Harvesting The Rhydd fields
A local farmer who rents our fields has now cut down the tall grass in the fields for hay. The hay has been collected into bales which you can see in the fields on the photograph below. Later, the farmer will collect the bales and transport them to his nearby farm for his animals to eat during the winter.
Flowers and seeds
Roses and clematis are in bloom on the screen around our LPG (gas) tank brightening up the entrance drive approach to the Barn.
We have planted a new dark pink clematis in a pot on the patio to climb up the Malvern stone wall and the trellis above.
Seed heads have appeared in the wildflower paddock in front of the Barn. It’s time for the grass to be cut.
Roses and clematis beside the Barn driveway
New clematis on the patio
Seed heads in the wildflower paddock
Red-legged partridge
Spotted recently at Rhydd Barn, perched on the wall of our converted pigsty, a beautiful red-legged partridge! We managed to get quite a good photograph of it:
To quote from Wikipedia: The red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) is a gamebird in the pheasant family […]. It is sometimes known as French partridge, to distinguish it from the English or grey partridge. The genus name is from Ancient Greek alektoris a farmyard chicken, and rufa is Latin for red or rufous.
Four Star Gold Award for 2021
We are pleased to announce that Rhydd Barn has again been awarded a Four-Star Gold Award by VisitEngland in an assessment carried out on Friday 19 March 2021.
Rosemary Boaz, owner of Rhydd Barn, wishes to express her heartfelt thanks to her wonderful staff: cleaner Sharon and maintenance person/gardener Max. Without their valuable work this award would not have been possible.
It is especially noteworthy that, within the total score awards, the cleanliness of Rhydd Barn scored 100% in all areas—an important factor in this time of Covid. Again, thank you to Sharon for all her hard work.
This is the web address of our listing on the VisitEngland Assessment website: https://www.visitenglandassessmentservices.com/establishments/rhydd-barn/
Here are the highlights from the VisitEngland report:
- A great location for exploring the Malvern Hills and surrounding area.
- The Proprietor is to be congratulated on the continued investment and of standards. This past year as well as ongoing redecoration, investment has included: The provision of various additional furnishings and cleaning materials to help meet with Covid recommendations and helping to ensure guest safety and well-being.
- Excellent to see the general repainting of exterior stonework and paintwork helping to lift overall initial impressions. The rear of the barn to be completed shortly.
- New concrete fencing spurs and lead post toppers adding to the support and longevity of the wood.
- The sewage tank also having been serviced.
- New Director chairs a great added benefit for guests to enjoy this year.
- Again, the re planting of planters and re planting/landscaping of the main drive entrance adding to the first impression and feel of the barn.
- Again, the ongoing replacing and upgrading of kitchen utensils helps to further meet with market expectations.
- Great to see that the web site is being updated on an ongoing basis with new pictures added as and when along with “news”.
- Special mention should also once again be given for the very high standards of cleanliness noted on this visit, and for which Ms Boaz and the team are to be congratulated.
Maintenance work on Rhydd Barn
Much of the scheduled maintenance work has been completed on Rhydd Barn. Recent sunny weather allowed the paintwork repairs on the exterior walls to be carried out. Also the old wooden bench on the patio has been treated with preservative. Some minor repairs inside the barn have also been done.
Spring-cleaning of the barn interior is now under way as we prepare to welcome guests once again after the current restrictions are relaxed on 12 April.
Below are a few photos taken by our wonderful maintenance man, Max, showing his work on the exterior.
West-facing exterior wall paint touched up
South-facing exterior wall paint touched up
Patio bench wood preservative
Rhydd Barn maintenance
This is the time of year when we can get any less urgent and ongoing maintenance jobs done on the Barn. For example, some of our current works include:
- The clearwater sewage treatment plant has been serviced and is aerating well—a new compressor was fitted last summer
- Two fire extinguishers have been replaced: one foam and one powder extinguisher
- Paintwork, both inside and outside, will be touched up when the weather conditions improve plus exterior wall repointing in places
- Our latest round of Portable Appliance Testing (PAT) has been done on all electrical appliances in the Barn
- The annual gas boiler and gas cooking hob service has been booked for early March 2021
- we acquired two new outdoor chairs for the patio last summer
A few photos below showing repairs needed and a nice sunny one of our new outdoor chairs:
new outdoor chairs 
Barn paintwork defects 
Barn brickwork defects
We hope to post a few ‘after’ photos later to show the Barn restored to its full glory!
Snow!
Lots of lovely snow at Rhydd Barn. Photographs taken on the morning of 24 January 2021.
Snow on the fields 
Snow on Rhydd Barn 
More snow 
Snow
Fence repair
The wooden fence along the Rhydd Barn entrance drive has been reinforced with the use of ‘grandfather’ concrete spurs. The grandfathers are short concrete posts fixed into the ground to which the wooden posts of the fence are attached. See our photographs below.
'Grandfather' concrete spurs added
Showing 'grandfather' concrete spurs
UPDATE: If you look very carefully you might spot the lead caps fitted to the top of each post to protect the open grain of the fence post tops from moisture ingress. We hope that our fence will now last for many years!
