Sustainability at Wray Valley: Supporting Nature, Community & Eco-Friendly Practices
At Wray Valley, we are dedicated to minimising our environmental impact, promoting nature conservation, and supporting local businesses and communities. Our comprehensive environmental, social, and governance policy demonstrates our commitment to sustainable tourism.
We are proud of our achievements in this area, including the prestigious Gold grade of the Green Tourism Award, the Devon Tourism Gold Award – Ethical, Responsible, and Sustainable Business of the Year 2024, and the Devon Women in Business Eco-Friendly Business of the Year 2024.
As a visitor, you can contribute to our efforts by following our Responsible Visitor Charter, ensuring a sustainable and enjoyable experience for all.
Explore our ongoing sustainability initiatives below and discover the ways we strive to make Wray Valley an eco-friendly destination.
Recognition and Memberships
Wray Valley’s sustainability focus is led Michelle, a former environmental consultant with an MSc in Environmental Sustainability. Michelle’s expertise and passion for sustainability have significantly contributed to our eco-friendly practices and accomplishments. As a retired member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), Michelle’s dedication to responsible environmental stewardship remains unwavering.
Our efforts in sustainable tourism have been recognised with several prestigious awards, including:
- The Green Tourism Gold Award: This accreditation is a testament to our ongoing commitment to sustainability, environmental management, and social responsibility. Learn more about what we had to do for the Green Tourism Gold Award and its significance.
- Devon Tourism Gold Award – Ethical, Responsible, and Sustainable Business of the Year 2024: We were honored to receive this award, which acknowledges our dedication to ethical practices, environmental stewardship, and support of the local community.
- Devon Women in Business Eco-Friendly Business of the Year 2024: This recognition highlights our commitment to eco-friendly practices and serves as an inspiration for other female-led businesses in the region.
These awards and memberships reflect our continuous journey towards sustainability and responsible tourism. We remain committed to upholding these values and setting an example for others to follow.
Sustainable Energy
Apart from our electricity and phone line we are “off grid”. That means that there is no mains gas, water or sewerage here.
We know that our energy consumption has the potential to be a significant environmental impact. See how we try to manage this currently and what we have planned for the future to improve our sustainability and contribute to sustainable tourism by clicking on the topics below.
We will publish our energy consumption and generation figures on a regular basis. Click on each of the graphs to zoom in.
Energy Usage
- The first thing we did when we moved in here was switch to LED light bulbs.
- The lights in the campsite toilets use PIR controls to switch them on and off to avoid them being left on continuously.
- The shower block is well insulated and benefits from solar gain through the large west facing window so no heating is required. A small electric heater on a timer is provided for frost protection in the winter.
- We have substantially improved the insulation of the B&B to minimise our energy consumption.
- The insulation in the loft exceeds the current building regulations.
- The B&B rooms and guest lounge have suspended wooden floors and have been fitted with underfloor heating and insulation.
- The Family Room which has three external walls has had extra insulation applied to the North and East facing walls.
- All the windows are double glazed.
- Wherever possible we dry the laundry on the line outside or within our large sun room.
We anticipate that our overall electricity consumption will increase as we reduce our dependence on oil for water and space heating but this will come from renewable sources, with as much as possible being generated ourselves.
Photovoltaics (Solar Panels)
We have had 3.75 kW of solar panels since we started but in February 2024 we added a further 16 panels bringing out total up to 10.5 kW and a 5kW battery. The entire system is controllable from an app on our phones.
Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging
In August 2022 we installed 2 Zappi 7kWh EV chargers. One at the B&B and one in the Hay Meadow Camping Field. These are able to make use of the solar energy we generate.
Mains Electricity
We do have mains electricity and we have chosen to use a flexible renewable energy tarrif. Please help us to keep our prices down by switching off lights and applicances when not in use. We top up the battery with renewable energy from the grid overnight to heat up water for early in the morning before the sun gets up.
Solar Thermal
There are 2 banks of 30 evacuated tubes connected to our 300 litre smart hot water tank. On a sunny day these heat the circulating water to over 100 degrees, and will heat the 300l of water to over 50 degrees during the day.
Smart Hot Water Tank
During our renovations in 2021 we replaced the hot water system with an intelligent tank from Mixergy.
