There has been a dwelling at Smytham Manor since before 1066. There is even an entry in the Domesday Book!
Smytham Manor has had many purposes over the years but in the early 1960s a man called Bill Tuck created a campsite which has been here ever since.
The Harper and Wiseman family bought the park in 1999. We farmed in Hampshire but were looking to try something new. Tony had grown up on a park in Yorkshire which was owned and run by his parents, so it was decided that a holiday park would be our next adventure. After looking across the South West, we fell in love with Smytham Holiday Park
In 2001 we added a new row of eleven caravans with views over the valley and to the manor house on the other side. From these holiday caravans you can also see the woodland that houses our five ponds.
To meet holiday caravan ownership demands, we undertook some serious earthworks and transformed some touring and camping pitches into seven new pitches for holiday caravans. These pitches are in an elevated location with stunning views across the park to the countryside beyond.
To celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Smytham Holiday Park ran a Fun Day with its Customers. This included an inflatable assault course and bouncy castle, cream tea, fancy dress, magician visit, cream tea, BBQ and fireworks in the evening.
Originally, our park had seven 1960s style chalets lining the driveway. To improve our offering we replaced these by building three luxury log cabins.
With more pitches for holiday caravans required, we developed Country View on the old pitch and putt course. This was a completely new development in another area of our park. Country View is made up of three rows of 10 caravan pitches. The pitches are staggered so that every guest has a view across the rolling countryside.
To improve the facilities for our touring guests, we built a new toilet block to replace the outdated one that was exisitng. This new facilities block included free showers, an upgraded laundry and underfloor heating.
With the new toilet block completed, we could remove the old one and build a new Reception, Office and Smythies Bar. This allowed them to move from in the house to a more central location that was easier for our guests to access.
With the new Reception and Smythies Bar building, the Reception, shop, bar and guest house closed. Smytham Manor house was then converted into two homes which are occupied by our family.
In 2013 we added our first pod which we named The Escape Pod. This pod sleeps two people. As our first pod proved to be popular, we added a second one in 2014 which sleeps two adults and two children. We then bought a third pod in 2015!
After growing up on our park, Ben went to work in accountancy. In 2014, he decided to come back home to work which coincided with our family patriach, Gordon, choosing to retire. You will still see Gordon out and about on the park, either driving around in his buggy or enjoying a coffee at Reception.
We removed the old wooden double swing and slide and replaced them with two climbing frames (one for toddlers), a new double swing set, a wind surfer and another two slides, one for younger children. This new play area has considerably increased in size compared to what we had before.
At Smytham Holiday Park, we are committed to conservation. We have entered the David Bellamy Award Scheme since 2001 and have always achieved gold! The award for the 2015/16 year also marked our 15th consecutive year of achieving the gold award. See more about our conservation commitment here.
Lucy built a large bug hotel with help from Richard for the Roof. The bug hotel can be found by the ponds to give a home to the insects living here. All the materials used to make the bug hotel were recycled.
Touring and camping was proving to be popular at Smytham so we decided to add a new development of standard, premium and ensuite pitches in a field that we named, The Orchard. It took us 9 months to put in the utilties and create the pitches and road, making it ready to welcome new and returning guests.
In 2017 we sponsored the rugby shirts for the local team Torrington RFC, for whom Ben played rugby (and now coaches). The sponsorship was for the 2017-18 and the 2018-19 seasons shirts. We have continued to contribute sponsorships to the club in other ways.
In 2018 we built our Sales Office where we could hold sales appointments and a showground where we can display up to three new holiday homes for customers to view. The introduction of the sales office and showground allows staff to be on hand for our owners and prosepective buyers ensuring they have the best possible experience and service.
We relocated our three glamping pods to have their own dedicated area of our park. The pod village has its own lawn and parking area.
In January 2019 we started work on our newest facilities block. The majority of the work was carried out by our staff with help from a few construction specialists such as the cubicle installation. We are very proud of our facilities block with ladies and gents loos and showers that would not look out of place in a high quality hotel. There are also accessible facilities and an indoor washing up area with a dishwasher which is free to use.
After attending university to train as a Primary School teacher, Charlotte decided to leave the classroom and returned to working at our park where she grew up.
To keep up with popular trends, Lavender and Heather lodges each recieved a hot tub along with new, large deckings for guests to enjoy.
