We are “Going Green” at Low Penhowe

We live in the most wonderful part of North Yorkshire surrounded by the most magnificent countryside, stunning views, pretty little market towns, picturesque villages, areas of outstanding natural beauty and great walking country. We want to do our bit to preserve this little piece of England!

We have decided to “Go Green” within practical limitations and to assure our guests of a continued warm welcome and a truly comfortable stay whether it be to our Bed and Breakfast or holiday cottages. We would like to reassure you that we are not going cranky green!

So what are we trying to do………

Energy conservation

• We have replaced majority of light bulbs with energy saving bulbs. These bulbs are ascetically attractive and fit in with the house and the lighting requirements. In other words they are not ugly and hopefully shed plenty of light!
• We are trying to use oil more wisely and reduce our consumption without leaving our guests cold!
• We use our open fires to supplement and add extra heat on those colder evenings. In the Drawing room we have a log fire; all the logs come directly from either Low Penhowe or coppicing work undertaken on a local shoot.

Local sourcing of breakfast products

• This is probably where we have made the greatest impact in cutting down on food miles.
• We grow, make or bake our own, and then we source it locally usually with 30 miles of Low Penhowe or within Yorkshire.
• We now have a great deal of our breakfast products delivered directly to the door, such as the sausages and bacon from our butcher (G.G. Walker), the muesli, flour and apple juice from an organic farmer (Side Oven Bakery), the tea and coffee from a Yorkshire based supplier (Taylors of Harrogate), the butter form a Yorkshire Dairy (Birchfield Farm Family Dairies) etc

Water Consumption

• We are trying to reduce the amount of water we use by installing rainwater storage tanks and butts around the house, cottages and outbuildings. This will enable us to reduce our water consumption in the garden and drinkers for our chickens and Highland Cattle.

Cleaning and washing

1. We have been pleasantly surprised that the bio cleaning products we have used so far actually work!
2. We have moved entirely to environmentally friendly cleaning products from Ecover and e-cloths.

Re-cycling

1. We try and re-cycle whatever we are able to such as glass, cans, newspapers, cardboard, plastic, metal, old batteries, printer cartridges, foil and so on. We are pretty successful in doing this and it’s really quite noticeable how much lees rubbish we now put out for the refuse collectors.
2. There is hardly any wasted food; anything left over is either fed to the dogs, the chicken and cattle!

Composting

1. We compost as much as we possible can, the garden waste, teabags, egg shells, coffee ground etc
2. We winter our cattle in the fold yard and have a muck heap which rots down over the following year.
3. A ideal combination of our composting and cattle muck are then fed back on the gardens at Low Penhowe to feed and fertilise the ground to ensure a healthy blooming garden the following year.

We would like to encourage our B&B and Holiday Cottage guests to participate and to help us to ‘Go Green’. The best ways to achieve this is to

1. switch off any unused lighting,
2. switching televisions off rather than leaving them on standby,
3. using the washing line to dry the washing rather than resorting to the tumble drier,
4. using our bio cleaning products,
5. being economical with the water
6. recycling whatever you can.

Transport

Public Transport
We thought we were out in the heart of the country with a non existent public transport system but Madeleine and Martin from the Scarbourgh Food Group proved us wrong by travelling from Scarbourgh on a Transpennine Express train, then by bus from Malton to Burythorpe and finally a 25 minute walk to Low Penhowe!

Horseback
We welcome those on Horseback! During the year we welcome many who come to us on horseback who are riding through the Yorkshire Wolds. The riders enjoy a relaxing night or two at Low Penhowe whilst the horses happily graze in our paddocks!

Cyclists
We warmly welcome those who are cycling around North Yorkshire and will lock your bicycles away safely overnight.

Walking
Sometime ago we welcomed a lady who was walking from Scotland through to Canterbury on a sponsored walk and raised over £20,000 for her charity.

Please don’t get carried away with the simplicity of this journey! Low Penhowe is situated in the heart of the country with a bus service to Burythorpe running only 3 times a week! In reality we would encourage the vast majority of our guests to travel by car as there is so much to see and do in this lovely rural part of North Yorkshire.

However a good option to consider is taking the train to York. It’s only 2 hours from London and 2 hours 20 minutes from Edinburgh. On arrival at York there are numerous car hire companies for your onward journey to Low Penhowe and subsequent travel around this pretty part of Yorkshire.

