My name is Louise Bainbridge and I’ve been responsible for designing the landscaping at Brompton Lakes. Just thought I’d say ‘hello’ and tell you all a bit about what I’ve been doing!

I’ve worked with Roy Stephenson previously and was delighted when he asked me to be involved! After learning more about the Brompton Lakes project I was immediately struck by the importance placed on creating a setting that was sympathetic to the natural environment. With this in mind I’ve tried to plan planting that keeps wildlife in mind whilst creating subtle, natural, year-round interest. For me It’s all about balance; well thought out planting provides privacy between lodges and enhances the natural sight-lines and focal points around the site.

It’s been a challenging and enormous task but well worth that hard work. I believe we have created an environment that you’ll all enjoy for years to come – hope you enjoy it when you visit us next!

Construction begins!

Construction of the lodges began in June 2008, slowly at first as we were keen to treat the first two as prototypes, realising we may have to make small design changes to during the build process. Having laid concrete foundation pads and serviced the plots with necessary utilities; water, electric cables and sewerage, we were ready to start erecting the buildings.
This involved bringing in a huge crane to lift the glu-lam frames into place and then fit the timber frame panels and bolt everything together. Within two or three days we could have a basic building up with a waterproof membrane on the roof to keep out the weather. More about the fitting out later.

While the lodges were being built there were many other things to consider.
Two potentially very expensive issues were high on the agenda; water supplies and stone for roads and foundations. We had approached our local water utility company asking for a price to feed a water supply into the site but the quotation was of staggering proportions. We thought again and decided to take a chance on drilling a borehole as we had heard rumours of an underground lake in the area. We brought in a specialist drilling company and after a couple of days drilling...bingo! We had struck water, not only that but pure spring water under pressure!

We also suspected that there could be gravel under our field so we tasked Les our friendly ground works contractor to start digging and within a very short space of time he returned with a big grin on his face saying "I've hit
gravel, masses of it". Within a week we had a grader and crusher on site
and we were making our own stone and gravel on site. Sometimes you need a bit of good luck.

We had felled a number of trees around the site which were either surplus to requirements or rotten, so we brought in a log saw and splitter and set to work chopping up a huge mountain of wood which had been accumulating, the result was several years supply of logs all chopped to 330cm long so they would fit inside the hi tech log burning stoves soon to arrive from Switzerland.

It is difficult to calculate just how many lorry journeys in and out we have saved through our self sufficiency but it must be many hundreds.

Planning the lodges

During the summer of 2007 Simon and I took the time to do some market research into the holiday lodge market in the North of England and it quickly became apparent that most holiday lodges were essentially mobile homes with various degrees of cladding on the outside and maybe a bit of decking tagged on for good luck. The "posh" ones usually had a hot tub outside... yuk! Very little imagination seemed to be going into the design of either the lodges themselves or the settings. Whilst one or two lodge parks were better than most it seemed there was a bit of a gap for something more imaginative and elegant.

We decided early on that we would start with a blank sheet of paper and design every element from scratch. We wanted to build lodges which would be sensibly eco friendly, easy to build, practical to live in and look stunning. Simon came up with lots of ideas which we hashed around until eventually it just seemed right. Once were comfortable with the basic concept we got to work on the detailed specification and the plan slowly came together.

We then had to decide how to make the project come to life, we considered many options and concluded that we wanted to manufacture the buildings ourselves, no easy task but it would give us complete control over the quality and lots of flexibility to make changes as we went forward. We identified a manufacturer of glu-lam frames and then set up our own small manufacturing unit on a farm nearby to make the timber frame panels. Ben Bennett, a timber frame expert specialising in holiday lodges was drafted in to mastermind this process, he would take care of the erection of the lodges.

Once the shell of the building was up we could then bring in trades to fit them out, starting with insulation, dry lining, and plastering, then fitting windows, floors, doors kitchens and bathrooms. We had a plan and we were on our way...

The work begins...

