Religious community venue seeks to become formal tea room

A Devon community is seeking to turn its food and drink venue into a formal restaurant and tea room.

Plans have been lodged to turn what is technically still a residential dining room at Stentwood Farm in Dunkeswell, near Honiton, into a more official setting.
Stentwood Farm is home to a religious community of families and single people that have lived there since 1998.
Since 2012, the community has used the dining space as a private dining area for its community members and a reception room for visitors arriving at Stentwood Farm, and has sold goods on a ‘what it’s worth basis’, meaning visitors pay what they believe the food is worth.
“Tea, coffee and light refreshments have been offered on a donations basis to our guests,” the planning application that has been lodged with East Devon District Council states.
“We would like to formally change the use of the space to become a Tea Room.”
Andrew Ensor, the applicant, who lives in the community and helps run the food and drink venue, said the community would “still be running it with the same friendly service”.
“We’re not planning to change what we do but just want to make it more formal so it is more official,” he said.
“We have been running the tea room on a ‘what it’s worth’ basis, but with the official change we are likely to have a menu with set prices.”
Mr Ensor said the venue, which also hosts The Common Loaf Bakery, often hosted ramblers and cycling groups, and had been making more of events such as its annual apple day and monthly pizza nights.
The hours will remain the same if the application is successful, opening from 10am-5pm on Sunday to Friday, and closed on Saturday.
The application states no material work will be required for the change, with the key point of the application to change its official use from C3 (residential community) to Class E, a flexible category that encompasses a wide range of commercial, business and service uses.
It is not yet known when East Devon District Council will decide the application.
Intriguingly, the application also states that as part of efforts to tell interested parties, the applicants and their representatives have tried to contact the owner of the site, Susan Kramer, who has been missing to her family, and uncontactable for well over 40 years.
The community at Stentwood Farm has occupied the site since 1998 at the suggestion of Mrs Kramer’s next of kin
The Stentwood Farm community also runs the Yellow Deli, which is housed in a former pub in Honiton and opened in May 2019.
The community is part of a confederation called Twelve Tribes, which follows the pattern of the early church written in Acts 2:44 and 4:32, sharing all things in common.
It also believes “everything that is written in the Old and New Covenants of the Bible”, their website states.