April 2007
LANDSLIDE AT RAYS FARM
From Rose Cartwright
Earlier this month part of Rays Farm woodland walk slipped spectacularly into Rays Brook. Several trees – once part of the hedge-line 40’ higher – now create islands in the brook. Fortunately this happened overnight, and a detour is now in place; so visitors to Rays Farm can again safely access both woodland walks and enjoy finding all the wood sculptures.
Over 60 native trees have also been planted throughout Rays Farm this winter to compensate for winter damage and new sculptures are due to arrive late spring/early summer.
NEW ROOMS AT HILLTOP HOUSE
From Vicky and Charles Dornton
Hilltop House, Benthall have this year added two new rooms in the recently converted hayloft. Both rooms are en-suite and can be used as a family suite, as they have a common entrance way. Both rooms are priced lower than the main house at £55 each or £110 if used together. There is 1 twin room and 1 double room.
SPECIAL EVENTS ON THE SEVERN VALLEY RAILWAY IN 2007
June 23rd/24th & June 30th/July 1st - 1940s Weekends
July 28th/29th
Severn Valley In Bloom
September 1st/2nd & 9th/10th
Day Out With Thomas
September 13th to 16th
Bridgnorth Beer Festival
September 21st to 23rd
Autumn Steam Gala
October 11th to 13th
Diesel Gala
October 14th
Classic Car & Bike Day
October 27th/28th
Wizard Weekend
November 11th
Remembrance Day Service
December 1st/2nd, 8th/9th, 15th/16th, 22nd/23rd
Santa Steam Specials
RECORD VISITORS TO RAF MUSEUM COSFORD’S NEW EXHIBITION
The new £12.4m National Cold War Exhibition at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford is drawing record crowds to the unique display.
During February almost 50,000 people attended the Shropshire-based museum, most of them heading for the distinctive National Cold War Exhibition building, opened on February 7 by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal. Former Prime Minister Lady Margaret Thatcher also took part.
General Manager of RAF Museum Cosford, Alex Medhurst, says: “Clearly the exhibition has captured the interest of people nationwide. Our February attendance figures were three times as high as the previous best for that month.
Indeed, on one day in February we had 6,880 visitors.”
He added: “We are geared up to handling attendances at a continuing high level as people come to Cosford not only to view the aircraft and vehicles involved in the great political and military confrontation of post war years, but to learn how the West coped with the threat of nuclear war and the reality of life during that period.”
Admission to RAF Museum Cosford and the exhibition is free. Enhanced parking areas have been created to cope with the expected high numbers during the coming spring and autumn.
Mr. Medhurst says: “Completion of the exhibition means that RAF Museum Cosford now houses a display of international significance. During the tourist season we are expecting a record number of overseas visitors, particularly from Europe.”
One of the main features within the display is that featuring Britain’s three post-war V-bombers – the Vulcan, Victor and Valiant, as well as aircraft involved in the Berlin Airlift. Several of the exhibited aircraft are suspended from the strengthened ceiling and can be viewed from a high level gallery. The exhibition also embraces American and Soviet aircraft and missiles.
The exhibition has been made possible with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Advantage West Midlands, the European Regional Development Fund, the Rural Regeneration Zone, Ministry of Defence and Bridgnorth District Council.
Full details of the National Cold War Exhibition and the overall displays at RAF Museum Cosford are available on 01902 376200 or on its web site: www.rafmuseum.org
VISITOR INFORMATION CENTRE UPDATE SPRING 2007
From Sue Yardley
Visitor numbers and ticket sales over the winter months have been buoyant and the staff continues to receive very positive comments about the bright and cheerful re-vamped premises.
Requests for the 2007 Bridgnorth and Much Wenlock Visitor Guide are up 3 % on the January – March period last year and stand at just over 500 to date. The indications are that these are usually couples thinking of visiting the area. If they all decide to come and if they stay overnight there would be a significant amount of business generated. In addition, requests for information on forthcoming events continue to be one of the most common reasons for telephone calls and emails.
Continual change in the retail scene in the town means constant updating of the list of shops maintained by the VIC staff. The list is sited on the VIC PCs and is used to answer enquiries about particular shops, particularly where they are situated and what they stock.
At Much Wenlock we said goodbye to Diane Radford after 12 years and also to Kate Owen who was only with us for one season. Kate wished to take up a tourism post with more hours. We wish both ladies well. For the new season, the decision has been made to have a single new team covering both the Visitor Information Centre and the Museum. This will be managed by the Museum Service.
UPDATE FROM SHROPSHIRE TOURISM
From Sarah Whittall
www.bridgnorthshropshire.com, the Bridgnorth website, has now been updated and revised for 2007. Members are asked to take at look at their web entry on the site to ensure that information featured is correct and up-to-date. Please remember that it is your responsibility to ensure that your web entry is factually correct. Alterations to copy and images can be made at any time, simply send your amendments through to Sarah Whittall at Shropshire Tourism, Tel: 01743 462462 Email: swhittall@shropshiretourism.info
Year end website statistics show that the Bridgnorth website received 131,212 unique (first time) visits in 2006. It isn’t possible to compare year-on-year figures yet, as the site only began in Nov 2005, but the figures available clearly demonstrate the increased use of the website by potential visitors to Bridgnorth and District, eg:
Jan 06 – 7.906 unique visits
Jan 07 – 12.443, an increase of 57%
Feb 06 – 8.691 unique visits
Feb 07 – 10.103, an increase of 16%
The Shropshire Tourism website received 1.5 million unique (first time) visits in 2006. This is an increase of 50% on the unique visits received in 2005. Bridgnorth & District Tourist Association have a reciprocal arrangement with Shropshire Tourism, through which their members have access to these unique visitors and a greater opportunity to promote their business to potential visitors to Shropshire and in turn generating bookings.
