Back of Beyond

Back of Beyond becomes company sponsor of New Forest and District Beekeepers’ Association 

We’ve become a company sponsor of the New Forest and District Beekeepers’ Association (NFDBKA). The Association recently launched a new outreach programme to work with businesses and organisations that are keen to help bees of all types.

With large woodland and heathland areas as well as bee hives on site, we’re well placed to support the NFDBKA and the local bee population by creating new wildflower meadows. 

Martin Bowrey, owner of the park said, “We’re pleased to see the new wildflower meadows now starting to bloom. They will not only benefit our honey bees, wild bees and other pollinators, but also provide new areas of the park for our guests to enjoy.”

Large areas were sown with a mixture of indigenous wildflower seed and grasses during the COVID-19 lockdown in early 2021. Selected for sandy soil, the indigenous seed mix contains 21 different types of wildflower (80%) and eight types of grass (20%). Wildflowers include Common Sanfoin, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Oxeye Daisies, Field Scabious and Viper’s Bugloss.

The New Forest and District Beekeepers’ Association was established over 100 years ago to represent the interests of beekeepers and beekeeping the New Forest and in the surrounding area. It is one of the larger beekeeping associations in England and is affiliated to the Hampshire Beekeepers’ Association and the British Beekeepers’ Association. To find out more, visit www.newforestbees.co.uk.

We’re delighted to announce that we have some delicious new options for you to try here at Back of Beyond. Whether you’re celebrating something special or just fancy a treat, you can now order freshly made afternoon tea, cream teas or charcuterie platters direct to our site.

You can enjoy these home-made and locally sourced delicacies at Monty’s Bar, at your pitch or at your glamping accommodation. They’re already proving popular and we’ve only just started offering them!

Afternoon teas

The afternoon teas are made to order by local company Baking Corner UK. Tea for Two includes scones, brownies, cookies, sandwiches and crisps. They also offer a traditional Cream Tea with scones, clotted cream, jam and cupcakes.

Charcuterie

Charcuterie is provided by Fromage to Yours, a specialist local company. They offer a fabulous range of 18 local and speciality cheeses, plus artisan salami, chorizo and bresaola, along with a range of accompaniments, and it’s all served with a generous portion of handmade savoury biscuits on a beautiful slate platter that you can keep.

How to order

Visit Reception the day before you’d like your tea or charcuterie:

• Afternoon tea needs to be ordered before 4pm the day before delivery. Tea for Two is £25 and a Cream Tea is £15.
• Charcuterie needs to be ordered at least 24 hours in advance and costs £35.

MENUS

(As of 6 May 2021 and subject to change)

Afternoon Tea

• 2 plain scones with clotted cream and jam
• 2 vanilla cupcakes with strawberry jam
• 2 chocolate brownies
• 2 chocolate chip cookies
• 4 finger sandwiches (ham & mustard, cheese, cucumber & cream cheese, egg mayo) crisps

Cream Tea

• Plain scones with clotted cream or jam
• 2 vanilla cupcakes
• 1 pot of clotted cream
• 1 pot of strawberry jam

Charcuterie Sharing Platter

• 4 cheeses or charcuterie items
• 2 accompaniments
• 28 handmade savoury biscuits on a slate
• Slate platter for you to keep

Whether you have a sweet tooth or prefer something more savoury, we hope you’ll be able to enjoy these special additions to our park experience!

We’re so pleased to be open again! It’s such a pleasure to welcome back guests and once again see smiling faces on the park. We’d like to wish you a very warm welcome to the 2021 season. Let’s hope it’s longer than last year’s.

Our facilities will remain closed until 17 May. We’re sorry for the inconvenience, but showers are still not allowed to open and our showers and toilets are in the same block.

To mark the reopening we were interviewed on BBC radio solent this morning – here’s a video of our interview.

Wishing you wonderful holidays and safe travels this year from all the Back of Beyond team.

A big ‘THANK YOU’ to everyone who voted us into the Top 100 Sites Guide 2021! It’s just been published by Practical Caravan magazine.

This year, we’ve not only made it into the Top 100, we’ve won several several major titles ! And it’s all thanks to public votes and, of course, our incredible team.

We’ve been named Regional Winner for Dorset (for the second year running) and we’re also very excited to have been named:

• Best Adults Only Site
• Best Site for Camping
• Best Green Site (for the second year in a row)

The Top 100 means a lot to us because the results are based on guests’ votes after they’ve stayed with us. We’re really grateful to everyone who took the trouble to vote for us and we’re so glad that so many people have enjoyed their time at our park.

Here’s a picture of our award-winning team celebrating early this morning:

We’ll post a link for voting in the Practical Caravan Top 100 2022 as soon as our park is open.

This is our current understanding of how the 4-step roadmap for easing lockdown restrictions announced by the Prime Minister on 23 February will affect us:

The full announcement is at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-statement-to-the-house-of-commons-on-roadmap-for-easing-lockdown-restrictions-in-england-22-february-2021

Our park may be closed for the winter, but we’re incredibly busy! This year we’re working through all weathers to build more hardstanding pitches for the 2021 season and some of them are going to be fully serviced – a first here at Back of Beyond!

Every year we invest in the park and this year we’re creating around many more hardstanding pitches so there will be nearly 70 in total! These are ideal for caravans, motorhomes, campervans and trailer tents. They’re more suitable than grass pitches for off-peak and winter stays, and having more hardstanding pitches has helped us earn our new 5 Pennant Gold rating from the AA.

Twenty-one of the new hardstanding pitches are going to be fully serviced. That means each pitch has its own fresh water and electricity supply along with a grey water drain. If you’ve ever stayed on a fully serviced pitch, you’ll know how convenient it is to have your own water and electricity supply and drainage.

To make the hardstandings we’re going through these stages listed (pictures below). We’re also laying drains, pipes and cables to the fully serviced pitches and putting in new bollards.

• First we’ve dug out areas for the hardstanding, removing soil and rubble.
• Then we’ve we’ve put wooden shuttering 4 inches deep around the edges of these dug out areas to retain the sides.
• Weed membrane is the first covering to go in the hole to stop weeds and grass growing in the hardstanding area. It’s permeable to rainwater so that it doesn’t get waterlogged.
• The membrane is then covered by 4 inches of Mendip stone, which needs to be levelled and flattened with a roller.
• To finish, the hardstanding area is dressed with shingle.

Fully serviced pitches information

The Superior Hardstanding Fully Serviced Pitches measure around 23 x 12 metres on average, with the smallest 14 x 12 metres. Some are over 25 metres long! These pitches will also have picnic tables provided.

The standard size Hardstanding Fully Serviced pitches are around 12 x 10 metres with a 10 x6 metre hardstanding area.

Costs per night for a fully serviced pitch range from £27 to £46 depending on pitch size and time of year.

Tips for staying on a fully serviced pitch

Our pitches are very large, so please make sure you bring a long grey waste hose. You may also need a Y Piece to connect the waste hose to your caravan waste pipes. For the fresh water tap you’ll need a good length of food grade hose to reach your tank or butt from the tap.

Find out more

• See where the new pitches are located on the Park Map.
• Go to Touring and Camping for information about all our different types of pitches.
• Check out the prices on the Prices and Booking page