A LANCASTER HOLIDAY PARK celebrated in the recent Lancashire Tourism Awards says it’s time to spotlight the county as Britain’s most stress-free destination.
Moss Wood Caravan Park in the village of Cockerham was named in the awards as one of Lancashire’s top five family-run businesses.
It was the only holiday park in the county to make it through to the finals of the competition in the hotly-contested “family-owned business” category.
Now director Henry Wild says he will use the resulting publicity to trumpet Lancashire as the UK’s best bet for couples and families seeking an escape from day-to-day pressures.
He believes the county is often overlooked by guests heading for popular nearby tourism honey-pots such as the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales.
What they might not realise, says Henry, is that rural Lancashire boasts some Britain’s most serene, picturesque and unspoiled countryside.
It’s the perfect place to unwind, he claims, and the featuring of his park in the Lancashire Tourism Awards will provide a springboard for giving the Red Rose County a national splash.
The competition was open to regional tourism businesses able to demonstrate that their family values are having a positive impact within the surrounding community.
Moss Wood was shortlisted as a result of the Wild family’s longstanding commitment to acting as a good neighbour to both local people and regional businesses.
The park was founded over 50 years ago by Lancashire surveyor Syd Wild, and is today run by his son Henry with his wife Hannah.
To reach the final, Moss Wood progressed through a number of stages including mystery shopping, inspection visits and interviews with the independent Lancashire Tourism Award judges.
The final results were announced at a glittering awards ceremony held in February at the Blackpool Winter Gardens and attended by VIP guests from across the county.
Henry says that community engagement and sustainability has always been at the heart of his family’s business philosophy at Moss Wood, an active member of the Holiday and Residential Parks Association (HARPA).
The park encourages holiday guests and members of the local community, especially children, to engage with nature and to protect wildlife.
Available for them to explore is a 1.5km nature discovery trail, and two spring-fed lakes which act as a magnet for birdlife, dragonflies, waterfowl and a host of other different aquatic species.
Moss Wood is also home to a colony of 80,000 honey bees housed in timber hives in its grounds which are sustained by a 3000 square-foot wildflower wilderness planted by the park.
The endangered insects share their food sources with a wide range of butterflies and other pollinators, and there are plans to harvest their honey to sell in the park’s shop.
“This competition has handed us a fantastic chance to highlight not just our park, but also the county and its unique character as a whole,” said Henry.
“There’s such a wealth of ways here to switch off and take life easy, and that’s exactly the story we’ll be telling over the coming months!”
Moss Wood provides holiday homes to buy as well as pitches for touring caravans and motorhomes. There is more information about the park at www.mosswood.co.uk