How long have you been running your campsite?
We have been running Rockbridge Country Holiday Park since 2011, so it’s 13 years since we first crossed over the border into mid-Wales to buy the second site which makes up the Discover Parks family. It follows on from our Pearl Lake Country Park in nearby Shobdon on which we are currently celebrating 25 years.
What made you want to own and run a campsite?
Following the success of Pearl Lake Country Park just over the border in Herefordshire, we decided to invest in Rockbridge Country Park as it came on the market and was just 15 minutes down the road. I was born and bred into the industry – my parents have run parks for more than 50 years and are pretty good at it. They created the long-established Bestparks family, starting out with Smithy Park, near Abermule in mid-Wales, in 1968. We get a great thrill in sharing the countryside, usually with more urban dwellers who really appreciate what we have to offer.
Tell us how the site first began
We’d been running our other touring site within our holiday park at Pearl Lake for nearly 12 years and we were in a position to increase our business potential. One thing that was important to us at the time was being able to get home to our children for tea each evening so, when Rockbridge came up for sale on our doorstep, we jumped at the chance to buy it. Its close proximity to our initial park was a huge advantage as our team of staff can work on both, plus, its enviable position on the Herefordshire/Welsh borders was perfect, too. With our Welsh roots we were only too happy to have a foot on each side of the border.
What did you do before becoming the owners of this site?
I was brought up in the caravan park business and, although I went to university and studied as an agricultural engineer, I was keen to get back into the trade. Hannah, my wife, was in accountancy, which is still very much what she does now, looking after the finances across our three parks, which is a pretty demanding full-time role!
What do you like most about being the owner of a campsite?
Again, it’s got to be sharing the countryside with mainly city and town dwellers! It’s a wonderful feeling to see people getting so much enjoyment out of simple things like dangling their rod in the babbling river that runs on the edge of Rockbridge.
What are the biggest challenges you face?
Covid has been the biggest challenge to date, keeping the business afloat despite being closed and making sure our visitors were kept
