Days 205 to 366 – Year two of Foxlease Park begins….and all the things that happened since we last wrote (or time flies when you are having fun!)

So yesterday was day 365 of Foxie’s Future’s ownership of Foxlease Park – we’re not at a year with open doors yet (that’s a celebration for another time in the future when we hit that milestone) but we are officially, as of today, into year two and so today marks the first birthday of Foxlease Park. We thought, in honour of such a momentous occasion, it was time to put paws back to keyboard for something other than bookings emails (we get lots, it’s great!) and to revive the Foxie’s Blog to bring you up to date with everything notable that we can recall from the past 161 days since we last wrote. We might not be entirely chronological….Emma really has no idea how these are going to go when she starts…so let’s see where our journey through the past 44% of the year takes us (photos to follow separately over the coming weeks due to blog post capacity).

So, where to begin….when you last left us (and many of you have visited in person in the in between) we were regaling you with the tale of the Apple Trees River…we’re pleased to say that there has not (as yet) been any reoccurrence of that particular problem. That’s not to say that water hasn’t been a challenge for us throughout, because it has. We still, even a year in, have at least one drippy tap, pipe, toilet, gutter, radiator, sink, shower or something appear most weeks, if not more frequently. Sometimes the leaks are big, sometimes small, sometimes they aren’t as water-based as we would like them to be…but, thankfully, most have, thus far, arisen without significant guest disruption. We’ve had one or two incidents but our valiant team of volunteers have continued to repair as quickly as they can when things arise and when the skilled plumbing volunteers aren’t available its amazing what a bit of what we fondly refer to as “plumber’s gunk” can do in a pinch to shore things up. 

In the world of weird leaks, we’ve had continuously flushing toilets in the Main House, a failed shower pump leaking through the reception ceiling (the dripping sound of which was thankfully caught swiftly by plumber Connor who was on site for the heating and apparently has dog-like hearing when it comes to dripping noises) and a flood all the way from the back to the front of the Laundry on one particularly rainy early evening when the old gutters couldn’t cope and the drain behind the Laundry decided it wasn’t feeling like moving things along very quickly. When initially mentioned there was a moment of horror when Emma thought perhaps the Singing Washing Machine was responsible, but then when Zoe explained that the water was in fact pouring out under the front laundry door and seemed to be coming in from the back one it was quickly apparent that that was not the case and the Singing Washing Machine was absolved of all blame.

We did also have some fantastic water saving devices fitted across the site by a local charity scheme and our water bill is happy as a result so the Apple Trees flood was good for something as Southern Water called the day after to offer a charity partner visit.

We’re pleased to report that our lovely lake has seen significant activities action over the season from groups kayaking, canoeing and raft building (some with more success than others). The raft building shed had a new roof fitted and doors, pontoons and random holes were repaired. We also had a gentleman with a fantastic lily clearing machine (think a floating mini tractor) which chugged up and down the surface removing all of the overgrown lilies by chopping them up…other than the swampy piles on the lakeshore for a few days whilst the removed plants dried out, you would barely known he had been but the lake users and the ducks were all much happier as a result. The ducks had lovely ducklings and were around and about over the Summer but they’re enjoying the lake closure period over the past few weeks before the frost hits.

Continuing on the ground level theme, we had intermittent drainage issues throughout the reminder of the season with the site complaining about overuse and some near miss drain blockages (one metal cap the exact shape and size of the pipe which would certainly have blocked the whole thing was extracted by our friends at Dynorod on one visit which saved us from a world of impending disaster. We were so conscious of avoiding the historic poo-related challenges after our initial experiences that we committed to a weekly visit from the Dynorod team to make sure were all on track and working as usual. We’re delighted to share that in the past couple of weeks Dynorod have been back to site and completed part one of three of significant drainage upgrades to, we hope, avoid any future poo-splosions on site. Of course, with the volume of guests on site of all ages (some who do seem to use whole toilet rolls a day) we have had our moments of blocked toilets to clear and thus, “The Poo Patrol” was born (there won’t be badges, no one wants to commemorate the experience) and after the first round Emma invested in elbow-length veterinary gloves and additional plungers to ensure we were fully equipped. All would have been well, and the tools did assist; however, she then very carefully stored the gloves so that they wouldn’t accidentally be used for other things….and then forgot where she put them. This is one example of the fact that we are now sufficiently in to our ownership that we occasionally forget where we’ve put things…someone asked us on week two whether we’d forgotten where we’d put anything yet and we pooh-pooh’d the idea (no pun intended) and now we are definitely, certifiably in the world where that is the case.

