38 eager Dartmoor Society Members were introduced to the delights of Langaford Farm Trust on the afternoon of Saturday 17th October.
Our host Ces Holt who is the Trust Manager, fellow Trustees John Mills and Dave Bunting all did a magnificent job of providing tea, coffee and biscuits on arrival and under the cover of the barn Ces gave us an introduction of how the Trust first started. It was founded in accordance with the Will Trust Deed of the late Geoffrey Bayes and then she went on to explain that it had been formally confirmed as a Charitable Trust in January 2002.
The main focus of the Trust is to maintain and encourage the ecological enhancement of its 100 acres of land and by working with various professional outside bodies, one of which is the Butterfly Conservation Council, they are able to encourage many rare and unusual species of flora, fauna and wildlife.
The Trust is very proud to have won an award in 2011 in recognition of their contribution to Lepidoptera Conservation (Marsh Fritillary Butterfly). In addition, at the Farm, they have over 100 species of lichen, over 100 species of mosses and liverworts and over 100 species of moths.
We all walked around the beautiful large pond areas and undulating fields and all agreed that the whole area had a special aura of tranquillity about it. There are 200 sheep belonging to a Tenant which graze at the Farm and four ponies, all Mares. We were even treated to see three roe deer who bounded their way off to the safety of the nearby wooded area.
The whole afternoon was rounded off by assembling back in the barn where we had started our tour and whilst we enjoyed more refreshments kindly supplied by Ces and the Trustees we socialised and chatted about the delights of the afternoon.
Our Chairman Dr Tom Greeves gave special thanks to Ces, John and Dave and everyone agreed it had been a truly enchanting experience.