It is a peaceful, very rural place. Please make an appointment if you would like to call. Those of you from far away are very likely to get lost.
THE INS AND OUTS OF CONTACTING US
The preferred method of contact, and the way Sila regularly communicates is e-mail on
If you want to phone, Office Hours are: Monday -Thursday 09.00-16.30 Friday 09.00-13.45 Occasional Saturday’s 09.00-12.30 ( If its really urgent, try me)
The mobile number 07776 250580 stands the best chance of finding me. I dont answer the phone in the car anymore, so if I am driving, or in a meeting, you will be diverted to the land line 01672 521395. There is a sophisticated answering system in place, which works as long as you don't call from a withheld number. Numbers beginning 080 or 084 are blanked also. If you call from outside the U.K.use the mobile number, not the landline, as international numbers confuse the number recognition system and your call may not be answered. Do not call on Sunday’s or Bank Holidays. The answering system will not be working and nor am I.
Fax: Please call 01672 521167 - works 24hrs seven days a week.
Text: 07776 250580- if outside office hours response may be delayed, but otherwise text anytime.
POSTAL COMMUNICATIONS WITH SILA
The full address is:
Coachman’s Cottage Marridge Hill Ramsbury Wilts SN8 2HG
The service provided by Royal Mail is, compared to many urban areas, very poor. We are dependent on a rural delivery which does not arrive until mid morning, and there is only one collection a day. We do have friendly and helpful local postmen, but they cannot be responsible for the rest of the network. Though expensive,parcel services such as UPS, Business Post and FedEx are both reliable and prompt.
If you must send packages and parcels by Royal Mail or Parcel Force, here are a few tips:
1) DON'T BOTHER WITH RECORDED DELIVERY. It wont ensure that the stuff does not get lost, it only means that a signature is required on delivery.
2)DELIVERIES THAT HAVE TO BE SIGNED FOR. If anyone is in when the post arrives, we will of course sign for anything that requires it, but please look at the Satellite image again. Out here in the rural sticks, if no one is in, a parcel requiring a signature gets taken back to the sorting office, requiring a twenty two mile round trip to collect it. Also, no disrespect to our friendly and helpful local postmen (cf.), but the little cards in our letterbox advising that this has happened are not always found. Therefore, if you must send a package in the post using a delivery mode that requires a signature, please e-mail beforehand so that, if at all possible, we can be sure to be on hand when the postman calls. THIS ONLY APPLIES TO ROYAL MAIL/PARCEL FORCE. Other carriers will usually attempt to deliver the package again, if we are not in.
3) USING RECYCLED ENVELOPES & PADDED BAGS. Make sure that all trace of previous addresses and stampings are erased from any reused bag or envelope.
4) PACKAGING. Apart from wider environmental concerns, please also be sure to package paper with paper. Polystyrene pebbles and air filled plastic baffles are a nuisance. If you have a shredder, you already have plenty of appropriate packing material, and if you don't, newspaper would do as well.
5) STAMPS. From experience we find that it is far better, if inevitably more inconvenient, to take a parcel down to the Post Office and get it weighed and get the postage stuck on. If you have a post room and a franking machine, it is more than three times as likely to be marked as requiring excess postage, and if we are not in, its that old 22 mile round trip again.
Contacting Us 