New beginnings for Rivers Edge….
2021 brings great excitement to Rivers Edge, our home and business in Shotley Bridge.
We are hoping to gain planning permission to build a Glamping site and so are expecting a new arrival or two- Luxurious Glamping pods which will be situated in our paddock close to the River Derwent.
In 2020, the dreaded lockdown year for all, my future career goals changed dramatically resulting in the idea of the “Hidden Retreat Glamping Site”. Many of you would agree that lockdown created a lot of time for us to think, step back and reanalyse things which is what both myself (My name is Laura by the way) and Jean (my mother) did.
Before I delve too far into how our idea for the Hidden Retreat came about I want to pause to tell you a little bit about us.
I’m Laura, having finished with a degree in Childhood Studies in 2019 I began working in the field gaining teaching experience in the classroom which I really enjoyed. Alongside this I worked for my mother, Jean to help out with our already established holiday cottage named Rivers Edge Cottage which she set up at our home in Shotley Bridge, County Durham in 2003. It wasn’t until lockdown when I was away from the classroom environment that I realised how much I enjoyed being involved in the family business and how determined I was for it to grow.
So how did the idea of the Hidden Retreat come about?
One sunny afternoon in July, Jean and I were sat in our already established holiday cottage pondering about our future. My mother explained to me that she had come to a time in her life where she thought she wanted to wind down and enjoy a more stress-free life whereas I was wanting to be more involved with the business and expand it if I could. After gazing out of the holiday cottage window and looking into our overgrown, abandoned paddock we came up with the idea of creating some use for it by designing a luxury Glamping Pod site seen as though we already had experience in the tourism sector.
Once the seed was planted in our head, we couldn’t stop researching online to ensure that our idea became a reality! We got in touch with our local architect to help us draw up plans and submit our planning application.
We are looking forward to hearing back from the planners with a decision and are so excited to see where this will take us both.
Laura
Hidden Retreat Glamping
