Coming soon in January !
New Pond at Forda Last winter saw the completion of the fourth pond at Forda, along with extensive landscape improvements for your future enjoyment. January 2012 will see the arrival of our new fish (tench, bream and Crucian Carp) and the building of a great new fishing cabin - follow the progress on our blog - http://fordalodges.blogspot.com
Cornwall Wins for a second consecutive year ! In November Cornwall again won the British Travel Awards for top UK holiday destination ! (the awards are based on public voting). Devon and Cumbria were runners-up.
Accolade for Forda by Visit England ! We're thrilled here at Forda to have been featured in an article by 'Quality Edge' - VisitEngland's magazine. The article was written for the trade to highlight the importance of cleanliness - with their research showing that "94% of guests consider cleanliness and hygiene standards of accommodation to be either extremely important or important." We can only agree! The article says that "about 10% of self-catering properties got top marks for housekeeping, compared with about 6% of guest accommodation and 2% of hotels."
Forda was the only self-catering place from the whole country to be included in their article because we have achieved a perfect score for several years in the VisitEngland inspections for cleanliness! They even included this picture of our ladies! We are very fortunate to have such a great team of cleaners - without them we couldn't keep up the high standards. Thank you girls!
Fishing coaching at Forda We have long planned to offer fishing coaching at Forda and at last the person who we have always thought would be best for the role has moved to the area, having fished at Forda on holiday for the last ten years. He is Colin Blackburn, who is a fully qualified and certified coach and of course knows our lakes very well (and some years ago taught our son Harry how to fish!). Colin is married to Jayne - see new staff below ! The coaching is available for complete beginners, youngsters and anyone wanting a refresher course.
Staff changes at Forda Many of you have met Bee, the third member of our team, over the past year or so. Sadly she is leaving Forda but we are very pleased for her, as she is going to follow her passion for animals and farming. Some of you may even see her as she will be caring for some of the animals at the local attraction "Big Sheep" and will be involved with some of the entertainment there. In her place we are very pleased to welcome Jayne. She and her husband Colin (see fishing coach above) have recently moved to the area, having spent their holidays at Forda for the last ten years and having fallen in love with the place!
Ducks! So many of you are fond of the ducks - and their morning and evening lodge visits for bread. They are still thriving and looking forward to your next visit. Photo right: Ducklings crossing the bridge.
Swallows and other birds Over the last few years swallows have realised that, with a bit of effort, they could build nests in a safe position on the patios of the 'A' frames. Many families have been successfully raised - a real joy for anyone in the lodges, watching the parents flying in to feed them and the young flying off for the first time in July and August. Photo right: One of the swallows with its young.
Forda mentioned in Daily Mail Travel on 19th of March 2010! We are absolutely delighted to (unknowingly) have been featured in last Saturday's travel part of the Daily Mail in a nice spread about Cornwall! From glamorous camping to boutique B&Bs, Cornwall is leading the way for the modern traveller | Mail www.dailymail.co.uk
Forda is now blogging ! If you would like to follow our blog you can either click on the little icons at the bottom of the page or visit our blog on: http://fordalodges.blogspot.com/
May 2009 Gold Award Our two cottages – Forda Barn & Stables have just been awarded the top rating of “Gold Award” for 2009/2010. This means they are rated in the top 624 cottages in the whole country.
March 2009 New comfy suites in all the lodges! (above right)
Winter Works After all the major refurbishments over the last three years (kitchens, bathrooms, roofs etc), this year it is more cosmetic but still important! We hope everyone will enjoy the new fires in all the lodges and the new kitchen lighting in the “A” frames – there were favourable comments from regulars who came at Christmas and New Year ! We have also upgraded all the “fire” equipment, with new extinguishers and smoke and heat detectors, and changed the door locks in the “A” frames (smaller keys so less wear on your pockets!). There is also a new fireplace in the Barn lounge. Following the record wet 2008, the freezing ground in early January provided the ideal conditions for a lot of new drains and pipe work and repairs and stoning of paths, especially around the ponds which had deteriorated in the wet last year.
Digital TV We are one of the first areas to go digital in 2009 so we have all new flat-screen TVs and all the freeview channels in all of the accommodation together with new DVD and video recorders/players.
Waitrose in Holsworthy & Sainsburys in Bude! We know some of you are fans of Waitrose and Sainsburys – the local news is that they are planning to take over the Somerfield stores in Bude and Holsworthy – planned changeover is for June 2009.
Bude Tourist Information Centre and Bude Canal Centre We did not enter any awards this year but were thrilled that Bude won the best Tourist Information Centre in Cornwall award. Bude now has a lovely new refurbished TIC and shop as well as a new Bude Canal Centre, to go along with all the work on the refurbishment work on the Bude Canal – well worth a visit the next time you are here.
Forda and Bude Rugby Cornwall and Bude are rugby-mad, Kilkhampton is the home of England’s Phil Vickery (his family run the local farm shop) and we have a son who is rugby-mad. So when it came to deciding on Forda’s local sponsorship, there was little choice. Forda is now the name on the shirts of Bude rugby – under 13’s in 2007/08 (winners of the Cornwall Plate last season!) and under 14’s in 2008/09.
Winter 2007 - 2008 At the South West England Tourism Awards this month, we were very pleased to again be a finalist and this year we were placed in the top three for Accessibility for the whole of the South West.
Growing Pups Please do not expect to find us now as two cute Andrex puppies! We are two years old in August and we are now two big handsome boys – but still friendly and playful so we look forward to seeing you at Forda. from Boris & Buster (photo above right)
Winter Refurbishments Last year many of you enjoyed the new kitchens and flooring etc in the “A” frame lodges. This winter the Delta lodges have had their makeover, with new kitchens and roofs. That means that all of the lodges now have new kitchens, bathrooms and roofs! We have also replaced the glass in all the lodge velux windows. A few of them were misting and it was a good opportunity to replace them all with new insulating “K” glass.
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