This provides a computerised controller which can optimise the use of solar thermal and surplus solar PV energy to heat up to 300 litres of water. When the demand for hot water is more than the solar can provide, the system will top up with either mains electricity or from the oil-fired boiler depending on our settings.
We can monitor hot water levels, energy usage and overall performance from a pc or mobile phone. It occasionally has a blip if a lot of people have showers early in the morning in quick succession or a deep bath late at night and use all the hot water. If there is none when you turn on the tap – please turn it off and please wait a few minutes while it heats up again and catches up with demand.
Please be considerate of others and the environment when showering. A 4 minute shower uses up to 36 l of water whereas a 15 minute shower can use up to half a tank. Take the 4 minutes shower challenge
Oil Boiler
As there’s no mains gas here the main heating system for Wray Valley B&B is an oil-fired boiler. It currently works but we intend to replace it with an air source heat pump system.
A first step towards this was to replace the existing radiator-based heating with underfloor heating and to improve the underfloor insulation which we completed in January 2024. This was a major undertaking causing much disruption and could only have been done in the off-season
Biomass (Wood)
As we’re surrounded by several acres of woodland, there is a ready supply of wood onsite. Regular maintenance of the woods produces plenty of logs to power our 2 wood burners (one in the guest lounge and one in our private area) which provide welcome top-up heating for damp chilly evenings.
We also supply logs to our campers for campfires and the logburners in the stables eco-bothies from our woodlands, and use them to fire up our pizza oven for tasty homemade pizzas.
Stables Eco-Bothies
The new stables Eco-Bothies have solar powered low voltage lighting and wood stoves for heating. Don’t worry – there is a back-up mains supply if the sun doesn’t shine enough to charge up the battery.
Future Projects
Future projects will include
- Air or ground source heat pump to replace our aging boiler
- Micro/pico hydro using our streams
Water
When we arrived at Riverside, our water came from a small stream which runs from a spring near Pepperdon Mine down to the Wray Brook. There was a filtration system, but the whole system needed constant maintenance, and we had no control over the water source. So it could dry up or be polluted at any time. Aquasource, a local water specialist company, dowsed for water and then drilled a borehole 40m deep in the Hay Meadow.
They installed a complete water treatment system including aerator, filtration, metals exchange and UV treatment tube which now provides us with a safe and reliable water supply. Just as well as the stream we originally used almost dried up in 2022. The water system is serviced annually.
Sewerage
The house has a very effective septic tank system which handles all the sewage and grey water from the B&B and the campsite showers and toilets. We may need to upgrade it to a treatment plant at some point, but it currently works well.
In addition, for those ‘greener’ campers we have a very efficient ‘tree bog’. A compost toilet where the manure produced is absorbed by a planting of alder and willow trees around the toilet. It has worked really well for 5 years now, uses no water and provides a lot of healthy tree growth. The sawdust used in our treebog mainly comes from Miranda Salmon, a local bespoke furniture maker and designer.
Waste & Recycling
We are aiming for “zero waste to landfill” from our own activities through sustainable waste management. We have largely eliminated waste coming from the B&B but we are not in control of the waste produced by you on the campsite. Please help us meet this goal by correctly separating your waste and recycling it rather than putting the lot in the same bin. We’d rather not have to go through your waste to sort it.
Did you know that as a business, we are not allowed to use the municipal waste collection services and have to pay for a separate commercial waste and recycling collection. There is only one service provider prepared to come to us, so we pay a premium for the service. General waste collection costs a lot more than our recycling collection. So please help us keep our costs and prices low by putting your waste in the right bin first time. Most months we have one wheelie bin of general waste per month but in August and September when we have more campers this rises to 2 wheelie bins.
Click on the graphs to enlarge.
If you can think of any ways we could improve please let us know. If in doubt please ask.
Find out more about what we are doing in the B&B and on the campsite in more detail below.
In the B&B
- Instead of little single use plastic bottles of toiletries we use refillable bottles for our handwash, shower gel, shampoo, and conditioner.
- Tea, coffee and sugar in the rooms is presented in refillable glass jars.
- A small jug is provided to collect fresh milk from the fridge in the guest lounge.
- Likewise at breakfast we have eliminated excessive packaging for the butter and preserves.
