Two enterprising young siblings are enjoying huge success after launching a green business from their family home on Upton Estate Farm, Edgehill.
Chloe Paynton,14 and Lewis Paynton, 12, established CL Country Shed, cutting, making and selling eco-friendly kindling from recycled pallets.
The Kineton High School students have sold hundreds of the boxes from their home at Upton Estate and through eBay, to help fund their hobbies, including Lewis’ passion for motorsport.
He said: “One weekend we were throwing away an old pine wardrobe and Dad got us to cut it up and split it into kindle. We put it in bags out the front of our cottage with a cardboard sign saying it was for sale and it sold in literally minutes.
“Our Dad works for Upton Estate and we get loads of pallets from deliveries of materials and stock. We’ve just started selling boxes of kindle wood made from these pallets that would otherwise go to landfill or just be put on the bonfire. The boxes we pack it in are 100% recycled cardboard and even the tape on the boxes is a paper tape so it can be recycled. We even use the sawdust from cutting up the wood as bedding for our chickens and ducks and any nails are recycled as scrap metal.
“We started by selling out the front of the cottage but now Dad has got us a little log store shed.”
The promising young racer, who is named after Lewis Hamilton, competes and coaches at Shenington Kart Racing Club, and is hoping his share of the business profits will help drive his ambition to race in endurance competitions.
He said: “In 2023 I am aiming to do Shenington Club Championship and Little Rissington Championship with Tim Wilson Motorsport but this is going to need sponsors. I have been lucky this year to be sponsored by Upton Estate for my transport, United Fresh Consortium with tyres and ACS Customs for my in-ear comms. Everything else our business has paid for. Next year will take some doing but I am hopeful we can achieve it.”
Chloe’s share of the profits help fund her hobbies, including her collection of crystals – some of which, Lewis says, he keeps in his pocket on race days – to help keep him safe!
The eco boxes have also proved popular with local businesses, including Winchcombe Farm in nearby Upper Tysoe where the wood is provided for guests’ use.
Co-owner Jo Carroll said: “Being a small, independent family run business ourselves, we maximise the use of local suppliers wherever possible to help support the rural economy and reduce our carbon footprint.
“Lewis is a very enterprising young man and we are delighted to be working with him and his sister Chloe, who offer a wonderful kindling wood delivery service to local businesses.
“They provide an eco-friendly product, which fits in extremely well with our business ethos and will help us in our application for a Green Tourism Award.”
Julian and Olivia Paynton said of their children’s enterprise: “We are very proud of them both – they work very hard with their little business as well as at school.”
More about Winchcombe Farm
The remote family-run retreat nestles on a private estate in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and beneath the famous battlefield landmark of Edgehill on the Warwickshire and Cotswolds border. It’s an oasis of tranquillity with just sheep, chickens, moorhens, ducks, ponies and alpacas for company.
Designed with outdoor living in mind, this unique collection of six beautiful holiday homes – includes Warwickshire’s only treehouse – offering the height of luxury and nestling in four sycamore and ash trees – three of them growing through the outside deck and one even growing through the kitchen!
Luxury features across the properties range from his and hers rolltop bathtubs, private hot tubs, hanging chairs, hammocks and outside shower, pizza oven, BBQ hut, firepit for toasting marshmallows and even heated geodesic domes with king size circular bed plus personal telescopes for a spot of stargazing – one of them floating on a pond! Guests even receive a luxury welcome hamper on arrival to start their holiday in style.
Inside, the properties are well equipped with all the latest technology including 55-inch SMART TV and DVD and, in the kitchen, a range on lush josephjoseph and SMEG accessories plus all the mod cons.
They have more recently opened their latest lodge Jess’s Tree Bach, which sleeps four – and which offers tube slide access to the garden!
