A LUXURY £1 million North Yorkshire holiday lodge park, which was launched in the teeth of the recession, has enjoyed a record-breaking 12 months.

Scampston Park Lodges near Malton are part of the historic Scampston Hall estate and the brainchild of the hall’s owner, Chris Legard.

Winner of the David Bellamy Gold Award, the state-of-the-art lodges are set amid seven lakes on a 35-acre site. They are for sale from £179,000 upwards.

During the past year five lodges were sold, more than ever before during the park’s seven-year history.

Chris, who has been chosen to be the High Sheriff of North Yorkshire for 2018-19, said: “This whole project started because I was keen to find other ways of diversifying the estate at Scampston. It is getting harder and harder to maintain houses such as Scampston Hall to a high level, including all the heritage Capability Brown parkland and its associated features, on the back of just traditional enterprises such as farming and cottages.

“Modern estates need to find new revenue streams in order to be able to afford to maintain and improve the heritage assets, and so the thought process began."

They started preparing a business plan for luxury lodges in 2006, completing the construction phase in the spring of 2009.

“From the outset, we wanted to design the finest luxury lodge park in North Yorkshire, without any compromises. We received a huge boost in 2008 when we sold our first lodge part way through construction to a very far-sighted and visionary couple who could see past the field of mud and imagine what it would be like once finished,” he said.

But economically the timing could not have been worse, opening in the teeth of the global financial crisis. However, Mr Legard remained confident.

“While we weren’t overrun in the early years with orders, we were still selling lodges and ticking over steadily. Then, in 2015, economic confidence seemed to return at last and we had our best-ever year, welcoming a large number of new owners to Scampston Park Lodges.

“I’m most proud of the fact that we have not had anyone wishing to sell their lodge at Scampston, which I hope is a reflection of how happy our lodge owners are to be here."