We’ve had tree works done to keep some of the ones in check that the various names storms (and notably, sadly one over-exuberant climbing group of children) had broken or damaged and our new campfire circle which so many of you lovingly helped us to fund is so very nearly finished – it was resurfaced, with new steps cut in and posts for the benches installed, we just have the tops of the benches, the edging bricks and some additional drainage (to avoid the campfire pit being a small pond by accident…we’ve had a few floating campfires lately after a dry Summer) to complete it and perhaps some new solar lighting to replace those not currently working. It’s more accessible and we can’t wait for the benches to be in place soon to make sure it is ready to go for the next Season. We’ll share pictures when that work is completed.

And so on to the heating…we worked out why the showers upstairs in The Lodge were never as hot as those Downstairs - no one had ever checked the thermostat on the boiler tank upstairs and it was considerably lower than the downstairs one. As people keep telling us “it was always a problem” we think it must not have been adjusted for some time but we think that’s cracked that problem. With its new backdoor fire doors and the new on added to the back day room The Barn with its new heating has been cosy – we had the hearing engineers back once to replace some parts, thankfully still under warranty, but otherwise it has been cosy and thermostat controllable by our visiting guests. We had the heating turned on the in Main House, which led to many rounds of radiator checking and it has largely gone well – now that is has settled, we have a few cold spots to resolve. Several newer radiator thermostats to be fitted, which we will do in the new year when we have the funds, which will resolve the majority (unsurprisingly, the older radiators are almost universally well), and then we have one branch of the building, annoyingly the one which we are actually using for overnights which isn’t performing as well as we’d like. The Accessible Suite and what is now (and once was in times gone by) the Shop, and currently also Reception, both suffer from several issues – one being the fact that they are the end of the line and therefore are the receiving end for all of the sludge in the Main House heating system…and the second being how they fork off of the main heating network. We have tried a few things, including the boiler men at Normans spending considerable time removing sludge from the system and the conclusion is that some further adjustments are needed to ensure that the water reaches the pipes as it should. We hope to be in a position to have our heating engineers return in the New Year to resolve those additional points and make the whole building toasty warm again. We’re fortunate that thanks to previous generous fundraising the Accessible Suite has its own direct water supply and, if anything, is now too warm at times to the hot tap! We’re making great progress and the significant underground pipe leak which appeared outside near the basement when the heating was turned back on (one leak we forgot to mention earlier) was resolved by our fabulous groundworks contractors, Emkay.

Externally, we have had a number of groundworks jobs completed to level pathways, the planter in the centre of the Walled Garden has been removed and laid to paving slabs which will be the ideal space to house our lovely new firepit purchased for us off of Foxie’s Wish List. We’ve had some drainage ditches cleared in the hope of diverting excess surface water and some of our volunteers have painstakingly been clearing old French Drains to ensure that everything is as it should be. 

We’ve had some significant groups of Corporate and Group Volunteering take place. A huge number of groups, and a number of our regular volunteers have contributed to the clearance of the edging bricks around the front of the Main House – we’ve yet to advance down the driveway but we think we might be able to arrange a day in the Spring for people to come and help us with a little section each to get us there but still lots to do before then. We’ve had Dynorod volunteer twice doing non-dynorod things, most recently preparing our Site Office and now hired out Downstairs Meeting Room in the Main House for painting (and we’re now on a deadline to finish the actual painting before Friday’s bookings arrive), Aviva have sent a large number of groups to us to do all sorts of wonderful things inside and out and we had a fabulous group from Sky come along for a day of heavy work. The car park was filled with 19 Sky vans and the engineers confirmed that due to them giving us their time there weren’t a lot of people seeing TV repair action in the Hampshire, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole areas…their customers’ loss was our gain however and the wonderful chaps cleared the Sleeping Beauty-esque bramble wall from around the Swimming Pool so we can now see the surface cover again. We haven’t got further than that yet and we suspect based on the bullrushes it’s rather swampy underneath the cover (we also suspect some kind of lagoon creature may be living in there too) but the clearance does mean that considering what to do with that space may move higher up the list than it otherwise would next year. We’ve cleared the old yard and some of the back of the estate store yard and we’re in better order as a result – all heavy things which we could only do thanks to dedicated volunteer days of heavy work given to us by people generous with their time.

