History

West Country Host Families was established by two sisters from a British family resident in Spain, Isabel Ward and Julie Franks. Isabel moved to England in the mid-1950s while Julie became the headmistress of an English-language medium school in Bilbao, Spain, and it was the parents of pupils at this school who first started to express an interest in sending their children to England to improve their English.

The first Spanish children trip to England in 1962 was with a group of just five, arriving at the then London Airport at ‘Heath Row’. Popularity quickly increased with groups of over one hundred coming in later years. Soon after that first trip, they switched to travel by ferry, first to Southampton on the Swedish Lloyd ‘Patricia’, and later with Brittany Ferries to Plymouth. The trip then ran uninterruptedly until 2019, and successfully restarted again in 2022.

Julie, or ‘Miss Julie’ as she was more commonly known, and Isabel have now largely retired although we are still able to call on their knowledge and long experience. Julie’s son, William García, is now dealing with the Spanish families, while Isabel´s son & daughter, Mark Fowler and Harriet Haines, are responsible for contact with the English host families.

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of the business is the bonds between English and Spanish families that have been created through the years. We have families who have hosted children for us over long years – and even generations – and they very often have the same child again and again. Spanish children and youngsters are sociable and gregarious, and host families have found the experience very rewarding with lasting ties of friendship and love being formed in many cases. There has even been one marriage (some years later of course!) between a Spanish guest and English host family member.