Monday 21 February 2011

Exe Valley Statistics - Rainfall

I've very kindly been given some rainfall figures for the last 14 years at Up Exe, which lies between Silverton and Thorverton.

Annual Figures:
These figures show the 14 year average for the year to be 888mm

Monthly Figures:
These figures show the 14 year average for the month of January to be 75.5mm

We'll upload and enhance the graphs on these figures as we get them.

Profile: Adrian Gray runs his company Viewshed Ltd from his home in Silverton, Devon. He's a trainer, software and web developer specializing in Ordnance Survey maps, Pitney Bowes MapInfo and Open Source development for the web, desktop and mobile platforms. He can be contacted at www.viewshed.co.uk

Friday 18 February 2011

Exe Valley Facts

The River Exe is more than 50 miles long and stretches almost all the way from the Bristol Channel in the north to the English Channel in the south. It's source is near Simonsbath on Exmoor and it reaches the sea at Exmouth.

On this blog we hope provide more detail of it's route and history of the hamlets, villages, parishes, towns and cities is passes by or through.

Thursday 17 February 2011

Pebblebed Vineyard and update on its Dragons Den Project

Pebblebed Vineyards has 22 acres of Vineyards located just outside Topsham. The vineyard was first established in 1999 by a group of friends coming together to plant the first half acre. Geoff and Anna Bowen have since planted a further 20 or so acres with alot of help from the community. The vineyard produces white rose and sparkling wines and is particularly known for its Devon Sparkling Rose!

Last year Geoff presented the idea of a new vineyard project on the BBC TV programme Dragons Den and just about came out alive with the backing of the canny Scot Duncan Bannatyne. The idea of the project is for people to join Duncan and become founder members of a new area of vineyard. Founder members will pay £2000 regaining that money in wine and seeing the vineyard through from planting to the first grapes and their own labelled wines over a ten year period. Wine enthusiasts will legitimately drink their own labelled wine having had a hand in planting the grapes, nurturing the vines and and making the wine. Planning of the vineyard is well underway and Geoff will keep the Exe Valley Blog updated as the project proceeds. If anybody is interested in joining the project more details at www.pebblebed.co.uk

Geoff and Anna Bowen are the owners of Pebblebed Vinyards, Topsham. The vineyard produces white rose and sparkling wines and is particularly known for its Devon Sparkling Rose! For more information please contact them via their website www.pebblebed.co.uk

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Fun in the woods with Wild Wanderers

My son recently celebrated his 10th birthday with a party run by Phillipa Chinn of Wild Wanderers. She runs this Environmental Education, Forest Schooling and holiday activities business in the woods at Billingsmoor Farm, Bickleigh in the Exe Valley.

The kids loved it! She taught them how to make badges out of wood, took them on woodland hide and seek games. They learned about King Alfred's Cake and how it is dried and used to light fires by survival experts like Bear Grylls and Ray Mears. She taught them how to respect the woods but also how to forage for useful things and to light five minute fires.

On one of their expeditions around the woods they were luck to spot some Roe Deer and hunt for bog living bugs and creepy crawlies.

The day was topped off with some lovely birthday cake, hot chocolate and they each made sticks to cook their marshmallows over the fire pit.

The day was very professionally run with due consideration to health and safety, respect of fires, careful use of knives and axes. The key message being "Safe Respectful Fun".

By the end of the day that were tired, filthy and had big smiles on their faces. We will definitely be calling on Phillipa and Wild Wanderers again!

Profile: Adrian Gray runs his company Viewshed Ltd from his home in Silverton, Devon. He's a trainer, software and web developer specializing in Ordnance Survey maps, Pitney Bowes MapInfo and Open Source development for the web, desktop and mobile platforms. He can be contacted at www.viewshed.co.uk

Tuesday 15 February 2011

The Exe Valley Blog offers back office support to Richard Maunder on his South West Coastal Footpath Walk

We've just had a really good meeting with Richard Maunder (richardmaunder.blogspot.com) who's going to walk the entire length of the South West Coastal Footpath in aid of the Exeter Leukaemia Fund (ELF).

We here at the Exe Valley Blog and Viewshed Ltd are going to provide back office support for his trip. This will involved making sure his blog is working properly and hopefully providing up to date Google Maps of his progress.

Watch this space for more as we are going to be keeping you up to date with his training, use of Blogger with his Android based phone and his progress around the peninsular.

Friday 4 February 2011

Exe Valley Views - Early Lambs

Kate West of Nutshell Photography has kindly sent us another Exe Valley picture. This one of some early lambs in the fields near Silverton.

Thanks Kate. Let hope Spring is on it's way!

For more information on Kate and what she does at Nutshell Photography visit www.nutshellphotography.co.uk

If you've got any photos of the Exe Valley, past of present or a story which you'd like to tell people about simply drop us a line.

Regards

Adrian

Tiverton Town Football Club raise funds with sponsorship and a Back to the Golden '60s Concert

Jim Bray, Commercial Manager at Tiverton Town Football Club has dropped up as line at http://theexevalley.blogspot.com

Tiverton Town Football Club, Devon's top non-league team, is holding a '60s music concert on Saturday, May 7, featuring four original artists.

The Back to the Golden '60s concert is being headlined by The Merseybeats, supported by Chris Farlowe, Dave Berry and Vanity Fare. The artists regularly sell out theatres and venues across the UK as part of the Solid Silver '60s Show tour.

There is a cut-price opportunity to have an advertising board displayed prominently on the day and then installed permanently at our Ladysmead stadium for 12 months, with various other things thrown in.

There are also opportunities to sponsor each of the artists, for which you would get VIP tickets, backstage photo and autograph opportunities with the performers and various advertising, including in the good-quality A4 souvenir concert programme.

