Life in the Devon village saved by San Francisco tech millionaire

Michael Birch, Bebo's co-founder, has bought Woolsery's pub and the chippie. And villagers are more than happy

Woolsery in north Devon has all the features that might be expected of the present-day British village: towering hedgerows bordering winding lanes, tidy culs-de-sac bearing regimented rows of bungalows and, in the centre of the village, the medieval church, the empty listed building and the boarded-up pub.

Sonia Hamilton, vice-chairwoman of the parish council, gestures at the listed building, known as the Manor House. "The state of that and the pub was depressing," she says.