For Kath Allison, owning and managing Stoupe Cross Farm Holidays isn’t just a job, it’s a lifelong vocation.
Formerly a working farm, Kath was born on the site to William and Margaret Trotter, who bought the farm back in 1949. “I’ve lived and worked here all my life, I remember milking the cows when I was very young,” said Kath. The hard-working family’s life was turned upside down in 1958 when William died suddenly, leaving Margaret with three young children to raise and a mixed-use farm to run. “We did what we had to do,” Kath explained. “My brothers helped mum, everyone worked together.”
The family always had a handful of holiday caravans on the farm and this side of their enterprise expanded as the farming aspect declined, with Kath taking on the reins of what became Stoupe Cross Farm Holidays in the early 1970s. She said: “My mum built it up then delegated one section to me, and another to my brother, who now runs a neighbouring caravan park. She carried on working alongside us well into the 1990s, she was such a strong woman.”
When Kath married and started her own family, her husband was instrumental in further developing the site, helping to build a new road and install electric and water systems. Later, when the original farmhouse needed demolishing and replacing, he took great pride in building a new family home. Heartbreakingly, within a year of this accomplishment, an aggressive cancer claimed his life. “He loved building this house,” said Kath. “I’ll never leave it. This business is my life, I’d be a lost soul without it!”