Minutes:
The Parks and Open Spaces Manager explained that his main areas of responsibilities around tourism were the Astley Hall, Park and Coach House complex and Yarrow Valley Park, at Birkacre, Chorley.
Astley Park Complex
Since the re-opening of the refurbished Coach House and Walled Garden this area of Astley Park has become a popular visitor attraction for local people. Astley Hall and Coach House also acts as a tourist attraction and is well visited by people outside the area. The Hall and Coach House Gallery is generally open two days per week, April to December and typically welcomes around 13,000 visitors a year.
Café Ambio is the onsite café operating 7 days a week all year round, serving a wide range of hot and cold produce, the majority made using local ingredients (many seasoned by herbs from the walled gardens).
Since the refurbishment there has been an increase in the number of visitors who reside in the outlying villages of Chorley. Although they may not be tourists in the traditional sense, they are people who previously were not regularly visiting or being involved in central Chorley activities.
The main draw for the more traditional tourist, i.e. somebody who resides outside of the Borough, is largely Astley Hall and certain cultural events. The Hall itself gets visitors from across the North West, some from other parts of the County and around 200 people per year from overseas. Largely, our overseas visitors are people with family or past connections in the area. The same can also be generally said from those visiting from other counties in the country, largely they are visiting friends and family in the area and are brought to the Hall for a day trip.
The Hall does attract a good number of visitors from other areas of the North West who come to the area to specifically visit the Hall. It is largely people who have an interest in historic houses, who will research first and then plan their visit. The Hall is featured within Simon Jenkins’ ‘England’s 1000 Best Homes where he opens with “Astley Hall is the most exhilarating in Lancashire”, it is also great publicity for the Council amongst this particular group of people. Simon Jenkins is the current Chairman of the National Trust, so his recommendation carries particular credibility.
Apart from coverage in some books and guides such as the one already mentioned and promotional activities associated with certain events at the site, the Council does very little in the way of marketing to visitors from outside the Borough.
There had been some recent successes in jointly marketing the coach trips to visit both the Market and the hall as part of a combined day trip. The team are also in the early stages of collating an emailing list from visitors to the Hall in order to promote things better in the future.
The majority of the 25 private guided tours that are run each yea when the Hall is closed to the public, are to groups from outside the Borough. The Hall also welcomes around 30 schools per year, who come from across the Chorley borough and Lancashire.
Events such as the Big Drum Day, Nutcrack Night and Derian House’s Winter Sparkle also attract a significant number of visitors from outside the area. The Council is also looking to develop its events programme to increase the number of quality events that are stages or hosted.
Car parking for events within the Astley complex is an on-going issue which needs further resources investing in it but there is still scope to develop this side of the attraction of the Park.
Members asked if more could be done to improve on the existing car parking provision.
The art exhibition programme is a fine balance between providing a space for local artists to exhibit and also producing a programme of quality and interest that attracts people to want to visit. The Council stages around 10 exhibitions each year, aiming to concentrate on the best of artistic talent in Chorley and the surrounding areas. The addition of The Coach House Gallery has enabled us to double our capacity in this area and the perfect setting of the gallery has made it a well sought after space for artists from around the North West.
The Hall is also fully licensed to hold small Weddings and other such events like Baby naming ceremonies and the can also be hired out for meetings, small conferences and evening events.
There has been very little in the way of visitor monitoring at the Hall and Coach House over the past few years. Visitor numbers are counted but any information about where people have travelled from, their ages or backgrounds or how often they visit is purely taken from our visitor books and anecdotal feedback from the front of house team. The Hall plans to increase the monitoring of visitors on site to have some basis and evidence to plan promotional activities in the future.
Councillor Lowe commented that the Friends of Astley Hall had done some research of their own at various events and had discovered that a large number of visitors lived outside the Borough. They wondered if more could be done to capture the visitors contact details, so that information on up and coming events could be mailed out to people that have attended other such events in the past. Perhaps the Council could work together with other event organisers to share and access any information on visitor details.
There is a marketing budget but a ‘steer’ is needed on the priorities for the Hall and Coach House in the coming years to balance the need for an attraction for local people that is also geared up to attract tourists from outside the area.
Yarrow Valley Park
2011/12 saw a significant increase in visitor numbers in July/August/September 2011 alone there was a 61% increase or an extra 27, 418 visitors. This coincided with the opening of the new natural play facility, Yarrow Rocks.
This facility was brought together by contributions from several partners and is widely regarded to be the finest example of natural play in the region.
These figures are based on the car park counts for the Birkacre Car Park, so therefore excludes visitors on foot and via public transport and those using alternative car parks at Euxton, Dob Brow and Duxbury.
The park covers 300 hectares/700 acres – extending from Euxton Car Park at Tesco to Duxbury Woods including the Birkacre area.
The last visitor survey in 2009 revealed that 26% of visitors came from outside the borough of Chorley, generally in our neighbouring boroughs of South Ribble, Bolton and Wigan.
The site has significant heritage value of national importance, particularly around industrial heritage, links to the industrial revolution and Richard Arkwright. Duxbury Woods and the Duxbury estate has well documented links to Miles Standish and the Pilgrim Fathers.
Yarrow Valley has significant ecological value and interest. The most important feature is the presence of large areas of mature ancient woodland which makes up more than a third of the park (130 ha) and Biological Heritage sites make up 60% of the park (180 ha). The park is also home to a number of rare/nationally scarce plants and animals.
Yarrow Valley has held the Green Flag award for the past 7 years and always receives outstanding feedback from judges. It has been awarded the special innovation award for two projects in succession and has accredited “Country Parks status” from Natural England which is valid for 3 years.
RESOLVED
1. That the Council be asked to explore further options to increase car parking provision at Astley Park.
2. That the Council work in partnership with other event organisers at Astley Hall to effectively collate future contact details of any visitors to the park.
3. That a marketing strategy be devised for promoting the Astley Hall complex and associated events.