Winter Newsletter 2023

Happy New Year! We finished last year without Covid for the first time since arriving at Coombe Mill and have hit 2023 with many refurbishments ready for opening on Monday.

Winter 2022

Heligan Night Garden Christmas Light Show

Every year, the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall put on a spectacular Christmas Light Show.  This year it was just as enchanting as ever.  100,000 LED lights transformed the gardens into a magical wonderland.  We wandered around the garden light trail discovering beautiful handmade lanterns of wooden creatures like hedgehogs, squirrels and foxes.  Then we toasted marshmallows over huge fire pits, making it the perfect Christmas experience. If you come down and stay over Christmas we highly recommend this as an evening activity.

Homes for Ukraines

Homes for Ukraines is a sponsorsip scheme that allows people and organisations in the UK to offer Ukrainians fleeing the war a home. After a long process of applying and waiting for their visas to be cleared, we welcomed Vova and Stanislav to Coombe Mill.  They were overjoyed to be here and to be re-united with the rest of their family who had managed to come over to England earlier and be homed in the next door village of St Tudy.  Those of you who have been returning to Coombe Mill for many years will remember Valencie.  This old lodge was a bit worse for wear when we arrived in 2021, so we decided to give it a complete refurbish.  Millie, Sam and Sienna enjoyed helping with the painting and decorating and with carefully selected new fixtures and furnishings it now looks like a new lodge inside.

Christmas 2022

Christmas at Coombe Mill is a great time of year. Santa always visits each lodge on Christmas Eve and the Christmas Day Feed Run with a decorated trailor is great fun for all ages. The animals love Boxing Day with all the pealings from the Christmas Day veggies!! Many of our guests enjoyed the festive trip up to St Tudy Church, to join in with the Christingle Service. As well as our children singing their school’s Christmas song, our Ukrainian family were also very brave and stood up in front of the whole congregation to sing their Ukrainian Christmas song too.This was followed by a ‘Santa drive by’ through the village for the children, while the adults enjoyed a mulled wine or two!

Coombe Mill and January 2023

New Renovations

The 2022 renovation of Valencie spurred us on to start work on our 2023 list of jobs.  Out with the old and in with the new, as January saw us replace the old footbridge across the river by the lodges and construct two new flights of stairs up to the bridge.  Our equipment room has also been given a new lease of life, with a new floor, different fresh clean tiles and a re-designed layout to accommodate our communal tumble dryers as well as our usual borrowing area of wellies, waterproofs and wetsuits.

Maisie and Luna

Sadly, we lost our beloved golden retriever dog Maisie just before Christmas.  Many of our guests and their children have enjoyed taking her for her walkies around the farm when they stayed.  She had the best life here at Coombe Mill, enjoying the freedom to roam and such fantastic walks up on the moor and Camel trail etc. She would have almost made it to 13 years old in January.  On a happier note, Luna has now joined us.  She is a working Labrador and at 13 weeks old she has just had her first walk and has adored meeting all the farm animals too.

Spring 2023

As we leave winter we move into Spring a season of births on the farm. Our goats and sheep are all looking pregnant now. Over the next couple of months we will all be getting excited once more for the highly anticipated arrival of our newly born lambs and kids.  Spring will be here before we know it and it is one of the best times to visit Coombe Mill with all the young off-spring running and skipping around.  Having the chance to hand feed these small bundles of  life is always a special experience for any child. We still have availability for Easter a great holiday to visit us with babies, better weather and of course easter Egg Hunts.

Early Bird Booking Discount

We have a new booking platform which allows you to book direct with us on our web site and pay direct through our payment platform. If you book before the end of Januray you will get 5 % off your booking. You can access this here https://www.coombemill.com/availability-prices/