We’ve had some groups using the Crate Stack and the Climbing Wall and we’ve recently had the checks done to know what needs to happen to get the Zip Wire and High Ropes open again for next season, which will mean all activities up and running again and we’re adding more all the time. It’s been really lovely to see groups back on site and enthusiastically participating – we’ve got lots of bookings in next year already and we’ll be approaching those of you who kindly volunteered to be instructors previously as we’re now in a place to be engaging people to assist with that. We’ve also got a long list of general volunteering offers to contact and we’re working towards finding the time to bring new people on to join our Team – we’re really grateful for the offers. Our small volunteer team manage multiple inboxes and, as an example, we receive an average of 24 emails a day to the bookings inbox alone – our received total to that inbox is in the region of just over 8,000, which does not include volunteer emails, shop, general enquiries, fundraising, site management or the other more specific inboxes. The Team does its best and generally has response times which we are proud of, we are grateful for people’s grace and understanding when we can’t quite achieve them due to unexpected occurrences…of which we experience many.

We’ve mentioned some email-related numbers above, in terms of other numbers we can share there are a few. The system tells us we’ve had 626 bookings made so far since that system went live a year ago and we have some which fall outside the system in addition to this, for example, the schools groups who have visited – some of these are big and some small, a number yet to happen but on average we’re still receiving at least one new request a day. We’re expecting that to increase when our bookings for 2027 go live on 1^st December 2025. We’ve agreed that we’ll be running an Early Fox booking discount again to give people early booking pricing rates until the end of May 2026.

We’ve not had time to do the full tally but we think conservatively we’re now well in excess of 25,000 volunteer hours on site, and that’s without counting our overnight volunteers (we have someone everyday on site 24 hours) our wonderful remote volunteers who make us things, attend things and support us in all sorts of different ways – we’ll do a full tally for the New Year’s update to see where we are as against last year’s goals.  Particular thanks to Foxie's Satellite Team in Birmingham who visit so frequently with all sorts of things repaired for us and made and who manage our Foxie's Family for us from afar.

We’re in the full throes of PAT-rick the PAT testing machines high period of activity, along with completion of our many other annual compliance checks to ensure that everything on site is safe and working correctly. We have online reporting in place which allows people to tell us if they find a problem, or they can find our onsite team to say hi and explain the issue. The website is improving all the time as we try to include more information to answer repeat questions which appear in the inbox and in doing so reduce the number of things which people need to ask.

We’ve started on the Main House – we had lots of people visit for Heritage Open Days this year and do our “Hard Hat Architectural Tour” – our hugest thanks to our volunteer team who made that happen despite the disgusting weather and earned us excellent central feedback.

We’ve had coffee mornings, quizzes, wooden horse racing, a barn dance, 24-hour sings, third party fundraising days. We hosted the Foxie’s Pumpkin Hunt on site and had over 750 paying guests (and over 1,000 including those non-paying adults who accompanied some of them) visit during that time, including fabulous support from local Scouting and Guiding Groups as well as families who came to visit us. We’re excitedly preparing for Foxie’s Christmas Light Trail happening in early December and tickets are available for that now – The Main House Bar is currently full of Christmas things and it looks a bit like Santa’s Grotto exploded (no exaggeration…there are over 7 Christmas trees in there) – Rosie and Fiona barely made it out a that weekend as the Christmas barricade formed around them.

Our volunteer catering team got us an incredible food hygiene rating of 5 following the local council’s visit to inspect us and that has given us a fabulous foundation for the hundreds who have visited us this year for pre-booked afternoon teas – our Christmas High Tea is still available to book onto now and the Team have prepared something fabulous for those attending. We are so grateful to all of them and have to mention the Queen of Scones, volunteer Ruth, whose baking talents are beyond compare.

We’re about to host our second “Back to Foxlease Park” catered holiday and we’ve got two Christmas/December workshops in the diary – wreath making and willow stars and we’re really looking forward to those.

We've lot count of how many toilets we've cleaned, but it's in the 1000's, even without the Main House there are 106 toilets on site and they've all been cleaned at least once a week, most weeks, 2/3 times a week (as they are cleaned between every booking) and often all on one day - so that give you an idea.

