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MAKING OF A LEGEND: FUW Meirionnydd county officer Huw Jones and Nigel Mansell flanked by brothers Geraint and Dylan Evans.[/caption]
A North Wales farmer has claimed he helped start British motor racing legend Nigel Mansell on the road to becoming a Formula One champion.
Gwynfor Evans, a former Farmers' Union of Wales Meirionnydd county chairman, owns Islawrffordd Caravan Park overlooking Cardigan Bay at Talybont, near Barmouth, which has just celebrated its 55th anniversary.
And Mansell changed an international engagement to attend the celebrations at the park where he has taken regular holidays since he was four years old and has developed a close friendship with Gwynfor who runs it with his sons Dylan and Geraint.
Gwynfor's brother Robert Wyn Evans currently represents Meirionnydd on the FUW's grand council and is also a former county chairman.
Gwynfor believes Islawrffordd may well have contributed to Nigel’s successful racing career.
“He used to race around the fields in a boxcart as a child while on holiday here."
Mansell referred to the wonderful childhood memories of his holidays at Talybont and said Gwynfor used to take him to milk the cows early in the morning.
“Very few people can say that they have been coming to the same place for 55 years and I am so proud of what the Evans family has achieved,” he told guests at the special birthday party.
“What they have done every year is improve the quality of the park.
“I love coming here to relax, play a bit of golf at Harlech on one of the best courses in the country and to take in the wonderful walks and beaches. My family likes the total freedom that caravanning offers.”
The FUW was represented among the 200 guests at the prestigious event which also celebrated the completion of the park's improvements programme and attainment of Visit Wales 5 Star status.
The 25-acre park was originally established as a farm diversification project by Gwynfor Evans in the late 1950s. It now has 75 fully serviced, hard standing pitches for touring caravans and motorhomes, 30 camping plots and 201 caravan holiday homes.
The new developments take the family’’s investment in the park, which now boasts five stars from Visit Wales and five pennants from the AA, to £2.1 million over the last eight years.
Six years ago, Mansell officially opened the park’s reception suite, enhanced swimming pool complex with a jacuzzi, sauna and seating area before the Evans family invested a further £400,000 on a new luxury toilet block.
Such is the demand for holiday homes at Islawrffordd that there is a waiting list to join owners from Shropshire, the West Midlands, Wrexham area, Cheshire and Wirral.
The new fully serviced pitches have also been a huge hit with touring caravan and motorhome owners this summer and the park has received record advance bookings for 2012.
We are already virtually fully booked for Whitsun and the main weeks in July and August are filling up fast,” said John Billingham, Islawrffordd’s business manager. “It has been a very busy summer, around 25 per cent up on last year.
“People like the quality facilities that we offer and they seem to be opting for less expensive breaks in this country instead of spending on a foreign holiday.”
Dylan Evans said the 55th birthday party was an important milestone in the park’’s history and praised his father and grandmother for their vision in diversifying from farming.