For the second in our series about locally-run businesses, we meet Simon Winridge, co-founder of the hugely-successful Winridge Forest Railway Park. Welcome, Simon.
在我们关于地方商业系列的第二期节目中,我们请到了Simon Winridge,Winridge森林铁路公园的共同创办者,该公园取得了巨大的成功。欢迎西蒙。
Now, perhaps you can begin by telling us a little bit about how it all started.
现在,或许你可以先告诉我们这一切是如何开始的?
Well, during the 1970s, my wife, Liz and I had just acquired 80 acres of sheep-farming land, and we decided to settle down and have children.
在20世纪70年代,我的妻子莉兹和我买了80英亩的牧羊场,我们决定在这里安顿下来,养育孩子。
Pretty soon we had a daughter, Sarah, and a son, Duncan.
很快,我们有了一个女儿莎拉和一个儿子邓肯。
The place was wonderful for the kids: they particularly loved trains and gradually built up an enormous network of miniature railway track.
这里很适合儿童,他们特别喜欢火车,逐渐建立了一个微型铁路轨道的巨大网络。
I began to develop larger-scale models of locomotives
我开始做一些火车的大型模型,
but we didn't think anything more of it until I went on a trip to a theme park near Birmingham and decided we could do a much better job!
但是我们没有想得更远,直到我去了伯明翰附近的主题公园,我决定我们应该可以做得更好!
So we set up a small one ourselves based on the miniature railway and we opened to the public for just a month that year, 1984 in July - our driest month
所以根据微型的铁路,我们建立了一个小型公园,我们在1984年7月向公众开放了一个月,也是这里最干燥的月份,
because our children said they didn't want our guests to have a miserable, wet visit.
因为我们的孩子说他们不希望我们的客人有一个痛苦的潮湿之旅。
I dealt with Park business and Liz carried on with the farm work.
我处理公园事物,莉兹继续农场的工作。
It soon became clear that we were onto a winner.
我们很快发现自己成功了。
We began to extend the railway track and lay it among more interesting landscape by planting trees, which inturn attracted more wildlife,
我们开始拓展铁轨,通过种树和开凿岩石将它延伸到更有意思的风景区,
and by making cuttings through the rock.
吸引更多的野生动物。
Nowadays, we're open all year round and we're pleased to say that Winridge is one of the most popular visitor attractions in the area with 50, 000 visitors a year
现在,我们全年开放,我们很高兴地说Winridge是该地最受欢迎的景点之一,一年接待5万名游客。
a million and a half people have been through our doors since we opened.
自从开放以来,有150万游客来此参观。