Your Hosts

Welcome from Mark and Grace. We took over Elim House in July 2017. I (Mark) spent many years working as a Chartered Accountant (but not a boring one!). Before taking over Elim House, I spent over 8 years working in Africa, for Social Enterprises, and NGO’s, in Malawi, Tanzania and finally in Liberia, towards the end of the Ebola crisis, so washing hands and social distancing were not new for Grace and I. Projects ranged from a 2,000 Hectare farming social enterprise, solar enablement, and Health System strengthening.I enjoy meeting new people, and even accountancy now that it is part time! Grace is Zambian and has a strange trait of actually liking cleaning. When we left Africa we had to think about what we might do. Not having a UK home we realised that a Guest House would tick a lot of boxes, so we started looking. When we opened in July 2017, with no experience, we were fully booked, so it was a real baptism of fire.Over the 1st couple of years we made substantial improvements, including replacing all mattresses and linen, replacing the heating system, and redecorating and re-carpeting most rooms, ploughing back all our income into that, so 2020 was to be the year when we would manage to keep some of that income. Like everyone, little did we know what was round the corner! There is always something to do when you have an old property, but I finished “all those little jobs” in the 1st lockdown, and it was great to be able to welcome guests again.