SOCIAL MEDIA
A vision for tourism in the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Very pleased with the visit, the staff were friendly and informative,
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- AiceMiracelChick, TripAdvisor
Lindsay and Edward Heyes have created a Visitor Centre with a community of businesses to serve visitors when they first arrive in the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Above all, they thought visitors can have fun in the countryside, not just look at it; A Country Promenade would encourage people to support a vital community asset. When other Visitor Centres were vanity projects for the public sector, the Wye Valley Visitor Centre was to be a hub for regenerating the tourism industry, so vital to the Wye Valley.
They sponsored a Community Programme in 1986 to provide common facilities, creating fifteen jobs for long-term unemployed people for fifteen months, and a business park for tourism industry start-ups. They underwrote the finance and put in pump-priming capital.
But in 2001, cattle disease wrecked the rural economy. This area was closed for longer than anywhere else in Britain. The only business left was the aMazing Hedge Puzzle, but the brothers fought back.
Today, the Wye Valley Visitor Centre thrives again. The Heyes brothers own the aMazing Hedge Puzzle, Wye Valley Miniature Golf, Wye Valley Butterfly Zoo and Wye Valley Warfare, where they maintain a private nature reserve. The cafe and church remain independent.
Meet up for great fun in Symonds Yat - it’s the heart of the Wye Valley
