Building work at Brompton Lakes complete!

It is with great joy I can report that the building work at Brompton Lakes is now complete! As much as I have grown fond of all the guys working on site, it is wonderful to come into work every morning and not see the dreaded white vans everywhere. After 18 months of hard work we now have 20 lodges completed, slightly ahead of schedule.

All that remains to be done is furnishing the last 5 lodges, most of which is done already and then we can complete the photography for the website. I was slightly apprehensive about Percy and Jules, as these two lodges are set back from the lake rather than on the water’s edge but they actually look fine and have a unique character of their own. The landscaping is also complete although it will take a while for the new planting to fully take hold. Whilst we have mostly put in mature trees and shrubs it will be a few years before it all looks fully established.

Having taken advantage of a bright interlude in the rather dull weather to have a really good look around yesterday afternoon, I was really taken back by how well things have come together over the last few weeks. Having seen the development coming together an inch at a time over the last couple of years it’s easy to forget how much has been achieved in a relatively short space of time.
The focus of our attention now is to fine tune the running of the business and get things operating as smoothly as possible. Having effectively started from scratch earlier this year, and not having much experience of the holiday let business we have had to learn on our feet. However, despite a few minor glitches things have generally gone well and our customer seem more than happy, several have already been back for return visits and many have booked to come again next year.

Bookings for the festive season are going well with only the odd night or two left, and we have had to decline dozens of people for New Year, regrettably. Reservations for 2010 are picking up really well now and there is every reason to suspect we are going to be pretty busy!

Brompton Lakes goes from strength to strength

As we reach the end of our first summer and the autumn season starts, we feel we have good reason to feel satisfied with the way things are going, we have been very busy with the first ten lodges pretty well full throughout June, July and August.

The tennis court was finished in early July which has proved popular and we are now in the process of building a Boules / Petanque pitch next to it with a family barbeque area.

The second phase of lodge construction is very nearly complete and all 20 lodges will be completely finished by the end of November. Whilst challenging, this has proved massively easier than the first phase as we learn from experience, I think we are definitely getting the hang of building lodges now. As I write, Rosie and her team are furnishing the next four lodges which are being let for October half term and Louise is well into the next phase of planting.

Bookings for the Christmas and New Year holiday period and a large number of guests have already made reservations ― if last year is anything to go by it won’t be long before we are full.
People are travelling from all over the country to stay with us, I guess repeat bookings are the proof of the pudding in terms of customer satisfaction and happily they are coming in thick and fast now. One family have been twice so far and have just booked again for New Year.
Fishing seems to be one of the most popular pastimes, but walking, sightseeing and generally chilling out are also high on the agenda. Coast to Coast bookings are on the up as word gets around that we are the top spot to stay in, feedback has been extremely positive from walkers, especially when they realise we have baths with plugs and lots of hot water ― luxury!

Brompton scoops environmental award

BROMPTON LAKES RECEIVES SECOND MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD

One of our founding principles at Brompton Lakes is that everything should be as eco friendly as possible so it is particularly good news that we have just received one of the UK’s top environmental awards.

We won a silver medal at the recent Green Apple Awards for the Built Environment and Architectural Heritage 2009, which was presented by actress, author and keen environmentalist Kate O’Mara at a special ceremony at Hampton Court Palace in London.

The awards are made annually by the Green Organisation, an independent, non-political, non-profit organisation that recognises, rewards and promotes environmental best practice around the world.

Each year the competition attracts many high quality applications and this year was no exception with over 200 entries. Twenty-two of these were judged in the buildings category with four final award winners.

The Green Apple Award for Brompton Lakes follows close on the heels of a nomination for another major environmental award made by the Yorkshire Post newspaper earlier this year to highlight the best ideas in greener living across the region.

The judges in both competitions have been particularly impressed by the lodges’ many ‘green’ features, including living plant roofs, large solar gain glass panels and – one of the first of its kind in the UK – the innovative geo-thermal heating system which draws energy from the lakes themselves.

Great news for Brompton Lakes and great news for the environment!

Coast to Coast to Brompton

Just back from a little adventure, so I thought I’d take a few minutes to tell you about it.
Recently a few friends and I completed 192 miles of the Coast-to-Coast walk which runs conveniently close to Brompton Lakes. The walk is one of Britain’s most popular long distance paths and is often described as Wainwright’s Coast-to-coast walk as it was originally described and defined by the highly regarded travel writer, Alfred Wainwright.
The walk took us 12 days in total and we stayed at a number of places along the way including various bed and breakfast establishments and seedy hotels, most of which left something to be desired in the comfort stakes. I decided to take something of a ‘Busman’s’ holiday and book our party of six in at Brompton Lakes (this rapidly increased to 10 when the groupies found out) on our way from Reeth to Richmond. Strange, you might think considering I own it, but then Brompton Lakes sits perfectly at a natural resting point on the route so I thought, why not? I saw it as a chance to get a real feel for what our guests experience and even booked a chef for the evening (and believe me, after a long slog you’re definitely in need of some good food but may not have the energy to prepare it yourself) The catering service is something we’ve recently introduced at Brompton Lakes and I must say I was very impressed. We had a thoroughly enjoyable evening, the Pino Grigio was in abundant supply as Angela my sister in law can testify. I realise I’m biased, but having experienced the accommodation along the route first hand, Brompton Lakes easily stood out as being the best!
After a good night’s sleep and an early morning stroll around the lake next to our lodge we continued our walking for a full day, finally reaching Ingleby Cross just before dusk, and Robin Hoods Bay three days later.
I’d recommend the Coast-to-coast walk to anyone – it’s a fantastic way to see some of the best scenery the UK has to offer and a stay at Brompton Lakes could help to make it an expedition to remember!