Originally we had one outdoor swimming pool which was solar heated. We decided to upgrade the exisiting swimming pool, build a new baby pool and upgrade the sun deck with a more modern design. Work started in the Autumn and ran through the winter.
In the Spring of 2021, our works on the swimmming pool were complete and they were ready to open. The swimming pools have air source heat pumps which heat the water to 28 degrees celcius. The large sun deck has chairs and loungers for guests to relax on and the baby pool has a waterfall mushroom for children to play in.
With a boom in the popularity of camping and touring holidays, We started work on The Meadow. To complete the grounds work, Coles brought a very large digger, bulldozer, roller and three tractors and trailers. What was once a sloping feild was going to become a terrace of 20 pitches and a second terrace ready for a further 15 pitches in the future.
In keeping with our commitment to conservation, we became North Devon Biosphere Business Partners. We made pledges for nature to introduce over 500m of hedging, 20 bird boxes and large areas of wild flower meadows. In 2023 we were finalists for the Pledge for Nature Awards run by The North Devon Biosphere. We also hosted training courses and attend events that promote the bisophere in our area.
Our family, staff and guests had a wonderful time celebrating Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee with a pop up coffee shop, decorating competition, children’s entertainment and music and a quiz in Smythies Bar.
The Meadow, consisting of 20 all-weather and grass premium pitches, opened just in time for the May Half Term of 2023. The wildflowers that were sown as one of our pledges for nature were stunning across all the banks with the red poppies, blue corn flowers and white daisies. The pitches in the Meadow have beautiful views across the park, the neighbouring fields and to Dartmoor in the distance.
We celebrated King Charles III’s coronation with a picnic in the park. Guests joined us in The Valley for a picnic, festive cheer and lots of photos! We enjoyed coffee and cake in Smythies Bar whilst watching the coronation, and watching the concert at the castle in Smythies Bar too!
The fairies came for their first holiday with us in 2023. Their accommodation started with one village and 16 doors to ‘homes’ which were dotted about the Park. The fairy trail has developed over time to now involve a second large village, tree faces and a dragon house too!
In September 2023, we welcomed Paige to the family. They were married in Little Torrington St Michaels church and had their wedding reception in a marquee here at Smytham.
With electric vehicles becoming the car of choice for many and our rural location, we installed 4 EV chargers for guests to use.
To keep our park looking neat and tidy, we built a new area for our rubbish and recycling bins. We think we now have the smartest rubbish and recycling area in the country!
We love welcoming dogs to Smytham, and we know that they enjoy their time here throughout all the seasons. We built a dog wash where you can fully pamper your pooch with a thermostatic shower and then dry them off with the doggy hairdryer. Ramp access and sliding door helps your four-legged friend get in the bath and stay there while they have their spa treatment!
We have been having some beautiful summers and so that our guests can enjoy them to the full, we extended the decking area outside of Smythies Bar to allow for more seating.
We partnered with Torrington Cycle Hire to bring a selection of children’s and adults bikes, trailers and electric bikes to our guests. Opening this satelite site for cycle hire means that guests do not have to travel to access bikes when they can get straight onto the Tarka Trail from our park.
Seeing an increase in little visitors to Smytham, we wanted to make sure that we had facilities for parents to keep them entertained. Great for a rainy day or to get some shade from the sun, our soft play is ideal for the unders 5's to enjoy.
The summer of 2025 was our family’s 25th season at Smytham. Our park, owned by Gordon, Liz, Tony, and Theresa, is run by three generations of the family with the help from Ben and Charlotte.
Allowing easy access to information for our guests is important to us, so we worked with Holiday Maker to develop the Smytham Holiday Park app. Downloadable from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, you can download our app for pre-arrival information, recommendations of days out and places to eat, information on events and facilities on park, walking and cycling routes, access to local discounts and your very own holiday countdown.
To celebrate our 25 years at Smytham, we invited our holiday carvan owners to join us for welcome back, start of the season bubbles, Mother’s Day wine, Hot Cross Buns, Father’s Day beers, Autumnal hot drinks and our annual Christmas mince pies and mulled wine. We look forward to continuing with a new programme of events in 2026.
To make electric costs fairer for everyone, we decided to implement an electric fair usage policy and install electric meters on our pitches. With some electric supply included with the pitch, additional electric usage became chargeable separately from the booking cost. This means that those using little to no electricity were having to subsidise those that were using a lot more. We also hope that this will encourage guests to be more environmentally conscious by choosing when to use electricity with a more purposeful intent.
