An escape from the digital world
It’s a rural retreat in the heart of the ‘happy valley’ but with a difference – the chance for some real peace and solitude with no wi-fi or even TV.
Daisy Bank Camp, a glamping site in Hebden Bridge that allows you to escape the digital world, has started themed weekends for its new holiday season encouraging visitors to enjoy the isolated hills and moors of scenic Calderdale.
Two have taken place already this year on ‘foraging, fermenting and wine-making’ and ‘stitching and sketching’ with owners Angie and Andrew Mossman keen for holiday-makers to embrace nature, wildlife and creativity.
Daisy Bank Camp was starting to take shape in 2019 with the conversion of some equestrian buildings but the Covid pandemic put a new perspective on the direction that the pair would take it.
“In lockdown we could walk on the moors and so many people couldn’t access that,” said Angie.
"We have friends in London and they said so many people needed to escape to nature and that became part of the business - to make sure
what we were creating was a space of respite from the intensity of that.
“At first people say ‘there is no tv, no wifi’ and I say, ‘I know, isn’t that brilliant?’
“We have 3.7m of glazing that you pull back, huge bifold doors facing the sunrise and the moors. That is your television. Be moved by what you can see, smell and hear.”
Angie appreciated the need to get out of cities and into the countryside after spending her early years in London.
She said: "I did not have access to nature when I was younger.
"My mum and dad realised we needed to get out of London.
In 1998, Angie got a job with the Halifax Building Society and moved to Holmfirth and, despite leaving that role and going to Milton Keynes, it wasn’t long before she was back in West Yorkshire.
She added: “I had completely fallen in love with Hebden Bridge, got another job, got made redundant but didn’t want to go back down south.
"Then I met my husband and I have been here 17 years.”
Daisy Bank Camp has three honeycomb cabins and three stable cabins that don’t have internet, phone signal or tv reception.
They do however have reading lights and terraces to enjoy the view.