A new year catch up.

Happy New Year!
We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and saw the New Year in with style, we sure did here at Newlands! The office re-opened on Tuesday 2^nd and everyone was back to work ready and raring after our Christmas break.
Did you try to call while we were away? Make sure you remember to quote "santa" for an added bonus to your stay with us!

Firstly, a catch up on the work we started when we closed in November to before our Christmas Break: the swimming pool was retiled (over 2000 tiles were taken out and replaced if you were guessing from the previous blog post), both of the changing rooms have new lighting, a new roof has been fitted for the poolside apartments, we replaced the electric hook ups in the black touring field and continuing the work for into 2018, bringing our top toilet block up to date with new flooring and undercover washing up area, hopefully in time for Easter. Alongside these having the finishing touches and some still on going, a lot of new tasks have begun!
Outside of the reception we have taken out the walled planter ready to be decked, re-paved and vamped out as a new area for guests with 4 legged friends to enjoy! A perfect place to eat and drink in the Dorset sunshine from the Tow Bar & Restaurant.
Our Spar shop is currently dismantled ready for a spruce up! There will be a lot more space and chillers for new products and some old favourites for you to purchase during your stay… and any last minute forgotten bits we’ve got you covered! As well as the usual painting, replacing and tiding up which our Shop Manager Mark is watchfully overseeing, from a height, paint pot and brush in hand.
We have said goodbye to Newlands chip shop take away this year, as mentioned in the previous post briefly, the fryers are now out and the work has begun. Many guests have feasted on our chip shop fish and chips with traditional extras and they will be missed I’m sure, but fear not, lovers of a cheeky portion of chips on the way to your tents and caravans you can still order take away from The Tow Bar & Restaurant onsite. What will this space be used for now? Well we are focusing on the Park and how we can expand our services by designing this area into a Sales office for our new and pre-owned caravans! The office will be manned by a very familiar face from around the Park, can you guess who?

James and the Grounds team have been busy bees with the annual hedge maintenance. There has been a lot of work put into this over the last month and upcoming ones so you may quickly notice some dramatic changes to a few of the hedge lines around the Park when you return this year! Regarding the grounds of Newlands we have an on-going maintenance program to improve the health of our hedging which will have many beneficial effect during its time. All the changes we make come back around the program. For example, the hedge between the red and black field. This hedge has been allowed to grow tall and broad, almost 12ft wide in places. This creates a hedge that is sparse, open at the bottom, and carries most foliage and fruit at the top. Ivy had also taken hold in places, which had killed the hedge it was climbing up. Removing the ivy and dead material then creates space to plant new hedging which can be properly maintained from the start, in return this will attract and provide better cover for birds and insects, and create a thicker, more manageable and attractive hedge.
Planting throughout the Park’s hedge lines has been complementary, adding different hedging species to increase the diversity of the hedge line and thus diversity of the wildlife it attracts. In the case of the red/black hedge, honeysuckle, blackthorn and field maple have been added to work alongside the hazel and holly already established, and where possible the hedge has been laid.

This is all for now, we will catch up with you in February with continued updates of the work we are doing ready for your return in March!
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