Brompton Lakes is very officially open for business!!

Things have been moving along nicely since my last blog. Daffodils are in bloom, the site is looking altogether greener and after months of planning and hard work, Brompton Lakes was officially declared open on Friday 24th April by Rt Hon. William Hague MP.

We were joined on the day by over 100 guests, including local civil dignitaries, friends, family and Gary Verity, Chief Executive of ‘Welcome to Yorkshire’ (formerly the Yorkshire Tourist Board). I enjoyed the day enormously - not just because it marked the culmination of so much hard work by all involved but also because of the positive response from those who attended. William Hague described Brompton Lakes as “enormously impressive” in his speech to a packed marquee and as I mingled amongst the guests with celebratory Champagne in hand I was quite taken aback by the buzz of excitement. We were even pretty lucky with the weather, a little blustery on occasions but that didn’t seem to phase anyone – even Urban Birdsong, a classical duet who joined us to complete the setting managed to keep their sheet music in place as they moved around the site entertaining the guests.

All in all we couldn’t have hoped for a better day and with 10 completed lodges already attracting bookings from near and far and were all looking forward to the completion of the next phase. Also soon to be completed is the tennis court and broadband installation so soon we’ll be able to surf and serve to our hearts content!

Building and bookings continue to gather pace at Brompton!

Things continue to move along at quite a pace, over the past few months we have commissioned three more lodges, Cara, Juniper and Louis, taking the number of lodges available for letting to 10 with a further 4 lodges on the east lake under construction.

We have taken the decision to pull the building programme forward, due in part to the positive nature of the holiday market in the UK, but more specifically due to brisk business at Brompton Lakes. The feedback we are getting is encouraging with many customers having enjoyed their stay and promising to return. Lettings are gathering pace daily, over the Easter break demand exceeded supply for the first time and we had to turn down a number of enquiries. We are noticing the traditional holiday periods are selling out very quickly as more and more people get to know about us.

After what seemed like a winter with no end the weather has been fantastic since the end of February and as I write we are praying for rain, a new hobby in North Yorkshire! Having planted masses of trees, bushes and plants, and seeded acres of grass it refuses to rain making it difficult to get things greened up. Having said that the estate is now coming to life with trees in blossom, plants coming back to life and the many thousands of daffodils looking fantastic. We have finally moved the administration into the reception area which makes life easier for staff and visitors alike, Katey Perkiss is in the process of moving her family into the wardens lodge and the whole place is starting to feel more lived in. We have started building a tennis court and if BT would turn up to install the telephone system life would be almost perfect!
Without doubt the most satisfying aspect of the whole Brompton Lakes project is seeing what started as a building project turning into a community. People come here to relax and enjoy themselves, catch a few fish, go for a run, have a barbeque; It’s is quite wonderful to behold after all the hard work over the past year. Hopefully the best is yet to come!

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 bust it must be many hundreds.

Brompton Lakes is open for business!!!

Brompton Lakes opened for business on 20th December 2008. The weeks leading up to this were massively frantic but we somehow managed to get 7 lodges open for guests to stay in over Christmas and New Year. On reflection we probably bit off more than we could chew and it would certainly have been less stressful for all involved if that had been scaled down, but we got

there in the end. It’s amazing how much work you can achieve when there’s a deadline looming! Three of the lodges were let for Christmas week and by New Year we were full! Things went fairly smoothly, one or two minor technical hitches needed attending to but all in all the guests were happy and content.

In January we put our hard hats back on and closed the lettings temporarily and so as not to disturb any customers and went back to work on the remaining buildings in the first development stage, taking us up to 10 in total plus the wardens lodge and the administration / reception office. Landscaping and general work on the infrastructure is going well and we have now laid the foundations for the remaining buildings and built the first two lodges around the east lake.

Bookings have continued to gather pace and we are now open for business on a continuous basis. Spring half-term was very successful, (full again) and at the time of writing Easter looks as if it’s going to be full with many confirmed bookings already and only a few spaces left.

One can now sense that we have turned a corner and the hard part is now behind us. Whilst we are determined to make Brompton Lakes a fabulous place to stay, one of the most challenging aspects has been balancing the construction of new lodges with the needs of the residents. Now all the heavy machines are off site and the building side is well zoned and tidy. We aim to have the second phase of construction finished in August and all twenty lodges let by the end of the year.

Opening a new business is always an exciting time, and this one is no exception. We are continuously finding better ways to do things and the day to day operation of the business gets slicker and slicker. We are optimistic about future prospects despite the doom and gloom in these credit crunch times. Ironically we could actually benefit from some of the negative things going on around us, the weak pound makes it very expensive to holiday abroad and people have become increasingly concerned about their carbon footprint.