Our history

Country pastor turned social innovator, Thomas Arthur Leonard, takes a small party from his congregation on a ‘strenuous and simple’ walking holiday to Ambleside in the Lake District. His objective is to improve the lives of the working classes by offering an alternative to a week at the seaside – the annual trend at the time.

Feeling the CHA had become too middle class, Leonard sets up the Holiday Fellowship (later to become HF Holidays). In 1914, our first holidays operate at three locations – Conwy, the Lake District, and the Yorkshire Dales. We also take guests to Germany, making us one of Britain’s first overseas tour operators.

We offer our first holidays at Alltshellach, our stately Scottish house in North Ballachulish with an enviable setting right on the shores of Loch Leven (we purchase the property in 1953).

We open Newfield Hall, our baronial mansion set in two acres of grounds near Malham at the southern base of Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Our holidays operate at a handful of locations during WWII. However, many country houses are requisitioned by the government and used to accommodate troops.

Our founder, Thomas Arthur Leonard, dies at his home in Conwy aged 84. On his memorial plaque on the lower slopes of Cat Bells in the Lake District, he’s hailed as the "Father of the Open-Air Movement in this Country".

We publish our ‘Holidays that are Different’ brochure, including activities such as pony trekking, golf, photography, sketching, and dancing. This has evolved over the years into our special interest holidays - a hugely popular choice.

We celebrate our 50th birthday. To date, approximately 1.5 million guests have travelled with HF Holidays.

Our youth centres close and Newfield Hall at Malhamdale is converted into a country house base for our walking and special interest holidays. We purchase Thorns Hall at Sedbergh in the Yorkshire Dales in the same year.

We set up our Pathways Fund to help to conserve the countryside around our houses for the communities that live, work, and walk there. We also provide the opportunity for struggling families to have a holiday.

We open four HF Holidays country houses, including Longmynd House at Church Stretton and The Peveril of the Peak at Dovedale.

We've installed EV car charging points at all UK country houses. Please note, this excludes Nether Grange in Alnmouth which does not have a car park. This is just one of the many steps we're taking to secure the long-term future of HF Holidays.