A BEWDLEY woman knows how to make a real home from home when she holidays - by camping in her own back garden.

Topsy Beves, 75, began the tradition when she and her late husband, Toby, who worked at Kidderminster Hospital, first took their four children for a holiday in the garden about 25 years ago.

Now their children bring her grandchildren to enjoy the offbeat holiday destination.

It began when the couple bought a new caravan and their children, Jonathan, Tiffany, Susanna and Gerard, were eager to try it out.

"There are three acres of garden, so there was plenty of space," said Susanna, now 37, who was 12 at the time.

"We all got in the car, drove three times round the garden to make us feel we were going away and then parked the caravan behind some trees. We had fields to run around in.

"We could go to the house for a shower but it was locked up during the day, so we couldn't go back in.

"It's the only time I remember the whole family staying down there but camping in the garden had always been a family favourite.

"We used to put up our tent, organise our own food and stay there all summer.

"Several times, we had big gatherings when everyone piled up with their tents. It was magical."

The family is now more far flung, with Susanna in Berlin, Tiffany in northern France and Jonathan in Cambridge.

Gerard currently lives in Norfolk and is married to Lena, a Romany gipsy. They live permanently in a caravan with their young daughter.

"When they come to stay, they pull up in the shade of the old apple tree," said Topsy, who had the tent up and paddling pool ready when Tiffany and her three children came to stay on Tuesday last week.