Broken Brae Fishing Lakes had been created out of a gravel quarry and whilst the site had great potential it was obvious that it would take a lot of work to transform what was a rather overgrown and neglected site into somewhere people might want to stay for their holidays.
There were three major problems to overcome, firstly the site was overgrown with vegetation, secondly there were mounds of earth which was basically spoil from the gravel quarrying operation in places where it shouldn’t have been and thirdly we needed to build up the flood defences to protect the site from the potential risk from the river.
The vegetation issue was the first issue to solve, with the help of some experts in the form of Sean Perkiss and Dave Pickford. The task of clearing out 20 years of random growth began, we had literally hundreds of trees and masses of assorted vegetation to clear, this eventually took three months of hard work.


Les Helme, a local groundwork’s contractor, was given the job of main contractor on the site. He initially came in with a couple of 360 diggers and a fleet of tractors and trailers to literally move mountains. We needed somewhere to put something like 22000 cubic meters of earth, not an insubstantial amount! Les calmly suggested we part the topsoil on the 9 acre field we had conveniently acquired with the site, spread the spoil and then repatriate the topsoil, this would raise the height of the field by 500mm. No problems then!

The issue of the flood defences was a major headache. Whilst we understood what needed doing to protect the site against the 100 year flood level, plus global warming it was no small task. There was a bund running along the river bank for 2/3 of a mile which had been put in as local protection, however the extensive survey we had done suggested the height need to be raised in some areas and repairs needed to done where the river had eroded it over the years.
The Environment Agency were adopting a belt and braces approach to the repairs, which if you see the River Swale in flood is understandable. The Swale is the fastest flowing river in England and rises and falls very quickly. We had to clear most of the vegetation from the river banks leaving just the mature trees in place. Hundreds of tons of hardcore was placed along the top and river side of the bank to build it up where necessary, then geotech matting was sandwiched between layers of topsoil, and the whole lot seeded with grass which would root into the matting to offer protection from water erosion. The floods in August 2008, one of the highest levels on record, proved the integrity of the defences, thank goodness.


We started this work in March 2008 and by the end of May we were ready to start building lodges.

Hello everybody. . .my name is Rosie Mennem, interior designer for Brompton Lakes and I’m delighted to have been asked to contribute to the ‘Brompton Lowdown’ Blog!

I became involved in the Brompton Lakes project after meeting with Roy Stephenson through friends during which time we often chatted about the interior design and decorative painting I’d been involved with throughout my career.

After leaving school I worked with my mother on antique fairs in London, putting my fine art qualifications to good use by decorating pieces of furniture by hand. This led me to be the first person to supply painted furniture to the General Trading Company in Sloane Square.

My commissions since then have been wonderfully varied; I restored a fresco in the church of the hill top village of Mougin in the South of France and worked extensively in the Lobkowicz Palace in Prague. I’ve also hand painted shoes for Jimmy Choo during which time I worked on shoes for Nicole Kidman and was invited along to the Oscars!.

When Roy told me about his ambitious plans for Brompton Lakes, It all sounded very exciting and I was delighted when he asked me to get involved.

My brief was quite clear - to create living spaces of distinction, the like of which would be above the standard normally found in self-catering accommodation before. For me the answer was simple – I wanted to create luxurious rooms that were visually inspirational whilst still being relaxing and comfortable. A fusion of colours, textures and patterns that combined to create a look that was unique to Brompton Lakes.

The lodges contain many bespoke, hand painted pieces and original wall hangings, we’ve used wall coverings from some of the UK’s leading designers including Neisha Crosland, Clarissa Hulse, Cole & Cole and Jocelyn Warner and everything has been brought together with the help of a great team of decorators.

The project hasn’t been without its challenges, not least having to work around the clock to get the two show models finished and ‘dressed’ ready to be photographed for the holiday lettings market. In the end though, everyone involved has pulled together – one or two of the other contributors may even join me in posting an entry on this blog is they’re feeling brave and I hope when you visit you’ll agree that the end result was well worth all the hard work!