- We provide a fridge in the guest lounge so you can keep your food fresher for longer.
Please help us by segregating your waste. A box is provided in each bedroom to dispose of recyclable materials such as cardboard, paper, plastic, glass bottles and cans. If you have any food waste please let us know and we can dispose of that for you.
On the Campsite
Extensive recycling and waste disposal facilities are provided at the rear of the shed in the Hay Meadow. It will make your life much easier if you separate your general waste from your recyclables at your pitch and have a separate container for each. We don’t like going through your rubbish bags in the wheelie bin to separate out all the food waste, beer bottles, cans and plastic packaging.
If you have any leftover food that is within date and you don’t want to take home please do not dispose of it in the general waste. You can take it to the Community Larder in Moretonhampstead, leave it in the camper’s kitchen or give it to us.
Please take any camping equipment you no longer want home again for disposal, even if it is broken. The only exception to this is unwanted tent material which can be donated to the Moretonhampstead Flag Festival by giving it to us. Please do not leave it by the bins
Dog Waste
Extensive recycling and waste disposal facilities are provided at the rear of the shed in the Hay Meadow. It will make your life much easier if you separate your general waste from your recyclables at your pitch and have a separate container for each. We don’t like going through your rubbish bags in the wheelie bin to separate out all the food waste, beer bottles, cans and plastic packaging.
If you have any leftover food that is within date and you don’t want to take home please do not dispose of it in the general waste. You can take it to the Community Larder in Moretonhampstead, leave it in the camper’s kitchen or give it to us.
Please take any camping equipment you no longer want home again for disposal, even if it is broken.
Organic Waste
We compost nearly all our organic waste and use it to improve our soil. As well as the usual garden waste this includes any of our own leftover food (excluding meat products), chicken bedding, paper hand towels etc. We operate a 3 bay compost heap which is turned regularly.
Home-Grown Delights: Food & Drink
- If you book one of our evening meals it is home-cooked for you from scratch.
- Our eggs normally come from our very friendly hens (when their supply keeps up with your demand). Otherwise we will supplement from other local producers.
- Our bread, cinammon rolls and yoghurt are homemade from ingredients sourced within the southwest.
- Our pizza bases on pizza night are made from flour sourced from a mill within the southwest and hand stretched in front of you!
- Our bramble, plum and strawberry jams are homemade as is our marmalade. The blackberries are our own, the strawberries come from Cheddar and the plums are Devon grown all sourced from a local greengrocer. You can buy our jams, preserves, apple juice and eggs while stocks last.
- Our water comes from the borehole in the camping field and is treated on site. It has been certified fit for public supply.
- We make our own apple juice to serve at breakfast and for you to buy. See us pressing the apples here.
- We also have meadowsweet and elderflower cordials to keep you cool in the summer, grown, picked and made here.
Supporting Local Producers
- Locally sourced meat from Michael Howard Butchers, Moretonhampstead; Lloyd Maunders, Bovey Tracey and Higher West Combe Farm, North Bovey
- The Van du Pain – Bread by Liz – mobile van but based in Moretonhampstead also available at Lustleigh Dairy
- Wild Hart Venison – delivers to us for free
- Little Dartmoor – Artisan Chocolates – Moretonhampstead. Free Collection
- Baskervilles Ice Cream – we stock a limited range here but try the cafe in Moretonhampstead for the complete selection.
- Midfields Granola produced near Moretonhampstead and available to buy locally, e.g. in Michael Howard.
We actively promote local food and drink producers and recommend you try the following while you are here:
If you are a local food producer and would like to be listed here please contact us.
Devon Only Bar Menu
We are delighted to spotlight some of the wonderful producers we have in Devon, and have decided to ONLY stock drinks produced here in the county in our bar. Read about our current range here.
Biodiversity & Conservation Efforts
We have a long list of projects that we are gradually working our way through. Willing volunteers are always welcome. Read our newsletters to find out all about these. Please contact us if you would like to help.
- The Hay Meadow is being managed into a wild flower meadow and is scythed in late summer and will be grazed over winter.
- Biodiversity corridors are preserved between the camping pitches to provide a haven for wildlife and privacy for campers.
- Bramble scrub and nettle patches are preserved for birds, bees and butterflies
- Invasive species such as Himalayan Balsam and Hemlock Water Dropwort are removed when spotted. We are working with the National Park ecologist on this.
