Shropshire Star

Glamping venue couple in TV adventure

A glamping company’s drive to become a wedding and event venue has been captured in a new television series.

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Luxury under canvas – Katrina and Steve Boydon have created a glamping business in spectacular countryside on the Shropshire border

Barnutopia will be featured in an episode of Give it a Year, fronted by business guru, Baroness Karren Brady.

Cameras have been following Katrina and Steve Boydon’s journey from applying for a licence for weddings to converting a ‘long barn’ into a venue for special occasions.

The episode will be aired on May 14.

The site, in spectacular countryside at Llansilin near Oswestry, was taken over by the couple in 2015, starting with three luxury yurts.

That quickly grew to a selection of yurts and converted stables and bunkhouses as well as a campsite.

Such was the success that Katrina and Steve decided to expand to provide a venue for weddings and other events.

Katrina and Steve Boydon, whose business is featuring on a new television series

Their decision has been charted by the ITV programme, Give it a Year, which has followed a series of British businesses in their first year. The Two Four production company came down in 2016 and did some filming and then returned at regular intervals to see the progression of the business.

Baroness Brady also visited two or three times.

“She was very nice, down to earth but very sharp. I hope she was impressed by what she saw,” Katrina said.

“Filming ended with the first wedding ceremony at Barnutopia when Louise Ashman tied the knot with Ritchie Cummons.

“It was a fabulous day and went very well despite a hiccup when the hog roast that the bride had booked didn’t turn up and we raced off to buy enough barbecue food to feed 65 guests.”

The venue can cater for up to 120 wedding or function guests and can sleep about 40 as well as the campsite.

Katrina and Steve returned back to the UK after living abroad for 20 years.

She said: “We lived in Nevada where Steve was an outdoor instructor and I worked in Silicon Valley. I had just had enough of corporate America. Our children had been on several camping trips with school and we had always camped. We wanted to marry the thrill of camping with all the comforts of home. When we found this site we saw just how stunning it was.”