Little Menherion, affectionately known as Little M, is our own little piece of Cornish Paradise where we are working hard to create a lifestyle that better reflects who we are, who we want to be and how we want to spend our time.
We are Huw and Bernice, and with our two dogs Brady & Tux, and (feral!) cat Pan, we live and look after Little M. Our journey to Cornwall has been a varied one. Between us we have had a number of careers including teacher, soldier, lab technician, marketeer, engineer, consultant, artist, and coach. We have lived and worked in lots of places and experienced many different countries and cultures, ultimately choosing Cornwall to settle, as it offered a brilliant mix of all the things we enjoy in life. It is remote yet connected; rugged yet beautiful; independent yet welcoming, isolated yet community-spirited; and practical yet creative. We love the outdoors and would be out sailing, on a mountain-bike trail or hiking the coastal paths at the drop of a hat.
In the search for our forever place, we had a number of goals in mind. We wanted to achieve a permanent change of lifestyle, learn to live off the land sustainably, establish an art & craft practice locally and provide unique places to stay that enable us to share the beauty of Cornwall with like-minded people. Little M is ideally suited to all of this, nestled down on a ‘mountain side’, surrounded by moorland, lakes and the sea. We fell for her immediately, and as soon as we took ownership of the property our Cornish adventure began…
We purchased Little M and became custodians of her back at the end of 2013. She had been steadily grown from basic fields over a 25 year period by the previous owners and although a little overgrown and in dire need of some TLC when we took over the reins, she had something magical about her. We walked around for the first time like little children on their first visit to a sweet shop. We both knew this was the one… and we haven’t looked back since.
She is a 12+ acre smallholding in the centre of everywhere, Cornwall that is so tranquil that you would be forgiven for thinking you were in the middle of nowhere. She is divided in two by the lane that brings you to the property. On the southern side is a wild space: 6+ acres of fledgling woodland and a 2 acre meadow affectionately known as Playing Field. All of which guests are welcome to explore. The northern side of the lane is where the main happenings at Little M take place, including the cottage that is our home where we live with our two gorgeous dogs Brady & Tux and cat Pan. It is where we invest most of our time right now, as we develop the property and grounds of our amazing smallholding. It is where you’ll find orchards old and new; the cottage garden and barns; the workshop and art studio; the stream and mature woodlands; and where the unique glamping experiences are being built all set within their own private spaces.
The spirit at Little M is one of discovery and experimentation, exploring how to live sustainably; make a living from and on our land; balancing cultivation with re-wilding of the property; providing edible produce; a wildlife habitat and a lovely place to live & work.
Our plan is to create four extraordinary places to stay, each one an experiment in using natural and/or up-cycled materials and on how best to construct year ’round capable living spaces that connect guests with the countryside whilst minimising their environmental impact. Log Jam was built with the help of volunteers. Round n Round was built in collaboration with Wild Space Carpentry and we will be renovating Flash and building Gordon ourselves. Your guess is as good as ours about how the 4th one will turn out.