Farm and country cottages now comprise a large segment of the UK’s stock of holiday properties but how did they even come about? No one seems to know who the first farmer was to develop the first purpose built unit. The likelihood is that regardless of who it was, the date would probably have been soon after World War 2.
After the war, people who could not afford to stay in a hotel or guesthouse or simply didn’t like them, started to stay in caravans instead. As people began to travel by car, more and more of them could access remote areas of the UK, opening up a whole new realm of holidaying opportunities. They could either stay in their own caravan or rent one that was already in place at various caravan sites.By and large, almost all these holiday parks or caravan sites were owned by farmers and usually they were on farmland and located very close to the sea. Next came inexpensive holiday resorts located in seaside towns, they offered chalet type accommodation, you may have heard of some of them including Butlins or Pontins. Naturally, farmers then had to offer this type of ‘chalet’ accommodation to keep up with other holiday parks. They were either purpose built or converted from redundant farm outbuildings.
Most of this expansion was on-going through the 1950s and 1960s before the cheap packaged foreign holiday boom started began. Back then the National Trust was still in its infancy and planning restrictions in areas of natural beauty were much more relaxed than they are today. This is why so many prime seaside sites are to this day occupied by long established holiday parks.
The luckiest farmers of all were those whose land was close by to some of the finest beaches in the South of England during the Second World War. Individual land owners were able to easily and relatively cheaply convert story buildings used in the war into holiday chalets that were situated right by the beach. Holiday makers looking for a great place to take the kids can now find a number of locations around the UK for farm holidays both by the seaside or inland. Families in the UK see farm holidays as a great alternative to an overseas break and they are very popular with city based families who want to experience life on a farm. They can enjoy both the local seaside and rural area surrounding the farm.
Many farmhouses are actually no longer owned by farmers themselves and have been bought specifically to be converted into smart boutique holiday accommodation. Owners of these boutique holiday farms rent out the actual agricultural land to large-scale farmers and just concentrate on satisfying the requirements of their holiday guests.
Photo 1+2:Cdr Aitch, Photo 3:cheetleys, Photo 4:tom.gibson , Photo 5:Taylor Dundee
