I have known Escot near Ottery St Mary for many years – my children spent many happy hours at Escot Park playing in the wonderful gardens, messing about on the pirate ship, watching otters and birds of prey displays.
Escot House
That part of Escot that I am so familiar with is now a visitor centre by charity Wildwood Trust, whilst Escot’s owners, Lucy and Mish Kennaway, are concentrating on promoting the house and grounds as a venue for weddings, conferences and activity days. They’ve actually been hosting events for well over 20 years, including the wedding of the couple that run the Beautiful Days festival which has been held at Escot every August since 2003. Anyone local will know of the festival, and I’ve been along a fair number of times myself.
Last year, the Kennaways asked me to write the copy for their new website, and I was delighted to oblige. This year I have been helping to promote the venue itself alongside Hannah Thompson of Six Degrees Marketing. Escot hasn’t raised its head above the parapet in terms of promotion for a while, and we decided to run a taster day so potential clients could see the venue and try some of the activities on offer with onsite activity providers, Devon Country Pursuits.
Taster Day
On the day, Devon Country Pursuits set up Segway and archery, whilst Lucy showed visitors around the three conference rooms and Lynsey baked fresh biscuits and, the hit of the day, honey mustard sausages.
Most people decided to try the activities and naturally I had to show willing with a turn on the Segway. It was great fun and I’m tempted to book an afternoon there myself, to have a Segway Olympics. There are many other activities besides, including quad biking, interactive treasure hunt and swamp walk – the latter my son did on a school visit many years ago. Suffice to say, it’s messy!
My trusty DSLR camera was ready and willing, and I managed to get some decent action shots – including Helen from The Creative Business Network who squealed the loudest when she was taking a turn on the Segway!
A number of positive enquiries came from those attending the event, with some firm bookings made. Others who couldn’t make it expressed an interest in making future bookings. All in all a successful event which was a pleasure to be involved with.
Plus I got to sample a number of Lynsey’s yummy biscuits.