Glam-camping in Wyresdale Park near Garstang

Aug 6 2011 by Andrew Hirst, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

EVER wondered how the Victorians went camping on safari?

No, neither had I. But I found out on a weekend so-called glam-camping – or to shorten it even more – glamping.

Not for us the vast African plains with, as Basil Fawlty once so succinctly put it, “herds of wildebeasts sweeping majestically across the plains.’’

No, for us it was Lancashire and to a country estate that was featured on Channel 4’s Country House Rescue earlier this year.

Wyresdale Park near Garstang is home to the Whewell family – or these days just a couple, James and Sally Whewell.

James had bought the hall back in the 1960s and there is that feel to it … but so much more. This is Swallows and Amazons territory. The hall is surrounded by extensive land, a huge trout lake and even its own fell.

Now that takes some looking after and it costs the couple £150,000 a year just to keep it going. Next in line is their son, Jim, who currently lives in London and runs an arts and music festival.

He’s a reformer and yearns for change. His dad is a traditionalist.

You know that just by meeting him. He ambled though the woods one morning in Panama hat and cigar and asked us if we had a light. Brilliant.

What’s happened so far is they have opened a cafe called the Apple Store and also hitched up with a company to set up what is called a Country House Hideout. These are the kind of ‘tents’ the Victorians took with them while exploring abroad – tents with windows all down each side. Livingstone and Stanley would have been quite at home in them … I presume.

They’re set up in woods right next to the lake and consist of a main tent that’s exceptionally rustic inside. It may have a smooth wooden floor but the tables and chairs have been hewn from wood in a rough and ready style from more than 100 years ago and one of the bedrooms is like a large cupboard. You go up some wooden steps, open the doors, clamber inside and snuggle down. That’s six-year-old Harry sorted then. His adventure started immediately.

At the heart of the tent is a wood-burning stove with hot plates on top. You want a cup of tea, get this home fire burning as there are no sockets in the place.

The lights run off a battery and even have authentic light switches and wiring from decades ago.

If they get dim, there’s a bike outside to hop on that’s hooked up to a battery. Pedal for 20 minutes and it’ll give you enough light for three days.

Your fridge is what looks like a blanket box with two hot water bottles inside filled with ice. They keep things surprisingly cool.

Your cooking cart is outside. Another stove with a large hotplate and more logs needed to get it going.

Also outside there’s a hot tub. Again it’s hitched up to a wood-burning stove so if you want to luxuriate in the woods, then it’ll take you the best part of three hours to get it up to the right temperature. And a lot of logs.

The shower is set in its own tiny tent and consists of a tin bucket with holes cut in the bottom. You get hot water by pushing a barrel on wheels to a generator in the wood that has a ready supply. Roll it back, hitch up the hose and clamber in. To get the water, shove a lever back and forwards to pump it by hand and eventually the water starts to pour out and keeps on going.

And then there’s your discovery tent complete with a copy of Swallows And Amazons, binoculars, a telescope, an old-style telephone that you can use to phone the main tent, a microscope and slides and several games such as trivial pursuit, junior scrabble and junior monopoly. Not sure the Victorians had them.

Hooked to the idea yet? Well, the best bit of all is that you walk out of the tent, over some tree roots and onto your own jetty on the lake. Sit on there for hours and watch the wildlife with birds constantly taking off, flying around the lake and then landing on the water. And they’re noisy birds.

When we arrived it was raining. Not just raining – a torrential downpour with lightning.

Owner Sally Whewell was trapped in the Apple Store Cafe it was so bad.

Not used to this glamping lark, we’d taken a lasagne with us to cook. Now that wasn’t going to happen in the tent or cooking range so Sally kindly let us use the oven there.

“It’ll be a bit squelchy down by the lake,’’ she said. And she was right. But the next day was dry and the squelch factor quickly vanished.

Despite a poor forecast, the days turned out to be surprisingly sunny – so much so that Harry was in the lake by the end of the day which was quite shallow where we were yet pretty brown and murky. After that dip he was straight in the shower.

This was his territory – a boy’s own dream and he built up a magnificent selection of sticks.

Rabbits are everywhere. No matter where you look you’ll see one sprinting off while the more confident ones will sit and stare you out.

The huge estate has its own fell and we scrambled up its rough hewn footpath right to the peak to get that on top of the world feeling.