How The Grove Glamping Began: From a Birthday Trip to a North Norfolk Glamping Site
This is where it all started…
I’d been glamping for my friend Jen’s 30th birthday and realised how incredible it would be to create something similar at The Grove in Cromer. So I rang my brothers, Richard and Chris, and asked whether they’d ever considered setting up a glamping site in North Norfolk. They told me they already had plans to bring in an external company, but it hadn’t really worked out. When I offered to set up a glamping site myself the following year, they were keen to let me give it a go.
I had just sold a house and had £50,000 to invest — which felt like a fortune at the time — but as I quickly discovered, money disappears fast when you’re building a glamping site from scratch.
The Napkin That Started The Grove Glamping
One autumn evening in October 2014, I sat in the Red Lion pub in Cromer with my friend Kate and sketched the first-ever Grove Glamping site plan on a napkin. That moment cemented the vision. I’ve always been someone who, once I can see an idea clearly, will do everything I can to make it happen.
And so, I got to work on creating a brand new glamping site on the North Norfolk coast.
Building the First Glamping Site: Family, Faith and a Lot of Pallets
I was incredibly fortunate to have the support of my family.My brother Chris recommended using the booking system Freetobook, helped me set up a business account, introduced me to his accountant (thank you, Emma!), and suggested advertising on The Grove Hotel’s website. He even took me to an awards dinner, where I sat next to the Head of Marketing at Potters Resort. I asked for a few tips on marketing a new glamping site, and to my surprise he shared ten brilliant suggestions — all of which I scribbled down immediately.
Around the same time, I launched a Facebook page and began documenting the whole glamping journey, feeling every bit the beginner but loving the challenge.
My dad, John, was nothing short of amazing. As a civil engineer, he helped me design decking for the bell tents — but with very limited budget, we had to get creative. Proper decking was too expensive, so I bought 78 pallets for £1.75 each. Unfortunately, the delivery lorry couldn’t reach the glamping site, so we offloaded them outside my aunt and uncle’s house and moved them one by one — sometimes using my dad’s John Deere lawn mower and trailer, sometimes just carrying them. Pallets are heavy. Moving 78 of them was no small task!
We spent weeks levelling the ground with breeze blocks. I listened to Elevation Worship and endless podcasts as I shifted mud around through December and January, determined to get the decking just right.
From Bell Tents to the First Guests
Next came the bell tents. They cost around £500 each, plus the interiors. I bought them from SoulPad in Thetford, and although the final bill made my stomach lurch, choosing everything was so exciting. By March, all the equipment had arrived and the pallet decking was ready.
Putting up the bell tents was surprisingly fun. We laid fake grass over the decking to hide the gaps, and my mum spent hours sewing beautiful bunting to make everything feel welcoming. Everyone pitched in. Even though I’d barely used a screwdriver before, I probably drilled in about 5,000 screws during those early months!
And then — finally — a brand new glamping site in Cromer was born.
Would Anyone Come?
When we finished, I remember standing back and wondering:Would anyone actually stay here? Would The Grove Glamping be a success? Could this small idea turn into something bigger?
Time would tell.