Lisa and Graham [Ellis], Gypsy and Billy. Gypsy is a lurcher - a Staffie / Greyhound crossbreed (we think) and Billy is a Greyhound - don't know if he's totally purebred. Both came to us as "rescue"s - Gypsy about 4 years ago from the Dog's Trust in Newbury, and Billy from Bristol DAWG (Dog Action Welfare Group) who specialise in Greyhound and greyhound cross rehoming. Although many, many greyhounds have to be rehomed after they are retired or rejected from the world of greyhound racing, especially from Ireland, our two have never been formal racers and indeed Billy came to us as a youngish dog, but with an already-eventful set of life experiences.

We live in Melksham, Wiltshire - in a big old semidetatched house (a listed building!) on the outskirts of town, with a public footpath running to one side that leads out to fields that you'll see in many of our pictures. We have a reasonable sized back garden too - but not one that's big enough for Billy to get up to full speed. Lisa has a "home office" and is based there as the backroom part of our business which is...

I'm an IT trainer. I run niche courses all around the UK and sometimes beyond about half the time, and the other half of the time people come to us for training. From a room at home, we've expanded to our own training centre about a kilometre up the road, where we have five guest bedrooms. Initially for delegates, we expanded to take other guests visiting the town to work at other companies, then to take people visiting friends and relatives in the town, and finally to accept general leisure bookings. We're very popular for people who want a nice room, a quiet base and a healthy breakfast. No bar, no cooked breakfast, no children. But we do take dogs ...

OK... a lot of people used to come to Melsham to take our courses by train, but then the schedule was changed and that blew a hole in what we could offer. I felt the case hadn't been fully looked at, so set up a campaign to get it looked at, analysed, put right and kept right. We're on step 3 of 4 of that.

And people like what we were doing on the train stuff, and have asked me to get involved in the Chamber of Commerce, where I'm President at the moment, and on the community operations board for the new council campus in the town. We've opened a little museum for Melksham (filling another void) and cafe, and we encourage visitors any afternoon. Come in the morning, we won;'t turn you away.

Web sites:
training courses
hotel
hotel - Trip Advisor reviews
train services / activities
trains - passenger forum
museaum - Well House Collection
Chamber of Commerce

Written when an "intro" post got out of hand!
(written 2013-10-07, updated 2013-10-12)

 Z203 - Cat and Dog
  [62] Technical Open House - (2004-09-25)
  [96] Variable Scope - (2004-10-22)
  [547] Taking the dog for a walk - (2005-12-29)
  [744] We can offer a room, but we can't operate on a dog - (2006-06-05)
  [771] From cat breeder to Cobol to Perl - (2006-06-21)
  [2029] Also for the eyes of the cat - (2009-02-07)
  [2132] Learning about Lurchers - (2009-04-18)
  [2138] Ski bore ... train bore ... dog bore - (2009-04-24)
  [2140] Beware - giving copyright away when you upload a picture - Dogs Trust - (2009-04-25)
  [2167] Watching the tele - (2009-05-10)
  [2252] Leaping dog, Leaping horse, copyright of old masters - (2009-06-20)
  [2271] Dogs Trust, Dog Show, Newbury - (2009-07-06)
  [2295] The dog is not in trouble - (2009-07-17)
  [2450] Family Gathering at 404, The Spa - (2009-10-11)
  [2451] Gypsy says - (2009-10-12)
  [2456] Bright Eyes - (2009-10-16)
  [2496] A better design of mouth - (2009-11-07)
  [2499] ourdog is Greyhound, Staffie and Ginger Cake - (2009-11-09)
  [2555] Bookkeeping - (2009-12-29)
  [2689] Can my dog eat potatoes? Doggie Dietary Research, and political sleaze! - (2010-03-23)
  [2787] Sleeping in on Sunday - (2010-05-30)
  [2897] The Land of the Black Labrador - (2010-08-01)
  [3096] Contrast in pictures - (2010-12-20)
  [3324] Rabbit Shelter - (2011-06-12)
  [3338] Return trip - Dogs Trust, Newbury - (2011-06-27)
  [3530] A typical weekend?? - (2011-11-28)
  [3533] No message - just doggy pictures of the new doggy - (2011-11-30)
  [3537] Letting the foster parents know ... too little or too much? - (2011-12-04)
  [3541] I loves Melksham - (2011-12-06)
  [3553] Changes to morning routines - (2011-12-16)
  [3561] Happy Christmas ... a Christmas morning walk in Melksham - (2011-12-25)
  [3606] Gypsy and Billy enjoy the snow - (2012-02-10)
  [3625] An update on Billy the Greyhound and Gypsy the Lurcher - (2012-02-25)
  [3674] Off to walk the dogs - (2012-03-30)
  [3675] Spring 2012 - (2012-03-30)
  [3737] Postcards from Barmouth - (2012-05-20)
  [3906] Taking the lead, not the dog, for a walk. - (2012-10-28)
  [3908] Black dogs at Halloween - (2012-10-31)
  [3920] Challenge for a photographer - (2012-11-10)
  [3936] Lisa is home today ... - (2012-11-26)
  [3943] With us for a year already! - (2012-12-03)
  [4016] Red, yellow, green or pink dog? Yellow Dog Project - (2013-02-23)
  [4130] Soft furnishings up a Welsh Mountain - (2013-07-03)
  [4180] Exceptionally, I sign a petition - on a life and death issue for Irish dogs - (2013-09-20)
  [4316] Too many Staffies, too many lurchers - (2014-11-16)
  [4333] Misty Melksham Morning - (2014-11-30)
  [4417] Crisp morning, fast run - (2015-02-06)
  [4433] Different views of a Welsh Valley - but headed home - (2015-02-20)
  [4507] In favour of adoption rather than puppy purchase - dogs! - (2015-06-07)
  [4517] Black dog day - and Bobby still seeks his new home - (2015-09-26)
  [4526] Day trip to Lancaster - (2015-10-10)
  [4666] Spring at Well House Manor - (2016-03-27)

