A Postcard from St Helen’s
Winter on the Caravan Park is in our minds eye, snow and sunshine, with children building snow men, and Mum and Dad walking in the winter sunshine. In reality burst pipes, soggy grass and children covered in mud. Such was life at St Helen’s in the Park this winter.
Christmas, New Year, and the February half term, were in fact very pleasant. The sun did peep through, the ground was hard enough to drive over, but there was a lack of snow and ice. Our stock of rock salt has been untouched now for nearly two years, and will be going cheap on ebay. Our snow plough blade was greased and fitted but also lay idle.
February saw us back to reality with a bump. We had justified the purchase of a new small tractor with the promise that we would look after our own groundworks in future. The installation of a 40 metre long “zip slide”, and a new “basket swing” tested the abilities of both man and machine. Barry and I muffled ourselves in layers of duffel coats and the girls made cocoa, whilst some 40 tons of top soil and sand was removed. The new toys were installed, and ready, for Easter. They immediately proved to be a big hit. Children can be seen doing Tarzan and Jane impressions all day long.
Reality hit us hard with the earliest Easter since Noah’s Ark, and rain, snow and sleet in abundance. The grass resembled areas of Flanders in 1916, and many washed out families gave up by Sunday. However, those that made it through to Monday and Tuesday, dried out enough to pretend that they had enjoyed themselves. Luckily, the next time Easter comes this early it will be someone else’s problem!!
The arrival of the new lambs was expertly timed for Easter Thursday. (Apart from two, which slipped through the net, and were born in the first week of January, much to Lynn’s delight. We must plan to be away again next year).
Winter at Wykeham Lakes has been generally quiet. The smaller lakes were often frozen, with only the Trout lake and the Pike lake remaining open throughout. The temperature difference between the lakes, at the bottom of the valley, and the Caravan Park on the hill, often results in a muddy caravan site but frozen lakes. Perhaps a swap Mike?
The main event of the late winter was introducing new stock to the match lake and the coarse lake. It is always a mystery as to how the fishery sales team manage to cram a whole lake’s worth of fish into two small tanks on the back of a trailer. The magician pulling rabbits out of a hat, is nothing compared to the sight of hundreds of enormous carp emerging from a large bucket. Mike Heelis and I look forward to a summer of record catches!
Landscaping has continued with great gusto on the lake surrounds. A new concrete disabled access has been laid, and new fishing access to the Trout Lake has improved the useable bank side area. Mr Titchmarsh has obviously paid a visit to the CL caravan park, with new shrub beds interspersed with colourful gravel. I didn’t know that Lynn and Paul had such talent.
Those who can’t sit still long enough to fish need to head for the southernmost lake where Wykeham Watersports has a wide variety of activities available. Their qualified instructors offer tuition in dinghy sailing, windsurfing, canoeing and kayaking, and they cater for every level of expertise, including the complete novice. You can book for lessons individually, in groups or as a whole family.
In addition they also offer a range of land based activities, including archery, climbing wall and low ropes. This allows them to tailor activity days to suit all sorts of groups from school parties to corporate team-builders; private bookings have even come from adventurous stag and hen parties!
Manager, Sam Usher, stresses that his aim is to deliver professional tuition that is both rewarding and enjoyable. They also hold activity days, offering adults and children a taste of a variety of activities. Bookings are currently being taken for kayak and canoe courses for 2008 and places are going fast, so don’t delay!
Now, all that is needed is the sun to shine continuously for the next six months. We promise not to moan about being too hot or too dry. We look forward to the grass shrivelling up and to putting on our shorts.
Enquiries are always welcome by contacting me at the Caravan Park, 01723 862771 or by email, Chris Tedman;
Mike Heelis at Wykeham Lakes Fishery 07946 534001 and
Sam Usher at Wykeham Watersports, 0845 4560164, www.wykehamwatersports.co.uk
Chris Tedman
Yorkshiremen are suspicious, obstinate, materialist, isolationist, nonconformist and blunt – and I like them as they are.
Bishop Eric Treacy
The Dales have never disappointed me. I still consider them the finest countryside in Britain, with their magnificent, clean and austere outlines of hill and moor, their charming villages and remote whitewashed farms, their astonishing variety of aspect and appeal, from the high gaunt rocks down to the twinkling rivers.
J B Priestley
I am never at my best in the early morning, especially a cold morning in the Yorkshire spring with a piercing March wind sweeping down from the fells, finding its way inside my clothing, nipping at my nose and ears.
James Herriot
The first full season of the new partridge and pheasant shoot has been met with considerable acclaim and in particular the Bedale and Yedmandale beats have shown some spectacular birds over the steep wooded valleys.
One of the unexpected discoveries of clearing overgrown trees and shrubs in Yedmandale is Jenny’s Spring. This interesting feature which has been carved into the side of a “dry valley” marks a strong spring which used to supply farms on the plateau each side of the wooded dale. The medieval latin inscription reads “FONS IN VALLE CLAUSA 1839.” Little is known of its creator or the history of the site – we would love to hear from anyone who knows something about it, or would differ from the translation of the inscription reading, “The fountain in the enclosed valley 1839”
Forrester’s Lodge, the Dawnay family’s five bedroom weekend home at Danby, has had a busy start to the year with almost constant visitors, pausing only for the annual maintenance and refurbishment. There are, however, still some weeks available in the early summer and autumn – a beautiful time of year on the North York Moors and Coast.
Dawnay Estates are delighted to welcome Jane Abdenadher and Paul Bower of JP Hotels Ltd as new tenants at the Downe Arms, Wykeham. They arrived in February and immediately started a year long programme of refurbishment and improvement.
Jane is responsible for the day to day management and is relishing the challenge of transforming the Hotel. Her commitment is already evident and hopefully will soon be acknowledged with 3 star accreditation. The building is a 17th century former farmhouse and its location is such that nearly every window has a different countryside view.
The 11th Viscount Downe was a car enthusiast with a special interest in Aston Martins. He owned a DB2 by the time he started Oxford University and later formed Dawnay Racing, racing Aston Martins, Ferraris, a Ford Mustang and a Ford GT40.
BoxWood specialise in bespoke boxes and chests for the country sports enthusiast. They initially started producing small boxes to be used as cartridge chests or portable drinks cabinets. This soon expanded into portable shooting chests which are now their most popular item. The chests are made to order to fit into the boot space of 4x4 vehicles, with a choice of compartments specifically for guns and cartridges as well as refreshments, picnics and even a humidor for cigars!