DARING DEVON HOLIDAY PARK DROP-IN

DARING DEVON HOLIDAY PARK DROP-IN

AN EAGLE-EYED VIEW of the Red Arrows parachute display team visit to Ladram Bay.

Eighty years of providing seaside holidays on the Devon coast were marked this summer by the family owners of Ladram Bay Holiday Park in Budleigh Salterton.

The celebrations climaxed in a special birthday event which saw holiday guests join the park team and members of the local community in a weekend of festivities. Dropping in on the fun were members of the Red Arrows parachute display team who made a spectacular appearance after a daring skydive from over 3000-feet above the park.

Ladram Bay is possibly the oldest holiday park in Britain to have remained under the same family’s ownership for such a length of time. It was in 1943 that farmer Bill Carter and his wife Margaret decided to allow Scouts to pitch up on their front field amid some of Devon’s loveliest countryside.

Eight decades on, Ladram Bay now welcomes customers from across the world, and provides one of the West Country’s best equipped parks for family holidays.

CELEBRATIONS FOR DREAM DEVON DESTINATIONS

CELEBRATIONS FOR DREAM DEVON DESTINATIONS

THE BEVERLEY TEAM is celebrating the park’s 65th anniversary.

Eighty years of providing happy holidays on the Devon coast are being marked this year by the family owners of Ladram Bay Holiday Park in Budleigh Salterton. The five-star park is possibly the oldest in Britain to have remained under the same family’s ownership for such a length of time – and a full year of celebrations is planned. The celebrations will come to a climax in June when an all-stops-out party is planned to mark the same month in 1943 when Ladram Bay first began welcoming visitors.

It was then that farmer Frank Carter and his wife Margaret decided to allow Scouts to pitch up on their front field amid some of Devon’s loveliest countryside. The spectacular views of the bay and access to the farm’s private beach soon won the site an enthusiastic following which quickly grew in numbers as news of it spread. Eight decades on, Ladram Bay now welcomes customers from across the world, and provides one of the West Country’s best equipped parks for family holidays.

Its high-quality standards have won a top five-star grade for excellence from Visit England, and past accolades in the Devon Tourism Awards and South West Tourism Awards. Attractions at the park include an indoor climbing wall, indoor swimming pool and outdoor splash zone, watersports equipment hire, and adventure golf course. In addition to the planned birthday celebration weekend in June, there will be other themed events throughout the year, and a competition to try and find the earliest memory of the park.

OWNED BY THE SAME FAMILY SINCE 1943, Ladram Bay Holiday Park is set to celebrate 80 years of service

Every guest aged 80-plus who pre-books their holiday in 2023 will be offered a cream tea. Meanwhile, more than six decades after the first families booked a seaside caravan stay at Beverley Holidays in Devon, the park is marking its 65th anniversary. Celebrating the milestone will be members of the Jeavons family, who originally opened up part of their farmland to visitors in 1958. A series of events is planned throughout spring and summer, including themed party nights, special get-togethers for children and grown-ups, plus live entertainment.

The year has also seen the opening of a new £800,000 holiday home development, and new facilities for camping, touring caravan and motorhome guests. The investment is on top of almost £2.5 million spent in recent years on a fleet of holiday lodges and caravans with private hot-tubs, and a nautical themed play park. Located in Paignton on the English Riviera coast, Beverley Holidays has won a raft of national and regional excellence awards over the years, plus accolades for its environmental work.

TRIPLE TRIUMPH FOR BEST OF BRITISH

TRIPLE TRIUMPH FOR BEST OF BRITISH

SOUTH LYTCHETT MANOR won the overall gold title in the Camping and Caravanning Park of the Year

The family owners of three Best of British holiday parks are celebrating after winning top honours in the year’s South West Tourism Excellence awards. The awards drew hundreds of contenders from across Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and the Isles of Scilly.
South Lytchett Manor in Poole, Dorset, won the overall gold title in the Camping and Caravanning Park of the Year category.
In the same hotly-contested category, Polmanter Touring Park in St Ives, Cornwall, took the silver trophy for the standard of excellence it provides to holiday guests. Owned for over 50 years by the same family and run today by husband-and-wife team Phil and Becki Osborne, the seaside park provides spectacular views along the Cornish coast.
In the Holiday Park of the Year category of the awards, Ladram Bay Holiday Park in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, came away with one of the main awards. The Carter family has owned the park for over 60 years and, like the two other BoB winners, has received many regional and national awards for its high standards and welcoming atmosphere.