We are planning to promote the concert quite significantly in the coming weeks and attract over 1,000 people. The capacity would be nearer 2,000.

Please contact me ASAP if you're interested in any of the deals.

Kind regards

Jim

PS - Tiverton Town play in the Southern League Premier Division and are the fourth highest-ranked team in Devon behind Exeter City, Plymouth Argyle and Torquay United.

Jim Bray
Commercial Manager
Tiverton Town Football Club

Website: http://www.tivertontownfc.com/

Telephone: 07779 564029
E-mail: tivvytowncommercial@hotmail.co.uk
Address: Ladysmead, Bolham Road, Tiverton, Devon, EX16 6SG

Jim has very kindly given the readers of this blog a special offer "if readers book tickets through me, I will give them the same number of tickets for a Tiverton Town match of their choice for free. So if they book four tickets to the concert, I will give them four free tickets to a match, etc."

Thanks Jim. We wish you well in your fund raising and hope the concert goes well.

Regards

Adrian
ps. If your club has an event you want people to know about, just drop us a line!

Coastal Footpath Walk for ELF

Just been speaking to Richard Maunder who this April will be starting an epic walk around the South West Coastal Footpath in aid of Exeter Leukemia Fund. We'll keep you posted on his progress but if you want to follow his blog or sponsor him then please visit http://richardmaunder.blogspot.com

Good luck Richard. Hopefully, I'll get to join you on part of it.

Regards

Adrian

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Exe Valley Views - Snow Drops

The first snowdrops here in the Exe Valley as photographed by Kate West of Nutshell Photography.

Thanks Kate.

For more information on Nutshell Photography please visit www.nutshellphotography.co.uk

Business Profile: Jark the eco-camping and Glamping solution

The first in our profiles of small businesses in the Exe Valley is that of Jason Wise, The Ark Chicken Company. We'll come back to his free range chicken farm and the local meats and ready meals he sells at a later date. This profile is about an exciting side venture he's working on: Jark - the eco-camping and glamping solution.

Jason Wise - Chicken Farmer and Inventor of the Jark eco-camping and glamping solution

Name: Jason Wise

Position: Founder of www.JarkLife.com and inventor of the Jark eco-camping and glamping solution.

Location: Babylon, Silverton

Background: Jason, a successful chicken farmer in his own right, has in recent years he's become disillusioned with the way chicken farmers have been pushed to produce larger and larger volumes for lower prices. He was worried that it would lead to taking short cuts, which would ultimately effect the level of care he was able to give to his stock. He bravely turned his back on those market forces to concentrate on the free range, slow growing, poultry he was happiest producing. He set up the Chicken Shack Farm Shop at Roosters of Babylon, Silverton, selling his own meat as well as local, sympathetically reared Beef, Lamb, Pork and game.

Jark: However, Jason had a problem. Having reduced the number of birds he no longer needed the large modular, steel framed, mobile sheds he had designed and built. Some serious head scratching was needed.

Jason says "In the movies, the star of the film would snap his fingers together and say "I've got it". Well it did't really happen like that". Jason will freely admit he found inspiration at the bottom of a glass of local cider. Having seen an article about Glamping (Glamorous Camping) he realised that the fully insulated sheds the chickens lived in would make fantastic eco-camping accommodation. Plus, he would be able to recycle his spare sections and possibly make a sideline business out of it. "Killing two birds with one stone, so to speak".

The Ark Hut - The first version, built around the shed section carcass saw the construction of a spacious, wood clad and insulated building which could be placed on a trailer and delivered to site. The steel construction allowed it to be dragged in place and the stable door gave it an extra rustic edge. He received loads of interest and sold the first one quite quickly.

Jason was pleased but not all together happy with the design. With help from the Manufacturing Advisory Council and Oliver Blackwell, an award winning designer, he set about designing and building a new version specifically for the eco-camping and glamping market.

Jark - the first true eco-camping/glamping solution from JarkLife.com

Jark 2 - the second eco-camping and glamping solution from JarkLife.com

A number of changes had to be made, the design tweeked and more consideration paid to the look and feel of the product as well as it's eco credentials. Not only that, but a product name was needed and the Jark or "Jason's Ark" was born!

The Jark's new design features included a steel skid, to give the Jark mobility e.g. it can be dragged behind a 4x4 or tractor. There was lots of glass to provide more light and connection with the outside space. The roofing material had was Oberon 25% recycled tin. The insulation provided by local ewe's wool and barley straw, electricity supplied by hook-up or solar pack, plus all the timber FSC certified.

Jark was now a credible eco friendly, high quality, eco-camping/glamping solution. However, Jason was still not completely happy.

Jark 3 - Going beyond the competition

Jason wanted to take the Jark to the next step, improve on it's flexibility and increase it's return on investment. The building has increased in size to 12ft x 8ft and 16ft x 8ft for the basic and luxury version respectively. The timber has been upgraded to cedar and the roof now comes as cedar shingles, Oberon or faux grass. Not only that, he didn't want the customer to loose the feeling of camping, so he's added canvas extensions to the front. These can be a simple porch to a full 8ft canvas tent, fully enclosed for those lovely british evenings.

Jark 3 is now ready to go to market as a family friendly, insulated multi-season, eco-camping/glamping solution. Built with quality and eco construction at the heart and fun as the goal.

Jark 3 - the high quality, beautifully finished, robust, mobile and extendible eco-camping and glamping solution from JarkLife.com

Thanks Jason, all at theexevalley blog are wishing you success in this project and will be back to find out how it's all going.

For more information about Jark 3 the eco-camping/glamping solution please visit www.JarkLife.com