- Creation of wildlife ponds to supplement the river.
- Management of the riparian (riverside) habitat.
- Laying hedgerows that have not been managed correctly by previous owners.
- Worked with Moor Trees to re-planting missing hedgerows and establish new hedges
- Rejuvenated the existing 4 apple trees from the original orchard and two others in the garden
- Expanded the orchard with 12 new apple trees and all from Devon or the wider south west
- Bankside coppicing to reduce risk of bankside erosion
- Planted 45 saplings to extend Lower Moor Wood into Hay Meadow field enhancing habitat connectivity
- Commissioned a Woodland Management Plan to ensure the woods are appropriately managed for nature conservation.
Future projects include
- Hedge management
- Haloing of Veteran Trees
- Ring barking alder to increase percentage of dead wood
- Control of invasive species in Lower Moor Wood
- Scrub control to ensure mosaic of habitat in Water Meadow
- Clearance of the drainage ditches in the alder wood. These ditches drain the Wray Valley Trail
Supporting Local Businesses
In addition to our local food and drink suppliers, we also try to use local suppliers and trades for all our grounds and infrastructure work. Examples include:
- Plumbing – MP Plumbing
- Electrics – Devon Electrical Contractors
- Groundworks (and the pizza oven) – Chris Hill
- Branded clothing – MoorSo
- Water Treatment – On-Tap
- Cleaning Products and Toiletries – Zero Waste Moretonhampstead
- Pond Liners – Rubber Flat Roof (Exeter)
- Underfloor Heating – OMNIE, Exeter
- Scrub clearance – Devon Habitat Services, Buckfastleigh
- Path Construction – Vallance, Liverton
Promoting Sustainable Transport
At Wray Valley, we encourage and celebrate sustainable travel practices. If you’re arriving via a sustainable mode of transport, we would like to express our appreciation by offering you special rewards:
- For Campers: Enter the promo code SUSTRANS during booking and let us know your eco-friendly travel method in the Special Requests box to receive a discount on your camping stay. (Only one offer per booking – cannot be used in conjunction with the Nearly Wild Camping offer)
- For B&B Guests: Share your sustainable travel choice in the Special Requests box upon booking and receive a complimentary bar credit during your stay.
Explore the options available to reach us by public transport, with detailed directions to be sent to your email shortly before your arrival. Together, we can make a difference by promoting responsible travel and contributing to a greener future.
Public Transport
We are accessible by public transport from Monday to Saturday but you need to plan very carefully to make the connections! Unfortunately the nearest bus services on a Sunday are the 38 and 39 from Bovey Tracey.
Rail
The nearest railway stations are Exeter St Davids, Newton Abbot and Okehampton.
Bus
The main buses serving us are:
- Newton Abbot to Okehampton – 178 this is a “hail and ride” service so you can request the bus driver to stop at the B&B or campsite even though there isn’t a bus stop. It does go on a tour of Bovey Tracey, Lustleigh, Chagford and South Zeal on the way.
- Newton Abbot to Tavistock via Moretonhampstead and Two Bridges – 171 summer only – slightly more direct than the 178.
- Exeter to Moretonhampstead – 359 via Dunsford
- Exeter to Moretonhampstead – 173 via Tetburn St Mary and Chagford
- Exeter to Ivybridge via Bovey Tracey – 38 runs every day
- Newton Abbot to Bovey Tracey – 39 runs every day
Other useful buses if you are going out on the moor
- Tavistock to Newton Abbott via Two Bridges – 172 (summer only) – Monday to Saturday
- Newton Abbott to Bovey Tracey via Haytor – 193 – Wednesday and Friday Only
- Bovey Tracey to Widecombe – Haytor Hoppa – Summer Saturdays Only
Give us a call in advance of your arrival to arrange a pick-up of your luggage from Moretonhampstead.
Remember – all single bus journeys are currently capped at £3.
Please do not try to walk along the A382 to get to us if you get off in Moretonhampstead. It is much safer to walk down the Wray Valley Trail following the directions we will send you by email shortly before your arrival. Just ask in Moretonhampstead for the start of the “bike trail”.
Don’t wait – plan your dream getaway today!