News from our parks February 2025
Excitement is building for the new season as a large proportion of our member parks open in March. February is therefore a very busy month for these parks as they prepare for the new season taking place. Much of the work is outdoors and the top photo shows a cold start for winter work at Grooby’s Pit.
This is a busy time in parks’ offices too as bookings are coming in, so don’t leave it too late to get your preferred dates! Here’s a look at what’s been happening in our group over the past month.
Caravan Camping & Motorhome Show 2025
The Caravan Camping & Motorhome Show at the NEC in Birmingham is one of the highlights of our year. We’re grateful to the following park teams for organising, setting up and taking down our stand, and representing Tranquil Parks on our during the show: Daisy Bank Caravan Park, South Wales Touring Park, Somers Wood Caravan Park, New Lodge Farm, Grooby’s Pit, Old Oaks Touring & Glamping Park, Back of Beyond Touring Camping & Glamping Park, and Cartref Caravan & Camping Site.
Win a stay at Woodland Springs
We have 2 mini-breaks at Woodland Springs Touring Park for our second draw of 2025! Find out more about this beautiful park in Dartmoor National Park, Devon and enter on our prize draw page.
Special Offers
- New Spring Offer from Parkland Caravan, Camping & Glamping site (top)– 15% discount on stays of 6 nights or more from 1 May to 15 June. Their Early Spring Offers gives you 7 nights for the price of 5 from 15 March to 11 April.
- Old Oaks Touring & Glamping Park near Glastonbury in Somerset is offering free fishing in March and November (bottom left). You can also get a 15% discount on 4 nights touring from March to mid-April on certain pitches and 10% off 7 nights on the Super A and Premier pitches. There’s also 15% off all glamping in March. See the park’s discount page.
- Book 3 nights or more at Two Mills Touring Park in Norfolk (bottom right) and get 1 night free during October and November (bottom right).
- Green Acres Caravn Park in Cumbria has just announced a 10% discount on stays of 5 nights or more in March/October 2025
Awards update
Congrats to Back of Beyond on Dorset Tourism Awards success
Congratulations to the team at Back of Beyond Touring Camping & Glamping Park. They’ve won two awards at this year’s Dorset Tourism Awards:
- Gold for Dog-friendly Business of the Year, and
- Silver for Camping & Caravanning Park of the Year
New Lodge Farm nominated for national Countryside Alliance award
The Countryside Alliance has nominated New Lodge Farm as a finalist for their 2025 awards in the Rural Enterprise category. This follows their success in the North Northamptonshire Business Enterprise awards last year. The winners are going to be announced later on in the year during a visit to the Houses of Parliament! A public vote will open soon and we’ll share a link as soon as we have it.
The New Lodge Farm team are proud to be representing not just their local area, but also the hospitality and leisure industry, at these national awards. We will be doing all we can to get behind them and we wish them the best of luck.
Booking.com award for Bath Chew Valley lodge
Congratulations to Bath Chew Valley Caravan Park on winning a Booking.com Traveller Review Award 2025 for Fairswood Lodge. With a guest satisfaction score of 9.7 throughout the 2024 season up to Christmas, and an ‘Exceptional’ rating, these awards aim to recognise businesses that create unforgettable travel experiences.
The contemporary lodge has a large deck, spacious lounge, double bed and kitchenette, plus ensuite bathroom. It’s situated at the edge of the park’s woodland, which is currently carpeted with early spring snowdrops, crocuses and primula (see below).
Additions, improvements, upgrades and last-minute prep
Old Oaks unveils new guest lounge
The team at Old Oaks Touring Camping & Glamping Park near Glastonbury in Somerset have just revealed this luxurious new lounge for guests. Named ‘The Acorn Lounge’, it not only has darts and a pool table, but also a self-service bar, TV and comfy sofas. After much deliberation, they have decided to keep the new lounge dog free.
Winter jobs at Grooby’s Pit
At Grooby’s Pit near Skegness in Lincolnshire, it’s been a busy month for owners Tracy and Neil, as well as the wardens, Debbie and Robert. Winter jobs have included: changing a shepherd hut pitch into a touring pitch (top left and centre), digging out a new area where they’re moving seasonal facilities to, tree felling to create an area to help prevent flooding (bottom left and centre) and chopping up all the wood!
At least the early starts have enabled them to enjoy some wonderful sunrises (bottom right)!
Back of Beyond upgrades and new band line-up
The team at Back of Beyond have completed 14 new fully serviced pitches, pitch upgrades and new drainage among this year’s improvements. There are also some changes to the park’s band nights line-up for 2025 and a new addition to the schedule – The Vernon Principle, an 80s ‘guilty pleasures’ band. They will be making their debut at Monty’s Bar on 5 April. See the park’s event page for more.
