Outdoor East Yorkshire children's attraction, William's Den, is shortlisted for tourism awards

William’s Den, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year, is owned and run by Tor and Christian Carver.

The attraction has been nominated in both the Remarkable Ethical, Responsible and Sustainable Tourism and the Remarkable Visitor Attraction of the Year categories.

The Carvers said they were “absolutely delighted and extremely proud” that they have been nominated in the two award categories.

The awards are organised are organised by Visit Hull and East Yorkshire to recognise the significance of tourism to this area and celebrate the quality of businesses and individuals working within it. Now in its 12th year, the REYTAs has 16 awards over a wide range of categories.

William’s Den began in 2017 and was inspired by their own son and his friends and seeing how much they delighted in being able to play and explore outside.

Mrs Carver said: “The idea for creating an exciting and unique visitor attraction really came from hosting birthday parties for our son William in our garden and hearing the shrieks of joy from his friends as they relished the freedom and space to play outside. They never wanted to go

home. An idea was born.

“Both my husband Christian and I had grown up on farms and we both remember rather nostalgically having vast amounts of freedom to play outside in all weathers, for hours on end. Along with siblings, cousins and friends, our childhood years were spent endlessly exploring on foot and by bike, building dens and using our wild imaginations to entertain each other for hours and days.

“When we were sharing ideas for the type of family visitor attraction we wanted to create, our own childhood experiences were never far from the surface. It became abundantly clear that we had to create an environment for children to play inside and out whatever the weather, where they could run wild and experience the freedom to roam, and while the kids were doing that, we wanted the grown-ups to enjoy being outdoors with their children and appreciate everything else on offer

"It’s been hard work”, she added, “especially when the global pandemic struck. Being nominated for prestigious awards like these makes everything worthwhile.”

A day at William’s Den can see visitors using a zip wire, mud kitchen, building sand castles, playing hide and seek and more.