I had the pleasure, coincidentally, of being the first Warden on duty at the re-opening of BN: Sunfolk last weekend, writes BN Chairman Colin Taylor, along with my fellow Warden, Paul Rodgers. There was still lots to do when I arrived on Thursday evening ready to welcome our first visitors on Friday when the gates reopened at 10 o’clock. Volunteers were on site to help, the ever-present Chris Mills who delighted in getting on the ride-on mower to give the grass a once-over and Paul who had been helping our new Housekeeper, Hazel to hoover, dust and polish the new facilities. Yes, we have grass, still somewhat patchy but the sight of the greenness across the pod area and sunbathing lawns was beautiful in the full sun we had on Saturday.
The most common phrase as we accompanied visitors down the path towards the Pavillion building was “Wow!” The expanse of light wood across the renamed clubhouse building with extended decking and huge bifold doors was indeed a wonderful sight..
We opened some “bubbly” to mark the occasion at lunch on Friday. There was a mixture of newcomers to Naturist venues, seasoned visitors like Peter, volunteers and later, our first legacy members (members of the Sunfolk Society), who were trying out the new glamping pods for the weekend. Visitors were local and from farther afield from Coventry, Kent and Plymouth. One more-local day visitor loved it so much that after giving her a copy of the Guide to Naturism was back the following day, her BN Membership completed to get more of the same.
Saturday was our busiest day of the weekend and I was glad to have had a second Warden to help welcome visitors and give them a guided tour of the facilities, including instruction on how to use the new boiling water tap and new electronic POS terminal for our cashless digital shop “honesty box.” The new hot tub and sauna were in use and the swimming pool was looking great. Our glamping pods were used and went down well. Sunday saw quite a number of legacy members attend and I think all appreciated the work we have done to improve the facilities to create a more modern phase in the life of the Sun Folk Society venue which we now have guardianship of.
Opening weekend came at the end of our mini-summer and it was great to see visitors able once more to come and enjoy the sun and facilities of our upgraded site.
Find out how to book your visit and see pictures of the redeveloped site at sunfolk.bn.org.uk