Caroline Barry’s straw home
A third eco-home in central Somerset went up in flames this week, following an arson attack at a prototype round house in Moorlinch and a fire that destroyed Glastonbury town councillor Caroline Barry’s well-known straw bale home at Butleigh in January.
The timber frame house in Godney became a tower of flames in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Fire fighters were called to the building at midnight and discovered it was a partially-built eco-house, made from timber, straw, peat and soil that was being consumed by flames.
The building was 30 feet tall and 15 feet wide, and by the time crews arrived from Glastonbury, Street and Wells, along with a water carrier from Bridgwater, it was alight from top to bottom, along with a caravan nearby. The building was almost completely destroyed by the fire, but the caravan was only slightly damaged.
The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
Farmer and environmental campaigner Caroline Barry never got to the bottom of the fire which destroyed her straw bale home last January. Local Fire chiefs branded it “Suspicious” But last month she was celebrating the complete rebuild of the structure which she called