Forthcoming developments to the Shropshire Tourism website include a new availability and bookability system, which Shropshire Tourism is currently in the process of developing. The custom-built system has been designed to integrate with the national enjoyengland.com and the international visitbritain.com websites through Shropshire Tourism's Englandnet system. The system will be integrated within the members’ web pages on the Shropshire Tourism website and members can opt into putting their availability online, and if they wish they can also take bookings (not essential) over the internet. For further information visit www.stmem.com/members/availability
ACTIVITY WEBSITES FOR SHROPSHIRE
From Gina Barker
Launched on 26th March 3 new websites designed to encourage the use of Shropshire’s excellent activity facilities for walking, cycling and riding. All routes are checked before appearing on the sites. Links have been set up with Shropshire Tourism website.
NEW BDTA WEBSITE
From Jytte Spouncer
Work has started on the new website, so now would be a good time to take a look at your own entry to ensure that you are using the space to its full potential. You could add some more pictures or take some new ones, revise the text to make sure it fully describes your facilities, eg self catering clearly showing the number of bedrooms in each unit. You can write up to 1000 words and show up to 5 images.
For those members who have their own website could you please include a link to the Bridgnorth site: www.bridgnorthshropshire.com
MONEY MATTERS
BETTER WELCOME – BRIDGNORTH AND MUCH WENLOCK
From Gina Barker
This is a progression from the Market Towns Initiative that took place during 2004 and 2005 for further improvements to matters that affect the visitor. The scheme is sponsored by Advantage West Midlands.
The carrot is £25,000 per town, to be spent on the Town, not by Bridgnorth District Council, but by Bridgnorth Town Partnership and Much Wenlock Local Parish Plan Group. They will of course also be consulting with other parties closely involved with tourists.
Co-ordinated by Heart of England Tourist Board each town had to complete a ‘tourism audit’ to qualify for the grant. The audit included accommodation, attractions, leisure and cultural facilities, festivals and events, transport, car parks, toilets, interesting retail outlets and eating establishments and visitor information centres and many of you received a questionnaire for completion by the beginning of March. Audits on signposting will be completed in the summer.
There are a number of towns throughout the West Midlands taking part in the scheme and we were very pleased to find that our towns had an excellent number of responses – topping the list was Bridgnorth so thank you to all of you who responded.
We now await the results!
MEMBER BENEFITS
Shropshire Tourism has secured a number of new member benefits for those members, who are members of Bridgnorth & District Tourist Association and Shropshire Tourism. The new benefits include:
• 10% discount off Visit Britain inspection renewals and new applications
• 10% discount on AA inspections (for new applicants only and not renewals, to be claimed on application only).
• 10% discount on all fire extinguisher equipment for Shropshire based businesses
• Opportunity to commission professional photographs for business literature and websites at special rates.
Shropshire Tourism also offers an individual bespoke website service for the design and hosting of websites. The costs involved for the creation of a bespoke website are £450 for design and £145 for annual hosting.
For further information contact Sarah Whittall at Shropshire on 01743 462462 or email: swhittall@shropshiretourism.info
ACCOMMODATION PRICES
We would like to remind members that the prices for accommodation printed in the guide are to be valid for the whole of the 2007 season. Please always bear this in mind when setting the prices for the next year’s brochure.
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM GRANTS THROUGH ERDF
This is a joint scheme being run with South Shropshire District Council through to March 2008. A number of the grants have been awarded to existing tourism attractions and accommodations are within Bridgnorth District with £15,000 being claimed to date.
Grants at 15%, or a maximum of £7,500, can be awarded to businesses wishing to upgrade their existing facilities – for example – the provision of en suite
facilities, making a room suitable for disabled visitors, improving the
landscaping around an attraction/accommodation. In exceptional cases new business assist will be considered.
Further information and guidelines can be obtained from Bridgnorth District Councils web site www.bridgnorth-dc.gov.uk or telephone Gina Barker on 01746 713249.
SHROPSHIRE TOURISM ACTION PLAN – SMALL GRANTS FOR SMALL TOURISM BUSINESSES & COMMUNITY ENTERPRISE SCHEMES
This scheme offers grants of up to 40% of a project’s cost to a maximum value of £1,000 for activities taking place up to December 2007. The type of project that may be eligible include:
- Self guided trails
- Walks with a guide
- Talks, audio and visual presentations (in and outdoor)
- Story telling and story walks
- Costumes and props
For further information contact: Nigel McDonald – 01743 252557
Editor : Jytte Spouncer, Bridgnorth VIC
If you would like to contribute to the next newsletter please contact me on: 01746 763257,
e-mail: bridgnorth.tourism@shropshire-cc.gov.uk