G207 - Well House Consultants - Staff
  [10] What do you look for in your IT trainer? - (2004-08-10)
  [41] A Thousand and four words - (2004-09-07)
  [88] Getting the right level of trainer - (2004-10-14)
  [168] Welcoming Leah Davies to our team - (2005-01-04)
  [185] Who am I? - (2005-01-21)
  [371] The training team that's looking out for you - (2005-07-07)
  [393] Trainer answers phone - (2005-07-28)
  [578] Woman screaming at me - (2006-01-26)
  [862] 4 weeks to go - (2006-09-11)
  [895] Welcome, Martin - (2006-10-16)
  [972] Both one team and two - (2006-12-08)
  [1002] Meet the neighbours - (2006-12-20)
  [1065] Graham Ellis - an Introduction - (2007-02-05)
  [1083] Behind the scenes - (2007-02-17)
  [1141] A strong team broadens the professional coverage - (2007-04-10)
  [1324] Well House Manor appoints a General Manager - (2007-08-28)
  [2009] The Royal Mail Receipt - (2009-01-26)
  [2044] Please Trouble me - (2009-02-16)
  [2050] Why the Pony Tail? - (2009-02-21)
  [2164] Updating my public profile - Graham Ellis - (2009-05-09)
  [2566] Excellent staff make for excellent hotel - (2010-01-07)
  [2772] Graham Ellis - Summary of Training Record - (2010-05-21)
  [2775] Declarations of interest - knowing where you stand with people - (2010-05-22)
  [2934] Not so much software training - more hotel keeping! - (2010-08-25)
  [2960] The Well House team - September 2010 - (2010-09-19)
  [3051] Positively reforming the system - could it be done? - (2010-11-14)
  [3103] Thank you - and Happy Christmas - (2010-12-24)
  [3201] A change to the Well House team - thank you and good luck, Chris - (2011-03-14)
  [3212] Well House Manor - a home from home for the business and leisure guest in Melksham - (2011-03-26)
  [3311] Exhilarating day! - (2011-05-30)
  [3425] Our National Autograss Champion, from Melksham - (2011-09-08)
  [3460] Flying Colours! - (2011-09-28)
  [3490] How not to call when job seeking ... - (2011-10-20)
  [3586] Emergency First Aid Provision at Well House Manor - part of the service - (2012-01-19)
  [3961] Well House Staff Party - (2012-12-22)
  [4227] Happy Christmas from the Well House Manor team - (2013-12-25)

Back to Extended Weekend - but not a quiet one!

Previous and next or Horse's mouth home

Forward to A radical proposal - a cheap and effective way to provide home to city commuter transport

Using our non-found page to help look for missing persons
A positive progress behind the scenes
Getting people to and from Melksham Station - not 20 but 700 times a day
A radical proposal - a cheap and effective way to provide home to city commuter transport
Who are we - Lisa, Graham, Gypsy and Billy
Extended Weekend - but not a quiet one!
Not treading water, but not risking the ship for a 0.5th of tar either
Melksham to Bath and Zigzag buses - at a turning point?
TransWilts Trains - running a successful campaign talk
A fond memory