Here are some useful travel links

Trains

National Express
National Express East Coast runs fast, frequent passenger train services on the East Coast Main Line between London King’s Cross, the East Midlands, Yorkshire, the North East of England and Scotland.
http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/

CrossCountry
Covering around 1,500 route miles and calling at over 100 stations - stretching from Aberdeen to Penzance, and from Stansted to Cardiff - CrossCountry is the most extensive rail network in the UK. http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/TicketsAndFares/Default.aspx

TransPennine Express
First TransPennine Express operates services from Malton and onwards to Scarbourgh, York, Leeds, Manchester Airport and many other North of England towns and cities.
http://www.tpexpress.co.uk/default.asp

 

Buses

Yorkshire Coastliner
From our Operating Centre in Malton, North Yorkshire, and with a fleet of 21 modern, high-quality, comfortable vehicles, at Coastliner we run an intensive, frequent service between Leeds, Tadcaster, York and Malton.
http://www.yorkshirecoastliner.co.uk/

Buses in and around Malton
A list of the 33 local bus services can be found here, and a list of the possible destinations is shown below.
http://www.carlberry.co.uk/rfnlistr.asp?L1=MAL019&op=D

Buses in and around York
This site will tell you (almost) everything you need to know about bus services in York and the surrounding areas
http://getdown.org.uk/bus/search/malton.htm

MoorsBus
Enjoy a relaxing day and help keep the North York Moors a cleaner and more beautiful ... by using Moorsbus.
http://www.visitnorthyorkshiremoors.co.uk/content.php?nID=244

 

Park and Ride

Park and Ride York
Five Park & Ride sites currently operate in York. They allow you to travel to York by car, park for free in secure car parks and complete your journey into the city centre by bus.
http://www.york.gov.uk/parking/ride/

 

Travel Planners

Traveline – Yorkshire Journey Planner
Our website provides impartial journey planning information about all public transport services - buses, coaches, trains and trams, throughout Yorkshire.
http://www.yorkshiretravel.net/welcome.do

Travel Search
Information about bus, coach and train services from, and other local services in, Malton.
http://www.carlberry.co.uk/rfnshowl.asp?L1=MAL019

Cycling

Cycle Hire in and around Ryedale
http://www.ryedale.gov.uk/pdf/Cycle%20Hire%202006.pdf

Purple Mountain Bike Centre
The Purple Mountain hire centre is based in Low Dalby, a small, lively village, in Dalby Forest, near Pickering. Being at the heart of the North Yorkshire Moors, it is well situated for exploring the rugged moorland and gentle picturesque valleys and dales.
http://www.purplemountain.co.uk/bikehire.shtml

Trailways Cycle Hire
Trailways has 100+ fleet of top brand bikes for all ages and abilities – infants to adults, including baby seats, buggies, tag-alongs, child seats and tandems. We also have a selection of helmets if required. Puncture repair kits and maps are provided whilst hiring.
http://www.trailways.info/cycle-hire

Moor to Sea Cycle route
Crossing the stunning moorlands of North Yorkshire and through beautiful forests to the dramatic heritage coastline, the Moor to Sea cycle route links the towns of Scarborough, Pickering and Whitby in a long distance cycle route. Featuring over 80 miles of forest tracks, lanes, and the former coastal railway, the route can be ridden in stages ranging from easy to more challenging and offers cycle hire on route.
http://www.moortoseacycle.net/

Charity
We are supporting our local Hospice, St Catherine’s Hospice, Scarborough, North Yorkshire. They do a fantastic job within our community. If you have enjoyed your holiday in our cottages or your short stay at Low Penhowe for Bed and Breakfast we would encourage you to make a donation, whatever you decide to give will always be appreciated by St Catherine’s.

 

A few Green tips!

Saving water
How to save water and energy
http://www.biggreensmile.com/how-to-save-water-energy.aspx

Low energy light bulbs
Megaman is a leading manufacturer of energy saving lamps and luminaires
http://www.megamanuk.com/

Green Cleaning products
Ecover are a range of environmentally friendly, safe and biodegradable cleaning products made from plant based ingredients.
http://www.ecover.com/gb/en/

Green cleaning cloths
The E-cloth System uses no chemicals at all. The cloths are made from millions of tiny, clever fibres which have such a good natural cleaning effect that only water is needed to clean absolutely everywhere.
http://www.e-cloth.com/home.asp

Recycling
Complete guide to recycling in the UK including what you can recycle and where to recycle near you.
http://www.recyclenow.com/

Yorkshire Food and Drink
Deliciouslyorkshire aims to increase awareness of the fantastic range of food and drink from Yorkshire
http://www.deliciouslyorkshire.co.uk/index.asp