Durham scales the heights as a tourism destination

THE contrast could hardly be greater as far as Phil Chatfield and his wife Claire are concerned.

Five years ago, they were living in a comfortable, detached, four-bedroomed house on an estate in the trendy Buckinghamshire new town of Milton Keynes. They had all mod cons at their finger-tips: an excellent local bus service; taxis a few minutes away; shops around the corner; and lightning-fast internet speed.

Now, they are running an idyllic holiday cottage and bed and breakfast business in the wilds of Weardale, without mains electricity or water and where isolation is a unique selling point.

Proud to offer the loftiest accommodation in England at 1,800 feet, they personify the diversity with which Durham has scaled the heights as a tourist destination.

Research last year shows that tourism in the county has enjoyed record growth, contributing £867m to the local economy. In 2014, that value was calculated at £752m and a 2020 target of £863m has already been exceeded, with Durham welcoming nearly 20 million tourists in 2017. The economic benefits are underlined by the fact that the sector now supports nearly 12,000 full-time equivalent jobs, an increase of five per cent on the previous year.

Phil and Claire’s part in that success story may be relatively small but they are representative of the extraordinary range of Durham’s tourism offer, from the stunning tranquillity of Upper Weardale, to the World Heritage Site status of Durham Cathedral, and internationally-famous attractions such as Beamish and Bowes museums.

Back in Milton Keynes, when Phil was working in Santander’s customer call-centre, and Claire was earning a living as an accountant for an airline company, they dreamed of escaping the hustle and bustle.

Durham hadn’t featured on their radar until Phil – tired of merely talking about making a radical change in lifestyle – typed “holiday cottages for sale” into Google. Up popped a semi-detached property across the valley from the North of England Lead Mining Museum at Killhope.

“I had no idea where Weardale was, and I probably had a southerner’s stereotypical view of anything north of Birmingham,” admits Phil.

But he was swayed by the pictures of the surrounding countryside and the description of the three-bedroomed house next to a self-contained two-bedroomed cottage. He jumped in the car, arrived in Weardale on a glorious, cloudless day, and was immediately smitten.

“I think I’d welded rose-tinted glasses on to my eye-balls because I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was just fantastic,” he says.

A follow-up trip was arranged for Claire to see the potential purchase and a deal was swiftly struck to swap Milton Keynes – nicknamed Rocket City in deference to its shiny modernity – for the rugged hills of Weardale.

“I tell people we moved from the Space Age to the Stone Age overnight,” laughs Phil.

It was certainly a shock to the system. From their cosy housing estate, they were suddenly living at the end of a quarter-mile track, at the top of a steep hill, with a septic tank. Instead of mains electricity, it was solar panels, diesel and a single wind turbine.

But Phil and Claire haven’t once looked back. They’ve invested in a satellite internet connection and immersed themselves in the local community, with Claire acting as treasurer of the Weardale Visitor Network, and Phil serving on the Weardale Area Action Partnership.

“There’s no doubt that Durham took us by surprise. People talk about the Lake District being overrun by people and cars, but this is a totally different. It is a place of breathtaking beauty but utterly peaceful, the ultimate get-away-from-it-all experience,” says Phil.

“We are in the middle of nowhere yet in the middle of everything,” he adds, pointing out that Alston, England’s joint-highest market town, is just seven miles away, while the likes of Durham, Newcastle, Hadrian’s Wall, Beamish, Barnard Castle and Hexham are all within an hour’s drive.

It is a formula which has customers coming back time after time and, with Phil and Claire celebrating the fifth anniversary of their big move this month, they couldn’t be happier to be playing their part in Durham’s booming visitor economy.

Equally, Michelle Gorman, managing director at Visit County Durham, believes that micro-businesses, such as the one developed so successfully by Phil and Claire, are evidence of the “multiplier effect” tourism is having.

There is a large proportion of small and medium-sized enterprises linked to tourism in the county and Michelle says their collective efforts mean that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

“The arrival of tourism business start-ups and new transformative projects across the county, and in the rural economy, haveplayed their part in allowing the sector to grow, whilst sustaining rural communities’ through key regeneration projects,” she says.

“In addition to accommodation and attractions, visitors are spending more money on local experiences, meals out and shopping, which in turn benefits the retail, food and drink supply chain across the county.”

Ian Thompson, Durham County Council’s Corporate Director of Regeneration and Local Services, believes that one of Durham’s strengths has been a healthy partnership approach across the tourism sector, with businesses working with public sector organisations to come up with commercial solutions.

The recent emergence of Ushaw, the former Catholic seminary on the outskirts of Durham City, is cited as a shining example. Having formed a cultural partnership with Durham University, Ushaw is now establishing itself as a visitor destination, events venue, conference centre, and business hub with huge potential to grow.

Ian also points to the remarkable regeneration of Seaham, on the Durham coast, and the growing popularity of Locomotion: The National Railway Museum at Shildon as “real gems”.

World-class events are adding to the mix, with Lumiere, the UK’s largest light festival, returning for its 10th anniversary in 2019, while The Riverside, at Chester-le-Street, will stage three ICC Cricket World Cup matches next summer.

“We are best known for manufacturing and technology, but our visitor economy has always been strong. It was just a question of raising its profile as a key sector and putting it at the centre of growing our economy,” he says. “The latest figures show that the strategy is working but we mustn’t rest on our laurels – we have to keep building on the momentum.”

Look no further than Bishop Auckland for ample evidence of that continuing momentum. To date, more than £130m has been committed to the Auckland Project, aimed at creating a heritage, arts and faith destination in the town.

Centred around Auckland Castle, the visitor destination will include a Faith Museum, Spanish Gallery, Walled Garden, Deer Park, Mining Art Gallery, and Auckland Tower visitor centre.

Building contracts worth £50m have been awarded to date, many to local companies, including T. Manners & Son, VEST Construction and Redfern Building Services.

The Auckland Project’s mission is to revitalise the future of Bishop Auckland through employment, training and educational opportunities. The target is to create more than 400 jobs, as well as 8,000 training and development opportunities by 2020.

Alongside other attractions in Bishop Auckland, the project is expected to attract more than 400,000 annual visitors to the town by 2020.

David Maddan, Chief Executive Officer of The Auckland Project, says: “We very much recognise the huge significance of the visitor economy and the vast difference it can make to the prosperity of an area both economically and socially.

“That is why The Auckland Project is creating a world-class visitor destination in Bishop Auckland, because we have a mission to revitalise the town and surrounding area with new jobs and training opportunities.

“On the back of the new visitor economy data showing a strengthening visitor economy in County Durham, the impact of The Auckland Project, as we open the full visitor destination over the next few years, will be to further improve the performance of this increasingly important element of the regional economy.”

It is exciting to see that in every corner of the county – from cities and towns, across to the coast, and way up on the top of the Dales – people are playing their part in helping tourism in Durham reach its highest point yet.