The Herefordshire eco-friendly family in their eco-friendly house

A YOUNG family have won a prestigious award for their environmentally friendly home in a north Herefordshire village. Ben and Merry Albright scooped the £5,000 first prize in a national Eco Self-Build competition staged by the Norwich & Peterborough Building Society.

Pete Blench went to Pembridge to find out what impressed the judges.

Behind the green door

VISITORS are not expected today at Black Fox Cottage but someone is knocking on the door hoping to take a peep inside.

Merry Albright finds that caring for her first child Minnie -- 18-months old and very lively -- is quite a demanding job. But, so far, Merry, 29, is coping cheerfully with the flow of visitors at her new home in Pembridge.

There is huge interest in self-build - the concept of buying your plot, tailoring a home to your own blueprint and acting as your own site manager.

There is also a lot of interest in the idea of greener, low-energy homes but there are also misconceptions says Merry.

"Some people think eco building may be a bit weird but when they are shown around the house they can see there is nothing odd about it," she adds.

There is nothing remotely wacky about the detached four-bedroomed dwelling which cost £295,000 - £125,000 for the plot and the remainder for materials and construction.

The house is elegant and cosy, a building made by traditional methods from green, unseasoned oak beams, but super-insulated and incorporating a host of modern features.

Except radiators. There are none. The house has an underfloor heating system fed by a top-rated Worcester Greenstar gas condensing boiler.

The building also has other heat sources. A small wood-burning stove in the spacious lounge can heat the whole house in three hours.

And then there is the sun. The house is designed to solar principles with the living areas orientated to the south west and no windows on the cold north elevation.

A black floor (black limestone, similar to slate) in the solar area absorbs the sun's heat.

"We focused on energy efficiency as we wanted our long-term reliance on fossil fuels to be negated," explains Merry.

"The heat is retained by the stone floors and we used a high-performance thermal insulator in the main structure made by a Herefordshire company, Kingspan .

"It is four times better than the minimum insulation standard set by building regulations."

Merry sounds authoritative on the subject and she should be.

Black Fox Cottage where she and her family have lived for seven months is the second self-build completed by her and Ben.

Their first - a two-bedroomed dwelling at Pembridge - was featured on Channel 4 Grand Designs programme. It, too, was a lovely home, built with the same ethos, but when Merry became pregnant it suddenly felt too small.

When an opportunity came up to buy a plot on a brownfield site, a former vehicle breakers' yard at the other end of the village, the couple seized it.

They have an advantage of connections with the trade -- Merry's father runs Border Oak which supplied the green oak frame -- but they managed the house-building project themselves, buying in services as required and ensuring materials met their criteria.

"It was important to us that we used natural, reclaimed or recyclable materials throughout the house such as lime render and lime mortar, the green oak frame and copper guttering," Merry points out.

"All of these materials can be extracted, converted and returned to the environment harmlessly and have a low embodied energy - the energy used in manufacturing."

Old buildings demolished on the site also provided some recycled materials while Ben and Merry sought out local products to reduce transport costs and commissioned local craftsmen to make oak doors and windows, fire surrounds, wardrobes and even chairs and tables.

A local blacksmith made the door and window latches.

The couple drew a blank searching for locally-made bricks and roof tiles but, while they had to go further afield, they chose handmade products from small firms using traditional skills.

Their home incorporates beautiful light fittings made from English porcelain and hessian-backed pure-wool carpets made in the UK.

The need for economy, with the increasingly precious resource of water, influenced some decisions.

They decided against power showers ("big water guzzlers," insists Merry) and fitted a smaller than average bath.

Outside, the copper guttering feeds rainwater butts.

Ben is sorting out the garden 2 where there are plans for raised beds for home-grown vegetables. What Merry describes as "my orchard" -- a cluster of four fruit trees -- is already in place at the front of the house. She loves orchards -- their last cottage was named after a traditional apple variety and the name of Black Fox Cottage was inspired by the same theme.

"The black fox was a legendary animal that runs through Herefordshire orchards," Merry says.

"It is supposed to bring you eternal good luck if you see it in an orchard but quite the opposite if it's not!"

She also loves her home county. Born and raised a little further along the Arrow valley at Eardisland, she feels planners should take steps to enable more young people to stay close to their roots.

Environmentally-friendly self-build homes with low running costs could be part of the solution.

"Self building is both a huge opportunity and a huge luxury but it is possible to be ethical and ecological without being incredibly rich or slightly strange," Merry suggests.

"I hope that our house illustrates that sustainability and ecological endeavours can be achieved by even modest homes, built with ordinary budgets by relatively normal families!"

The sitting room at Black Fox cottage.

The bathroom

The dining area and (facing page) close-up in the kitchen

Merry, Minnie and Ben Albright in the living room of Black Fox Cottage.

Black Fox Cottage as seen from the side.

Detail from the living room.

The bedroom en suite . . . . . . and the bedroom

The approach to Black Fox Cottage