for those days. Maybe he built the farmhouse and its fine range of farm buildings? The Membland Estate was purchased in 1876 by E.C. Baring (of the well known bank) who became Lord Revelstoke in 1885. The estate included both Carswell and Lambside and, in the short period he owned Membland, he indulged in a frenzy of building, including the church at Noss Mayo. His buildings have a recognisable Dutch style and most have a plaque with his initials and the date. His reign was short because of the financial difficulties Baring’s Bank suffered in 1890. You may notice the stables, gas works and laundry on your way through Membland, all built in the distinctive ‘Revelstoke’ style. Unfortunately the main house was sold off for architectural scrap in about 1910. In 1916 the Plymouth Co-operative Society purchased Caulston and Lambside Farms to provide milk for their retail dairy in Plymouth. All cows were hand milked in those days and the farms had about 200 cows. One man could hand milk 10 cows, so a large staff of about 20 men was needed. The Society had other farms in the area, but in the 1960’s gradually sold them off and Arnold Sayers purchased Caulston and Lambside Farms in 1963 (which, by the way, was a bitterly cold winter and many roads were impassable for 3 months!). Caulston Farm is where the milking parlour is sited for the whole of the farm (made up of Carswell, Lambside and Caulston) and where our herdsmen live. We now have over 500 milking cows here with 300 young stock, producing 2,200,000 litres of delicious organic milk every year. Corner Cottage, which the Co-op had used for housing pigs, was converted in 1964 by Arnold Sayers to provide a home for farm workers. We had thought of calling it Hog Hall, but decided against it!! It was rebuilt and extended in 2008 to provide the current light and airy accommodation. We do not know when Shepherd’s Cottage and Boundary Cottage (next door to Shepherd’s) were built but we are sure that the Co-op must have built the rear extensions to provide a bathroom during their ownership. They were both modernised and much improved by Geoff Sayers in about 2002. There used to be two tiny rooms downstairs but the internal wall was removed, and the new open plan layout works well. The slate floor in the kitchen at Shepherd’s Cottage is original and most of the wood flooring in the living area came from the chestnut trees in Alston Wood. For interest, Boundary Cottage got its name as it is on the boundary of the Holbeton and Newton Ferrers/Noss Mayo parishes. Opposite Shepherd’s Cottage is The Mews. This lovely stone building was originally a barn and home to a domesticated gos hawk. Named in honour of its former resident, it has been thoughtfully renovated to provide delightful, modern accommodation for two people. Much of the wood floor upstairs comes from old elm trees from Carswell Farm that had to be felled in the 1970’s when they caught Dutch elm disease. Finally, the newest addition is The Lodge – built in 2008 next to Corner Cottage, it is a stunning ‘Eco-Lodge’ and is very environmentally friendly in terms of energy and water use. Using local building materials where at all possible, it is simply a fantastic place to stay! .