Making the Brompton Lakes vision a reality

Hello again from Brompton Lakes! Sorry for taking so long posting this, the most recent blog, we're all pretty busy on site but I'm delighted to say that Brompton Lakes is taking shape.

Back in July I promised that as part of this Blog I'd take you through the Brompton Lakes Journey, so, let's start at the beginning with the initial planning process.

In order to make an informed decision about the viability of turning what was a broken fishing site into an eco lodge development our first job was to talk to the Richmond Planning Department to seek their opinion on the likelihood of obtaining planning permission. We knew the land already had permission for six fishing lodges so a precedent had been set but what we had ion mind was something altogether different.

The lodges were designed by Simon Spence. Simon and I started talking about the possibilities of Brompton back in May 2007 - I'm trying to persuade him top contribute to this Blog and tell you about his own Brompton experiences, so watch this space! - By July 2007 we had the bare bones of a plan and were set for our first meeting with the planners.

Whilst the Planning Department was generally supportive, they were worried about the lodges being visible from the road on one side and the coast-to-coast walk on the other. They wanted all of the lodges to be positioned as discretely as possible - challenging, but not impossible. They also wanted us to consult with the Environment Agency in relation to any potential flood risk posed by our proximity to the River Swale. This was our first major hurdle and proved to be rather trickier that we'd ever imagined.

The first course of action was to commission a flood risk assessment to establish how the site would fare against the 100-year flood risk and global warming. A detailed survey covering ground levels and river levels was painstakingly undertaken, forecasting what would happen in the event of the maximum calculated river level. The assessment concluded that the flood defences already in place were largely adequate only needing to be built up in certain areas.

Next, the Environment Agency informed us that require a geotechnical assessment report on the integrity of the flood banks which again, we happily commissioned. They were found to be in need of remedial work to ensure complete safety which we actioned without delay.

Having produced two reports at huge expense both in budget and time we went back to the Environment Agency with clear and proper solutions to all the problems they had exposed only to be told that despite the findings and the measures we had implemented, the lodges would have to be built on high ground and nowhere near the edge of the lakes. This was in direct conflict with the demands of the Planners who wanted the lodges out of sight. We knew this project was going to be challenging (and that was part of the original appeal) but at this point we very nearly gave up!

However, after a little reflection and several meetings over a number of months we managed to establish terms for a final agreement and common sense finally prevailed. The planning application, which was submitted in December, was passed unanimously without a single objection in February 2008.

Now, the real work would begin. . .

The Brompton Lakes Journey

Hello from Brompton Lakes. I’m delighted to be posting this, the first of many blogs about the project. In a way, the fact that I’m now telling you this story is something of a milestone. A sign, if you like, that we’ve progressed from the initial concept, through planning & design and are now talking about something very real.

You’ll be able to read about Brompton Lakes in detail at http://www.bromptonlakes.co.uk/ once the website is officially launched in September but in the meantime I’m going to keep you up-to-date with this online diary.

It all started back in the early summer of 2007 when I was chatting to a good friend of mine, Clive Simpson. Clive happened to mention he had some land for sale down by the river Swale near Easby and, on further investigation, this turned out to be a rather attractive location with two carp ponds open for day fishermen. I fell in love with the place as soon as I saw it. I began to imagine the potential of such a beautiful location and whilst chewing over the possibilities, was introduced to Simon Spence, who had previously developed a successful eco lodge development and who obviously had some design flair and a deep rooted interest in all things eco.

And so the idea of a lodge retreat was born. During the weeks that followed we took the time to visit holiday lodge parks throughout Yorkshire and The Lake District. Our over riding impression was that most were simply pre-assembled factory made static caravans with various degrees of cladding to make them more attractive – a million miles away from our vision for Brompton Lakes.

We spent many hours talking about the possibility of turning the land at Easby into a lodge development with a difference and eventually I decided to take the plunge, buy it and apply for planning permission. From the very beginning we knew that this was by no means a straight forward build project and it was going to take a lot of work to realise the dream.

The process of applying for planning permission was an enlightening experience, in some respects frustrating beyond belief but I’ll tell you more about that next time. . .