Brompton Lakes Lowdown

Alpacas Welcome!

2010-06-30T01:22:00.000-07:00

People arriving at Brompton Lakes are amazed to see our three new resident alpacas Apollo, Jack and Inca. They are creating lots of interest and seem very happy in their new home.

Normally indigenous to South America, living at altitude in the Andes, they stand about 3 feet to the shoulder and are gentle by nature. Alpacas are bred for their soft, lightweight and lustrous fibre; so expect to see a new range of Brompton Lakes knitwear next season!

We are also pleased to announce the recent hatching of five cygnets. Our local swans have been nesting on the island for the last month and can now be gliding elegantly around the lake with their young ones in tow, usually begging for food!

Introducing Grant

2010-06-27T01:16:00.000-07:00

Grant Carnegie-Brown has recently joined Brompton Lakes as General Manager.
He was previously a Major in the Royal Logistics Corps before a stint in the construction industry and was originally attracted to the role through his interest in green technology. Living nearby with his wife Mary who is a GP locally, and their three young children, Grant is busy immersing himself in his new role and learning the ins and outs of the organisation. He is keen to enhance the “Brompton Lakes Experience” , develop the facilities and continue to offer first class service to our guests.

Family fun at Brompton Lakes

2010-05-26T07:36:00.001-07:00

Guests can now enjoy spending time in our family area beside the tennis court, where we have built a substantial barbeque, a “boules pitch” where you can play boules or petanqe as it is more correctly known in France.

We have also put up a large tipi complete with a log table and seating, perfect for family get together’s on a summer evening. It is a great hang out for children or a place where adults can get together for a drink or a natter, even somewhere different to have a barbeque supper.

Summer is round the corner...

2010-05-26T07:22:00.000-07:00

Over the winter lots of work has been going on behind the scenes to prepare for our first full summer season at Brompton Lakes. It has to be said the winter weather was not kind to us, the lakes were frozen over for nearly four months from mid November through to the middle of March! During one particularly cold snap I was persuaded, against my better judgement I might add, to walk across both lakes. Tiptoeing on Ice?

Soon after the snow melted the weather improved briefly, then our next weather related challenge emerged, at the time of writing it has been six weeks since we have had more than a sprinkling of rain. This is causing some concern as we have many newly planted trees and shrubs gasping for water and we are spending vast amounts of time watering. This is supposed to be England! Generally though things are looking pretty good, the spring flowers are coming through well and the trees are in various stages of coming back to life, despite the drought.

Occupancy rates are constantly improving, we are enjoying many repeat bookings; the Morrell family currently hold the record with six bookings since we opened. We are happily filling all the lodges during the holiday periods, Christmas and New Year and most weekends. Spring half term and Easter were particularly successful and things are shaping up well for the Summer season.

Building work at Brompton Lakes complete!

2009-11-30T01:40:00.000-08:00

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

2009-09-17T06:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-07T02:29:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-08T01:38:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-05-07T08:27:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-04-16T05:34:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-16T01:54:00.001-07:00

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!!!

2009-03-13T05:34:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-12-17T07:03:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-24T07:44:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-13T02:19:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-10-30T03:51:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-10-15T01:56:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-25T01:25:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

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. . .