Tregellast Barton Farm
Visit whether you're in a buggy or a wheelchair, whether you want a meal, coffee or tea by the fireside or a stroll around the meadows, or if you fancy watching cows being milked and learning a little about how the farm works...
There's the Bull Pen Gallery's range of hand-made furniture and stained glass, too, or just wander around the farm in the company of cows, donkeys, ducks and cats. Enjoy the tranquility of a walk by the ponds or – here's a thought – treat yourself to some fantastic ice cream.
Oh, the parking's free, by the way, and so is admission.
There's always something to do on a farm
Especially if you take as your starting point a 40-acre farm with 20 cows in 1960 and – fast forward – end up nearly 50 years later with a business that employs 55 people, a nationally-renowned brand of ice cream, a restaurant, holiday cottages, fudge, glassworks, jams, nature trails and a commitment to doing things naturally, sustainably, in a way that brings benefits over and above the bottom-line...
So yes. Busy times.
We've had to be creative and resourceful and always look forward. In 1963, for example, we turned what had been a coal shed and wash room into a cream room and cool room where clotted cream is made and stored.
Ever since, we've been adding buildings, converting existing ones, digging new ponds (which have since become home to all sorts of wildlife plants and birds) and dedicating old buildings to new causes (the woodworking workshop, the fudge room, the Croust House).
And just like the buildings, the people have been coming and going and changing what they do, too. Toby, for example, gave up his history 'A' level to free up time to devote to ice cream-making; now, 18 years on, as a maker of furniture he's in demand in places as diverse as Truro Cathedral and the Eden project.
If you're looking for a definitive full-stop then we'll have to disappoint. The Roskilly story is long, complicated and ever-changing, and those changes are as crucial to what we do we in 2007, 2008 and 2009 as they were in 1967, 1968 and 1969.
And if you look at the changes we're likely to be seeing in the next five or ten years, you'd probably be right in thinking the real work's barely begun yet.
