Read our judge's green questionnaire on Trelowarren

Faced with how to revive your family’s bankrupt estate in Cornwall, few people would think to establish a cluster of high-end holiday homes available for timeshare.

But here on the Lizard peninsula, the High Sheriff of Cornwall, Sir Ferrers Vyvyan, has established a green holiday model that manages to be both luxurious and eco-friendly.

The concept, which he calls “eco-timeshare”, is a reminder that buying a stake in a holiday home is a socially responsible thing to do, not an outdated relic associated with unfashionable Mediterranean resorts.

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• Gallery: Trelowarren, Cornwall, England

What’s greener than sharing a home with other owners? Especially in a part of the UK that suffers from second-home syndrome; where nearby villages have declined to the point that only a handful of residents live there full-time, with disappeaering local shops and services.

“Instead of buying up houses in local villages and only using them for a few weeks a year, we offer visitors the chance to buy a stake in a holiday home,” explains Vyvyan, the owner of the Trelowarren estate, a place that once inspired Daphne du Maurier’s book Frenchman’s Creek.

“Timeshare enables people to establish a long-term relationship with a place. It also means that the properties are occupied for most of the year helping to sustain businesses in the region without pushing up property prices.”

On his 1,000 acres of woodland, 17 properties have been completed with a further 33 planned. From 17th century thatched cottages renovated with a careful eye for eco-design, to timber-framed new builds made from local and sustainable materials, they are carefully spaced out so you never feel crowded.

Most impressive is a vast woodchip boiler which provides hot water and heating for the entire estate, including an all-year-round, chlorine-free swimming pool. Fuelled by waste wood from a local sawmill as well as trees from the estate, the boiler is one of the biggest pieces of biomass technology in the South West, contributing to an estimated 240 tonnes of CO2 that the estate saves by employing green technology.

Given its scale and success, Vyvyan hopes that it will inspire others to consider biomass boilers not only for individual properties but for entire villages. Other facilities include an award-winning restaurant that sources 90 per cent of its ingredients from a ten mile radius and a farm shop promoting local goods.

Inside the cottages, it is easily as plush as anything you would find in a top hotel, but care has been taken to consider the environmental implications of everything, from the water - which comes from the estate’s borehole and appears from aerated taps to ensure that less is used - to the organic linen, green cleaning products and contents of the fridge, sourced by the community foods scheme, enabling guests to choose from a wide-range of local produce before they arrive.

An electric car program has been trialled dropping off a vehicle outside your property which can be charged up at a power-point inside, or you could opt to be picked up from the station by the biofuel taxi service.

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