We've changed multiple beds and moved bed linen up and down the site so often that it's all travelled miles - the lifting and shifting is something you really can't quite comprehend until you've seen it in action or done it yourself - we've moved fridges, freezers, tables and chairs and the hill up to The Lodge really is bigger than it looks when you're pushing something.  Our fabulous team of Master Drapers and apprentices who have kept out curtains in order following opening now manage The Pantry for us and our linen empire is growing - they label everything new which arrives and keep us from drowing under a pile of duvets.  They aren't solely responsible for the laundering of it, although they do lots for us, for which we are very grateful - most of our volunteers have popped in a load of laundry when passing on laundry day.

But back to the other exciting bit, The Main House progress! “When??” we hear you ask…”We don’t know” is sadly still the reply, but we’re working on it, we promise. As we’ve said, we’re advancing the attack through from the right-hand end of the building. The heating was the first step and most of the ground floor, including the beautiful chandeliers have been lovingly cleaned by our volunteers and we’ve ripped up the damp old carpet in some of the key rooms downstairs – this week particularly, our volunteers have rediscovered the wooden flooring under the panelled room, by fighting through carpet and then also significantly attached hardboard – they have also rediscovered the stone fireplace surround on the floor. We’ve got lots of dehumidifiers running (named and unnamed) to try to dry things out now that the heating is on as the Main House has years of damp. The plan is to plan the next steps next…now that we’re quiet…except we haven’t been (isn’t it wonderful! And also tiring!) but we’ll be planning anyway. We expect the ground floor to be first as it’s easier for obvious reasons. The newest meeting rooms are more or less in action and have been booked and are being improved by painting, fixing and cleaning all the time (including this week). We’re back in the offices up the steps, in part, the steps are something to contend with for most people, being quite steep, but the printer was moved up them via some slightly questionable removal techniques some time ago and we go where the printer (and desks) go. The Pantry has been back to being, well, a pantry, for some time now and it’s doing its job admirably. We’re using some of the upstairs warmer rooms for storage. The next thing on the agenda is to fund and action some key guttering repairs to the Main House to ensure that what we manage to dry stays dry. We’ll also have more electrical works to do to the Main House before we can move further back into it and that means more funding. We’re working on it but if you want a fundraising aim for us to talk about then it’s really the Main House Ground Floor in various ways and carpet for lots of places generally…miles and miles of carpet…we’d love to replace some of the less nice carpet in various places but it’s costly.

Our other mini project, which we’ve applied for funding to improve is the site barrier. If you’ve been to the site and battled with it, you know it’s not very nice and inspires annoyance in most who encounter it in the dark, and in many who encounter it in the day time too. We’ve got the quote for replacing it with something more accessible which doesn’t require you to have 20/20 night and day vision and which doesn’t require you to leave your vehicle, shimmy around a post, contend with a padlock and then do the same in reverse once you are through it. We’ll need to match the part funding if we achieve it – Emma’s theory is that most people who’ve used it will probably happily donate £5 or so to see the back of it so we’re going to test that theory when we hear if we’ve been successful – it’s in the region of £10,000 to replace but we really do think it will make a difference to most people’s arrival and to the number of steps our volunteers do running up and down to help people.

We've had exceptional support from Foxie's Fairy Godparents via the Amazon wishlist with, literally, thousands of pounds worth of items and we are SO grateful - you are really helping to kit us out and show us your love from afar. The Wishlist is a permanent thing as keeping Foxlease Park magic takes alot of wishes so we do try to keep it topped up with all sorts of weird and wonderful things needed to keep the site running and to supply the things needed for the various ongoing projects.

So, just a little bit going on since we last spoke, and exciting things yet to come. There’s so much more to share we’re sure, like the lovely city scouter who called at 2am from a campsite because he heard something strange…which turned out to be nature in action in the forest, not strange at all for the site but new if you're not from the country, or the delight the site management team experience watching the innovative ways the D of E visitors to site choose to pack and carry their backpacks when they arrive and leave (think turtle shells in most cases) or the many many things that make the volunteer team laugh on a daily basis, we can almost always guarantee a giggle. 

Some of our volunteers have put together some words of their own for us about their experiences and we'll be sharing those over the next few days!

A year in, we can safely say that (unsurprisingly) we still love what we do and we love all of you who join us in doing or support us in your various different ways. We hope to welcome you to site in some capacity soon (we do a great B and B stay above the Coach House) but otherwise we’ll be keeping you updated as things progress into our second year.  Thank you for reading and for your support in year one and the difficult years before.

Love Foxie x