A family who run a caravan storage business in Woodbury, have said a fond farewell to their longest-serving customers after more than three decades.

The Stokes family, who diversified into camping and caravan storage on their farm in the early 1980s to create East Devon Caravan Storage, said goodbye to Martin and Mary Clook after 34 years.

The couple, from Exmouth, purchased their first caravan in 1987 and, because of the difficulty negotiating their steep driveway, decided to park it with Roger Stokes in Woodbury.

Martin said: “We’ve had some great adventures in our caravan over the years and Roger Stokes along with his son Simon and their team at East Devon Caravan Storage have always been very helpful and provided a first-class service looking after it between our holidays.”

Mary added: “Owning a caravan started off as a great way to have a family holiday and it just carried on from there.

“We have really enjoyed it,”

Five caravans later and having explored much of the UK and Europe, as far as Croatia, Martin and Mary finally decided it was time to retire from caravanning this year.

Simon Stokes, who now runs East Devon Caravan Storage, said: “It’s always sad to see customers leave us particularly when they have been with us so long as Martin and Mary.

“Our very best wishes to them for the future. We are very fortunate we have a great number of loyal, longstanding customers, both local residents and many from further afield.”

Since the latest easing of lockdown restrictions, caravan parks around the country have been able to re-open in a limited way to the delight of all those who enjoy the outdoors camping experience.

“The weather has been great and there is obviously a lot of pent-up demand to escape,” said Simon.

“Whether they’re returning to East Devon for a break, or heading off to other parts of the UK, our customers are delighted to be hitching up and getting away again.