Taking On How Stean Gorge…One Year Ago
We would like to say a massive thank you to our whole team and to all our guests for bearing with us during this time of great development at How Stean Gorge (only a little more work to go!).
What ‘Team How Stean’ Has Achieved In One Year:
This is by no means an exhaustive list of everything the team has achieved in the past 12 months but here are the major accomplishments:
- 4 x 10 Bed Lodges
- 2 x 4 Bed Chalets
- 1 x 6 Bed Chalet
- Installed 5 wood burning hot tubs and bases
- Installed new metal fences around visitor attractions (ongoing)
- Extended the visitor attraction
- 7 log burners
- Cafe renovation and booths installation
- New shop area and display
- Outdoor activity check-in/info area
- Increased cafe seating area
- Planted over 1000 hedging whips & over 60 trees
- Construction of new entrance (nearly complete)
- Fenced additional staff parking area
- Upgrading electricity supply to site (nearly there)
- Access to 2 new caves within our system (Oxbow and Hazel Close)
- Installed ‘Caves of How Stean’ survey interpretation panel
- New wood shed
- External cafe renovation inc new doors and windows
- New ‘Instructor Briefing and Staff Room’ inc new roof
- New laundry facilities
- Upgraded I beam bridge
- Installation of opening windows to glass-floored cafe
- Beech hedging to car park
- Installed 2 Orienteering Course (1 off & 1 onsite)
- Bore hole and pump upgrade
- Spring water supply upgrade and additional tank
- New toilets and decoration
- Gained planning permission to install 2 new bridges to extend our attraction further
- New cafe menu
- Site-wide Wi-Fi
Expanding Our Outdoor Activities Portfolio:
The team has set up two new outdoor activities and nature-based weekend retreats for 2023. The Dark Skies event evenings in Spring have been so popular, new dates in November have been released :
- Stand Up Paddle Boarding
- Kayaking (sit on top)
- Retreat weekends
- Dark Skies Festival Activities
How Stean Supports Local Economy and Community:
Three new jobs were created:
- Apprentice Instructor
- Outdoor Instructor
- Marketing Consultant
Local businesses supported:
- Weatherhead’s Butchers
- Todd’s of Summerbridge
- Park View Stores Bakery
- Spar Pateley
- Meadowdale Ice Cream and Dairy (Lofthouse)
- Kendals Butchers
- Brooks
- Neil Molyneaux Graphic Design
- Organised PR campaigns working with Cause UK
- Drone shoots with Maverick Media
- Sandhutton Logs and Kindling
- Beyond Digital Printing
- Grantley Saw Mill
- Leo Dawsons
- Martin Prince Engineering
- Nidderdale Silver Jewellery
- Farrah’s of Harrogate
- Black Sheep Brewery
- The Boasts
- Yorkshire Vintners
Local School and Sports Club:
- Proud sponsors of Lofthouse & Middlemoor Cricket Club
- Provided children of Fountains Earth Primary School, Lofthouse free Christmas dinners
Happy Customers:
On top of this, we are committed to delivering a high quality experience to all our customers. We are currently rated 5 star on TripAdvisor and we have managed to keep open with 1000’s of family and friends from across the country taking part in our outdoor activities including:
- Stag Do’s
- Hen Parties
- Family Holidays
- Individuals and Couples
- School Residential Visits from 3-5 days
- Corporate Events
- Team Building and Staff Away Days
- Supplied over 400 BBQs
A Recent Tripadvisor Review:
Raising the Quality of the Visitor Experience
During the last 12 months, we have been constantly looking at how we can improve the visitor’s experience whilst they pop into the cafe, explore the Gorge, participate in outdoor adventures or stay overnight at How Stean Gorge. This year we:
- designed and produced new educational activity packs to help people explore the Gorge Visitor Attraction
- achieved 2022 Traveler Choice TripAdvisor Status
- were awarded Air BnB Super Host
- were a finalist in Yorkshire Post Tourism Awards
- and a finalist for Yorkshire Rural Business Awards
How Stean Gorge Working in Partnership
We’ve liaised and worked together with numerous organisations:
- Visit Harrogate
- Destination Harrogate
- Yorkshire Dales National Park
- Natural England
- Harrogate Borough Council
- Nidderdale Plus
- Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
- Yorkshire Water
How Stean Guide Features in Regional and National Media
How Stean Gorge has been featured in both national and regional media online and in print. Just to name a few:
Published in printed media/online
- Yorkshire Post
- Stray Ferret
- Your Harrogate
- Country & Town House
- Yorkshire Evening Post
- Northern Echo
- Darlington & Stockton Times
- On-magazine
- The Guardian
- Harrogate Advertiser
- Nidderdale Herald
- The Good Dog Guide
- About Manchester
- The travel planet
- Living North
- Base Magazine
- The Telegraph
- Sykes Cottages
- The Gear Loop
There’s plenty more articles too!
Who is behind the scenes at Team How Stean?
All this couldn’t have been achieved without all the hard work and dedication of our whole team here at How Stean including:
- Team Belgium
- JMW Glasshouses (Jonathan Walker, Tom Clayborough and Co)
- Chris & James Robinson Architects
- Moor & Valley (Roy Parker)
- Technology Product Solutions
- Dales Heating
- Micheal Petyt and Brian Simpson Electricians
- Green Build (Ian Hook)
- Alan Rockcliffe
- GPH Joinery (Graham Hunn and Joey Gregory
- Claytons Carpets
- Insta Heat
- SIPS at Clays
- Ronnie (the legend) Evri for his endless Deliveries up the dale
- Kirami
- Dales Water
- Ramsden Estate, J Verity & Sons & Hazel Close Farm (Chris Challis)
Many thanks again for everyone’s support during the last year, here’s to another year of adventure!
Tony and Becca
Picture: Lorne Campbell / Guzelian
