We were contacted at the very end of last year by the managers of Caister Holiday Park (near Great Yarmouth), one of the UK's oldest holiday parks. It was such a popular park in the 30's that apparently it had it's own train stop! Now owned by Bourne Leisure (Butlins, Warner, Haven etc) the managers were keen to provide residents and holiday makers with the opportunity to learn how to grow their own, and had earmarked an area for poly tunnels and raised beds. So, could we help? Um... yes!
Sean popped along in early February to see what they had in mind, and came away with a brief to provide 8 double-height beds plus a bespoke bed. We gave them a few options to consider and they plumped for our double height standard oak beds - untreated hardwood, very smoothly sanded finish (no splinters!) and filled with compost and topsoil, ready to go. They wanted them ready for this spring, so Sean got to work straight away, and here are a few pictures of the end products...
Unfilled beds. The oak was really beautiful and looked terrific against the gravel. The polytunnels had recently been erected but were empty, which Sean was happy about as it meant that he had somewhere sheltered to work in during some extremely cold weather.
Gives you an idea of scale. There was also work going on to trellis the area too and generally make it look a little bit prettier...
Beds filled and two of them fitted with our cleverly integrated frames. Bird netting covers are being made for these as I speak, and the owners will probably want the same for all 8 beds once crops have started to be grown in them. Lots of pigeons around to beware of!
You can see the bespoke bed against the end wall here. It measured 5m x 60cm/90cm. We believe they're going to be training their runner beans up against the fencing.
The project took Sean about seven or eight full days. This includes making the beds here at Partridge Farm, transporting them to the Holiday Park and then erecting and filling them (a back-breaking job if ever there was one, particularly given the freezing weather).
The managers were absolutely thrilled with the quality of the beds and the way in which Sean just turned when he said he would and worked his socks off. We're really thrilled that we've got more of our beds 'out there' for more people to see, and hope very much that the residents of Caister Holiday Park get a kick out of growing their own over the next few years. We'll make a return visit in the summer to see how things are going there and to take some pictures of the beds full of lovely green leafy goodness.
