Helping the Local Community with The Great House B&B

When village-wide power cuts hit their village, this rural B&B in Exmoor opened its doors to the local community, free of charge. Read on to find out all about the wonderful support they received.

The storms we experienced in February resulted in some terrible accidents.

Lorries were being blown over, bins were flying around, trees crushed cars and homes…

But it’s not all doom and gloom.

After village-wide power cuts, one hospitality business in Exmoor went above and beyond to help it’s local community. The Great House B&B opened its doors to people in their local community after the storms caused lengthy, village-wide power cuts.

“We had a 36 hour power cut starting Friday morning,” said Bruce. “Luckily we didn’t have any guests in because everyone had decided to stay home, which was probably a good decision considering the weather.”

Sheila Harvey-Larmar and her husband Bruce own and run the Grade II listed B&B, and were one of the first properties to have their power restored in the village. “I think the businesses took priority because the amount of compensation [the power company] would have to give us is a lot higher than domestic properties,” said Sheila.

“So we had our power restored and the rest of the village didn’t have any power.”

Sheila explained that due to their very rural location, there is no gas in the village.

“There’s literally nothing to fall back on unless you have a generator,” said Sheila. “We tried to get hold of one, but they’d all sold out.”

As soon as power was restored to their B&B, Sheila and Bruce opened their doors to the local community. They decided to put up posters and social media posts, offering use of the B&B’s amenities to local residents.

Their notices explained that they were offering the following to all village residents, for free:

• Shower & Washing facilities

• Washing machine/dryer for essential laundry

• Mobile phone charging

• Loan of gas camping stove (2 available and 1 kettle)

• Limited fridge space

• Use of oven for your own pre-prepared meal

• Hot meal to anybody without cooking facilities

• Hot water bottles

• A room to anyone in need

The notices also stated that if Sheila and Bruce could help with anything else, all the locals had to do was ask and they would do their best to help.

“We knew everybody else would be having problems and dying for showers,” said Sheila.

“So we put together a poster and put it in the local shop, on the village notice board and even delivered a few by hand.

“Then next thing you know, we had someone knocking on the door saying, ‘Can we use your shower? My daughter has an interview tomorrow and she won’t even be able to wash her hair’.”

The pair officially closed the B&B so that no one could book rooms, ensuring that the property was only open for the community.

“We think the power is back on and back to normal now, but if anyone needs us again, they can just call us and ask to use the facilities,” said Sheila.

Surprisingly, other hospitality businesses local to The Great House B&B didn’t offer similar services.

“Somebody on Facebook tagged one of their friends who had young children and might have needed to come over, and he lives in the next village,” said Sheila. “The other pubs that have similar facilities weren’t open, but I said to Bruce, ‘Let’s see if anybody needs us. We have power and we might as well share it’.

Although unintentional, this good deed soon received plenty of positive support and attention. Bruce said: “People were saying how nice it was to see some local spirit.

“They were all so grateful and even people we'd never met were just coming to the house, chatting to us and telling us what a good thing we were doing.

“Someone on Facebook even said that this is why they will come back and stay with us again, because of the kind people we are.”

Sheila said: “It was quite humbling. We didn’t think anything special of it, but it’s nice to know other people think that.”

She added: “It actually turned out to be quite good marketing.

“It really wasn’t intended that way. It really just came from the heart.”