Bridgend residential park Northumberland.
Set in a spectacular countryside in Northumberland, Bridgend Residential Park is a friendly community site for the over-50’s, with some brand new homes for sale at very competitive prices. Steve Rowe drops in to meet some very happy northern souls.
When retirement is looming, your priorities in life can change greatly. Suddenly, the convenient central location and closeness to work that originally attracted you to your bricks and motor can seem more like a noisy, overcrowded location that’s far to near factories and offices to be a relaxing home, especially in retirement.
Of course, you’ll still want to be part of some sort of community, as well as being close to facilities such as local doctor’s or shopping centre. I’ve seen quite a few park home sites over the years, but I think Bridgend Residential Park, in Wooler, Northumberland, comes closest to meeting all of the above objectives. It’s set within some of the UKs most unspoilt countryside, north of Newcastle and close to other great northern cities. At the same time, it is close to the small rural town of Wooler, which boasts a medical centre shops and several pubs.
In addition, the parks residents can share some of the facilities of the neighbouring Riverside Country Park holiday home park (look out for a feature in PH & HC in the coming months), including its bar and clubhouse, plus a small indoor swimming pool.
Ready to move into
Unlike some parks, where new concrete bases for homes are poured just before new residents move in, causing disturbance to existing residents in the process, at Bridgend all of the concrete bases and roads were set out right from the start. This development work took place six years ago, when Bridgend was changed from a holiday park into a residential only park. As a result, potential new home owners can walk around the park and choose any plot they want, from the 30 or so plots that remain. When full the park will contain up to 75 park homes but, at the moment, only 43 are occupied. There are four show homes currently for sale and anyone moving on to the park can chose one of these or opt for their own brand new home and plot.
Walking round the park, I could see the attraction of choosing your own plot and home. There’s a wide variety of different plots, offering varying views over the surrounding countryside. I also liked the fact that the homes here come with brick-built garages and driveway parking for two cars, positioned alongside each home. This makes a change from parks where the garages are in one central block, often quite a walk from each home.
I was also surprised to see how immaculately kept this park was, with some superbly maintained gardens on show outside most of the homes. In fact, the park has been nominated in a regional gardening competition and I think it stands a good chance of winning a prize.
To give you an idea of the cost of buying a home here, the four show homes currently for sale range in price from £146,950 (for a custom-built, two-bedroom , 40ft x 20 Pathfinder home) to £179,995 for a stunning two-bedroom 50ft x 20 Lissett Sandalwood, which even has its own conservatory. The prices seem very reasonable especially when you consider they include a garage, patio and stone entrance steps.
(For the full write up please see December 2010 issue of ParkHome & HOLIDAY CARAVAN magazine)
