FAMOUS botanist, David Bellamy has praised a Ledbury holiday park and nature reserve, where guests are encouraged to enjoy "wild swimming" and to go scrumping in its historic orchards.

Woodside Lodges Country Park, off Falcon Lane, was highlighted by Professor Bellamy when he announced the 2015 winners of his prestigious David Bellamy Conservation Award.

The award, which celebrates tourism businesses with a green agenda, has now been won at its top gold level by the Woodside Lodges for ten years in a row.

Professor Bellamy said that owners, Ken and Janet Davies and their family have created a "wildlife wonderland" on the 28-acre park which was originally bought as a smallholding almost 50 years ago.

According to 84-year-old Ken Davies, who still plays an active role in managing the park, Woodside has always followed a "green policy" when making improvements.

Mr Davies said: "For many years we ran this land as a smallholding, and came to appreciate the fantastic diversity of flora and fauna which it sustains," he said.

The park's latest award follows an audit of the grounds by David Bellamy's Conservation Foundation to discover what steps it is taking to protect the natural world.

The sites provides Scandinavian-style log cabins for hire, plus camping pods and facilities for holidaymakers with their own touring caravans, motorhomes and tents.

But it is also a nature reserve as much as a holiday park, thanks to a raft of initiatives taken by the Davies family over the years.

These include the construction of a series of ponds which are now a magnet for different aquatic wildlife including kingfishers, newts, dragonflies and wetland plants.

One of the lakes has been designated for "wild swimming" by guests, and holidaymakers are also invited to help themselves to the old-variety apples and damsons in the park's orchard.

Hundreds of native trees and hedges have been planted, as well as wild flowers with high pollen-bearing blooms which attract a wide range of common and less familiar butterfly species.

Irrigation is provided by harvested rainfall in order to reduce reliance on mains water.

A converted barn on the park has also been provided with a special roof which will allow the resident bats to flourish and encourage nesting swallows.

As well as marking ten years of the David Bellamy Conservation award, Woodside Lodges is also celebrating its recent winning of a "Certificate of Excellence" from TripAdvisor.

Further details on, www.woodsidelodges.co.uk