We are delighted to be celebrating 60 years of York House Leisure this summer!
This amazing milestone comes at a time of continuing development and success for our holiday parks and residential parks across North Yorkshire.
Look out for some special offers at our open weekends as we celebrate our diamond anniversary.
60 years developing holiday and residential parks
Our family-run North Yorkshire parks group began six decades ago when Neil Brierley – a dentist by profession – and his wife Patricia bought a plot of land on the Causeway Coast in Northern Ireland.
The venture was a success, and five years later the couple decided to return to England and focus their energies on developing new park businesses.
Their first acquisition was York House Holiday Park in the village of Balk near Thirsk, and they went on to grow the business further over the following years.
Although Neil continued practising as a dentist until the mid-1990s, he and Patricia invested a great deal of time and energy into the business. The family retreats they created for visitors to North Yorkshire gained a large and loyal customer base.
Today, our business comprises three award-winning holiday parks (York House & Abbots Green, Monk Park near Thirsk, and Old Hall in Boroughbridge), two residential parks for people in retirement (Gateforth Park near Selby and Quarry Moor & New Park in Ripon), and a hugely popular family visitor attraction, Monk Park Farm near Thirsk.
An exciting future
At the helm of the group are brothers Phil and Tim Brierley – plus their sister Heather working part-time – who are shaping an exciting and ambitious future for York House Leisure.
Phil (left) and Tim Brierley.
The business currently employs around 50 full and part-time staff, and we are proud to say that our parks draw over 80,000 holiday visitors to the area every year, supporting many other local businesses and the jobs they provide.
There are also around 200 people living in the park homes across our residential parks, which offer a relaxed retirement lifestyle in tranquil landscaped surroundings. That number is set to increase as we continue to develop Gateforth Park, which has generated excellent interest among people over 50 looking to maintain their independence into later life within a friendly, gated community.
£1 million investment
As we celebrate our 60th anniversary, we are delighted to mark the occasion with a new £1 million investment.
We plan to spread the spending across our portfolio of holiday parks, residential parks and visitor attractions, with part of the investment being focused on Monk Park Farm. We acquired this 84-acre family attraction four years ago, rescuing it from likely closure after the pandemic, and have worked hard to develop it into one of the area’s leading visitor attractions.
High standards and outstanding customer service
The determination to maintain the highest quality standards is a hallmark of our York House Leisure portfolio.
We are immensely proud of the business pioneered by Neil and Patricia, and Phil, Tim, Heather and the whole team work hard to keep alive their philosophy of always putting customers first.
York House Leisure is really all about making people happy and getting the most from their lives, be it children and families on holiday or those slowing down after a lifetime’s work.
Our aim is to continue raising the quality bar by constant reinvestment in our parks and providing the best experience possible for everyone.