Hallsdown winter maintenance and upgrades
The winter work continues at Hallsdown Farm Touring Park in North Devon. In addition to adding new fencing, they have resurfaced and widened some of the hardstanding pitches.
A major project has been the installation of a solar array to help to reduce the park’s carbon footprint.
Briarfields upgrades are almost finished
It’s been an exceptionally busy winter for Briarfields Motel & Touring Park as owners Scott and Jo have worked through a long list of jobs. These include upgrading 22 hard standing and fully serviced pitches by removing the concrete bases, recycling concrete for new motorhome pitches, and replacing the Cotswold shingle (top left photo).
They’re still working on the brand new 6 fully serviced motorhome pitches which should be finished by mid March – weather permitting! But they have completed the motorhome service point upgrade with level tarmac (top right), and with fresh water, grey waste, chemical disposal and rubbish recycling. They’ve also managed to plant no less than 500 native beech hedges (bottom left)!
Another improvement has come in the form of a shiney new bus shelter with seats outside the park for buses to Gloucester (bottom right).
All ready to reopen at Red Kite
At Red Kite Touring Park near Llanidloes in Powys, new Wi-Fi is installed and ready for the new season. The new floor in the facilities block is looking great and the premium pitches are looking very inviting – even in winter!
New Lodge Farm invests in food business and pitches
The team at New Lodge Farm have been busy upgrading the 4 commercial kitchen areas to accommodate the increased interest in their cafe and restaurant. This has meant completely gutting several areas and bringing in brand new, state-of-the-art food preparation machinery. The cafe and shop have a new manager for 2025, Julie Vicent. She joined last year as part of the customer services team and is now spearheading the management and development of the cafe and shop.
On the park, they have created an area specifically for campervans, and converted a number of pitches to all weather, creating an additional 7 locations for people who prefer hardstanding.
Brand new facilities at York Naburn Lock almost finished
We are delighted to share the news that the new facilities block at Naburn Lock Caravan Park near York is nearing completion and will be ready in time for the reopening on 15 March. It has 14 shower and toilet cubicles, a male and female toilet and a laundry wash room. Everything is high spec and you can see a sneak preview in the photos.
The park’s farm shop will be fully up and running from 15 March with break, cakes, milk, meats, tinned foods and merchandise from local suppliers. See information about river walks from the park below.
Yr Helyg / The Willows 2025 upgrades near completion
The road to the main field and the new hardstanding pitches have now been completed and are looking very inviting! In addition, the motorhome grey waste disposal point and warm dog shower were all near completion at the time of writing.
New plantings and 2025 onsite food confirmed at Green Acres
Green Acres Caravan Park near Carlisle in Cumbria is going to look even more green in future as the team have been busy planting 60 new trees across the park, as well as lots of new hedging.
They are also happy to confirm that they will be welcoming back their takeaway evenings – Aupa Street Food on Tuesdays, fish & chips on Thursdays and Sunday roasts. They will all be back from 15 April.
Two Mills refurb almost finished
At Two Mills Touring Park in Norfolk (shown here on a frosty winter’s morning), specialist builders arrived last month to refurbish the bottom facilities building. At the time of writing it looked like they were on track to finish in time for opening on 1 March. We’re looking forward to sharing photos of the finished work.
Local business changes near Greenacres
If you’ve stayed at Greenacres Touring Park on the outskirts of Wellington in Somerset, you may well have been to the garden centre opposite as many guests enjoy making purchases there. It changed hands last year and Linda tells us that the new owners are making lots of improvements.
Another local development is a new KFC takeaway within walking distance. In fact, Greenacres has several shops and places to eat within walking distance. It’s about a 30 minute walk into the town centre.
New behind-the-scenes efficiency at South Wales Touring Park
This year’s improvements at South Wales Touring Park are all ‘behind-the-scenes’ and unlikely to be noticed by guests, although that doesn’t make them any less important. There are more solar panels and an air source system to heat the hot water.
They have also re-tiled the ladies’ toilet room floor and given it a new underfloor heating system.
Spring is in the air
Spring is blooming at Bath Chew Valley Caravan Park, where guests can enjoy the snowdrops, crocuses and primroses along the Woodland Walk (top).
There’s lots of birdlife activity at Briarfields Motel & Touring Park at the moment with several bird boxes already occupied. Spring is in the air with daffodils coming up and the snowdrops are out (bottom).
The team at Back of Beyond Touring Camping & Glamping Park know that spring is on the way when the family of swans returns to the park’s wildlife lakes (top).
The York Naburn Lock Caravan Park team have shared details of some lovely riverside walks (bottom photos). In 30 mintues you can reach the wonderful Waterfront Cafe at York Marina. Having the River Ouse at the back of the caravan park is not only an opportunity for fishing, but also a great place to stop for tea and cake at a beautiful, quirky cafe called, Tea by the Lock, only about 2 minutes’ walk from the campsite.