What a weekend at Moddershall Oaks!

Staff at Moddershall Oaks moved mountains (of snow) at the weekend to make sure that two weddings at the country spa retreat could still go ahead. The snow that fell on Friday and Saturday saw drifts of over 12ft in parts of Stone, with Moddershall particularly badly hit. Here’s Moddershall Oaks director Penny Holland’s account of one hell of a weekend!

Friday morning – three hours until wedding number one

Woke up with white everywhere. In work by 9am (took me an hour to get to work from Meir Park!). Dad & my uncle Pete (who works full time for us on grounds and maintenance) started the clearing on tractors. Our electricity was down which caused chaos – can’t cook food, spa facilities would start to cool, no gym equipment on, heating off, no phone lines, no computers etc. To make matters worse, our back-up generator did not kick in, even though we had invested so much in it, including a heated cabin (so it was nothing to do with the cold).

The engineers for the generator were on their way but in the meantime the clearing was failing, the high winds were covering over whatever we cleared, but we kept trying. Luckily the power came on in the area around 11am, so we had emails back up and running and could get ready for the wedding. With the power back on, the spa guests that had managed to arrive in the morning could now enjoy their day in the warm.

We had no phone lines at all, due to winds, so we had all the calls diverted to my mobile phone, which proceeded to call off the hook with mediocre signal for the majority of the day.

Friday afternoon

The snow stopped, we cleared the car parks by late afternoon, all wedding guests had arrived, phone lines back up and running… all looked good! But it didn’t last! As evening approached, heavy snow started & stuck. Everything we cleared had covered over, winds got worse, and the main roads started to get really bad because of the drifts.

By 6pm we managed to get the staff that weren’t needed for the wedding & the spa guests that weren’t staying overnight out of the property safely – but only just! Phones rang off the hook from wedding guests attending the evening reception, who said they weren’t going to risk coming.

Outside was now extremely dangerous, my Dad & Pete had been outside constantly since 9am, Mum & I outside on and off helping to grit & managing traffic.

Everyone was very tired & very cold.

Friday night

The roads had now blocked up, the evening wedding guests had to abandon their cars on the roads & walk into the property. My partner Andy joined us after he finished work, along with his brother Sid & they started to help clear the car parks too.

Because a lot of evening guests could not get in, and it was the most horrific and impossible conditions we have ever seen, we even offered the bride & groom to continue their evening reception another night, any night of their choice, but she wanted to continue so we carried on.

The last remaining supplier that we were concerned about getting in – the DJ from Dave Dee Discos – was called in early, and he said he would get to us no matter what, having to battle with equipment, high winds and walking from far away, he got here. We were outside clearing snow until about 3am when all guests had managed to leave the property.

The kitchen staff went up to the road to attempt to leave and got stuck. The roads were impassable, and all the staff (bar, waiting on, kitchen, me, Andy, Sid) were stuck. Mum & Dad live on site anyway, so they were OK! As luck had it, only 5 out of the 10 bedrooms were in use for spa breaks because of people cancelling due to the weather, so we started to make sleeping arrangements, dish out spare toothbrushes, and by the time everyone was asleep it was 6am. Me, Mum & Dad had been at it for nearly 24 hours.

Saturday morning – let’s do it all again!

Just two hours sleep, up at 8am, and the snow was much lighter. But overnight the wind was so bad that the major drifts had blocked the roads.

On Friday the problem was heavy snow that we couldn’t possibly clear it before it was all covered up again. Saturday, the problem was the drifts & blocked roads. I took the decision to cancel all our spa, hair & restaurant lunch bookings for that day, as there was no possibility anyone could get to our entrance. With all these guests contacted, it meant we only had to concentrate on the wedding now.

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I spoke to the groom for today’s wedding just before they went to the church to get married to reassure him that we would get them in no matter what. But we had the wedding suppliers, and our food suppliers, call us to let us know they couldn’t reach us to make their deliveries… everything was looking dire.

We spoke to the council who eventually promised they would plough the road past our entrance which had 12ft high drifts, our tractors couldn’t touch them. We told them we had a wedding on, and all our suppliers & guests had to get through. They said they couldn’t give us a time but they would be there. They understand as a business we had to have access, and they said our road was on the gritting route anyway. So, reassured the roads would be sorted, we made a start on our car parks.

Saturday afternoon

A local (Chris Gallimore) got stuck in his Land Rover after dropping his daughter to work at our place. He dug himself out eventually, then after seeing us clearing the drives he came back to help Dad & Pete with his two sons. He helped immensely, including digging around the venue so the footpaths were clear for the guests.

We arranged to meet the wedding suppliers half a mile away at the local pub. A mixture of walking through the drifts & using Chris’s Land Rover, meant we eventually got the wedding suppliers down into the venue. Venue Perfection had to transport very delicate décor & centrepieces, and Simply Scrumptious had the cakes – all very delicate & important items to manoeuvre round the snow drifts! Simply Scrumptious’s husband helped too, and they even had a sledge for cake transportation.

We cleared our drive & our car parks, but by the time wedding guests started arriving, the plough still hadn’t come to clear the roads, so guests couldn’t get to our car parks to clear them.

Myself & some restaurant staff cleared some space near the restaurant entrance for guests to leave their cars on the road & walk up our drive to the venue.

Meanwhile Dad & Pete had cleared all the way to the entrance of the spa, just in time for a police Land Rover to drive through the drifts and get stuck, so Dad & Pete had to get them out with our tractor!

From 8am-5pm Dad, Andy, Sid & Pete were clearing our car parks and our driveway without a break – very cold chaps!

Next we dug a small track through the drifts from our entrance to Hilderstone Road (freedom!). With wedding guests in & our car parks clear, everyone took a break & we went to McDonald’s, an £80 order to feed everyone that had been helping outside!! On the way to McDonald’s we saw the snow plough on Hilderstone Road, about a mile away from us. This meant it would be at ours soon, and clear the road, so that guests could get to our now cleared car park. Our spirits were lifted! Back from McDonald’s and the plough was nowhere to be seen, it didn’t come to us, so we still had blocked roads. Everyone went back outside and started to attempt to clear the road.

Saturday evening

The small tunnel made in the drifts from us to Hilderstone Road was made a bit bigger with our tractor, but we couldn’t do any more, our tractor was too small & the drifts were 12ft high. Most of the staff went home, except for the staff working the wedding, so Dad & Andy carried on clearing the roads into the night.

Turning left out of our entrance towards Moddershall, this lane was completely blocked. However the snow that way wasn’t as deep, Dad & Andy cleared the entire road so people could get up from Moddershall to Hilderstone Road. Dad & Andy cleared and gritted the road finishing at about 9pm, this was the first time people would be able to drive from Moddershall to Hilderstone Road since Thursday night. It is lucky that we had been able to clear the road, because we had to call out the emergency services in the middle of the night, and they would not have been able to get to us (unless they walked for up to a mile past the drifts to get to us).

Sunday morning

We went back to work to check that the road was still clear and the wind hadn’t re-blocked the road. The roads were still clear but still needed great caution to pass through. We were so proud watching everyone use the roads! To our annoyance, Hilderstone Road was closed right by our turning… the road was nowhere near as bad as the one leading up to our drive, and the plough was there on a Sunday. Just wish it could’ve helped us out on the Saturday…

I posted our progress using Instagram, Facebook & Twitter and the lovely comments from our lovely customers kept us going when we felt like giving up at various times over the weekend. The conditions were the worst we have ever seen in the 16 years we have been in Moddershall and the 13 years we have been open as the spa. You really had to be there – it was like another world!