Holiday retreat at Caldwell ready to expand

A FAMILY run tourist hub has been given the green light to build 25 new lodges.

Caldwell’s Hillcrest Park was granted outline permission for new wooden-style huts in a field late last month.
Owners Kate and Ed Nichols have been at the site since 2011 which welcomes caravan pitchers and tourists to custom-built wooden eco-pods and cottages.
The couple said they were not looking to build all the lodges at once and were keen to retain the quiet, family feel of the place.
Mrs Nichols, 46, said: “It’s our home as well. We are going to continue to live here so we want to retain that sort of feel to it.
“Our aim is for it to look absolutely tip top – we want it to be a premium place with space between the lodges – we don’t want them all crammed in like sardine tins.”
A special compound will give the lodges a “wooden appearance” and the intention is for them to be mainly privately owned.
The pair’s application garnered no objections and Mrs Nichols said the centre had a good relationship with its neighbours.
She added: “We send a lot of people to the Brownlow Arms and Stable Hearth, in Gainford.
“We are not a big enterprise with thousands of kids running around – a lot of local people don’t even know we exist.”
A former pig-farm, the six-acre site is also home to several bespoke wooden “camping pods” which offer a half-way house between camping and a hotel room.
The popularity of pods has seen a number of individual projects cropping up across the dale.
Mrs Nichols welcomed their efforts and offered some words of advice to others seeking to take on their own podding ventures.
She said: “I would say have an idea of what you want it to be and what sort of people you want to attract.
“Because we want to maintain a quiet family retreat feel that means we have to be brave and turn people down.
“If we get too many people in a group sometimes that can be quite difficult to do. Have an idea in your mind of what you want it to be, then you can create the atmosphere that you want.”
Mrs Nichols was a former diary secretary for Labour’s Jack Straw and spent a stint working in 10 Downing Street.
After getting married, the pair moved north and back to Mr Nichols’ Teesdale roots.
“When you get people here, they’re always amazed how much is here,” said Mr Nichols. “Even Kynren has had an effect – we had quite a few people come not knowing what it was.
“People will come here to go to Beamish and Hamsterley Forest.
“I think Durham Tourism are great – they’ve really encouraged us.”
Mrs Nichols added: “I think Visit County Durham have done a good job of trying to promote the area. We do pick up a bit of North Yorkshire
as well but people come here and find there is a whole world of Teesdale to
discover.”