Over the last thirty years there has been a very well kept secret, very much something of a myth you might say! Many have seen it, some have read about it and even more have heard whispers of it!
Somewhere in the deepest, darkest part of Northern Yorkshire there is a leafy lane housing a spot of wargaming light. This light emanates from within a single storey building on the edge of a copse, a light so bright it has the power to mesmerise the unwary Wargamer.
This is The Wargames Holiday Centre!
The Old Guard form up behind the Grand Battery of the Imperial Guard 12 pounder batteries
In the last few years it was believed to be extinct and certainly, to all but a chosen few this has been a fact. However something has begun to stir. A movement to bring the Wargames Holiday Centre back into the realm of the Wargamer has started.
A view of the battlefield, Austrian Corps pour forward supported by their guns and cavalry.
In the last ten months the Owner of the Wargames Holiday Centre has taken up a partnership with me to re-locate to a more accessible area of the country. North Yorkshire is a lovely area with leafy country lanes and exquisite moor land, but it is quite a trek to get there! Which is the reason why it remains so picturesque and unspoiled I guess!
The move has begun with the rental of a business unit near the village of Kingsclere in West Berkshire between Basingstoke and Newbury is now signed over to us. We have sixteen hundred square feet to build in, so loads of room for the four hundred and twenty square feet of tabletop to play on. The figures will be boxed, buildings and foliage packed along with our custom made nine square feet terrain boards all ready to move by Christmas.
SS Panzer Grenadiers take up position in the damaged suburbs of Arnhem.
Once the tables and shelving are constructed the first weekend will be Waterloo, this is always a firm favourite, with heaps of nostalgia associated with the models of the château of Hougoumont and the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte. These terrain boards are purpose built by the original founder of the Wargames Holiday Centre, the extremely talented Peter Gilder and are a pleasure to behold.
The plan is to run a variety of weekends over the year with a general week being offered to encompass a variety of our periods offered along with a day of the Wargames Holiday Centres Pony Wars.
The French Guard Heavy Cavalry, massed squadrons to punch through the Austrian lines.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the main reasons for the re-location is access, the Wargames Holiday Centre now lies within minutes of either junction 6 of the M3 and Junction 13 of the M4. Rail access is very good with regular service out of either Paddington or Waterloo from London. Airports such as Heathrow and Gatwick are both within a forty minute drive as well.
So in the next post I hope to show the development of the Wargames Holiday Centre as it gets a fresh lick of paint and the Tables start to get made!