It was May 1912 when an excited John Burry arrived at a crowded London auction room.

A man in his late 40s, he was a tenant farmer at ‘Hubborn Farm’, now Hoburne Park in Christchurch.

But he had big dreams and the bidding went his way – he left as the owner.

Eight years on, he bought nearby Naish Farm, now Hoburne Naish, in New Milton. He continued to farm this land as he did Hubborn Farm but with panoramic sea views from the cliff-top it was no surprise that people wanted to set up temporary holiday homes there.

One-by-one old buses and disused railway carriages appeared along the edges of the fields – and many were used to house Southampton families whose homes were bombed during the Second World War.

By the time John Burry died in 1947, there were hundreds of holiday homes at Naish Farm.

History was to repeat itself as an auction notice grabbed the attention of his son, Alec Burry. In July 1959, Alec and his son, also called John Burry, began bidding on the residential and agricultural estate at Bashley Lodge in New Milton. Although their limit was £20,000, they found the further £500 needed to clinch the deal.

The 1970s saw the company secure two further parks -– Grange Court in Devon (now Hoburne Torbay) and a site in the Cotswolds inside Britain’s largest water park (now Hoburne Cotswold). In the mid-1980s, Blue Anchor in Somerset (now Hoburne Blue Anchor) and Doublebois Park in Cornwall (now Hoburne Doublebois) also joined the Hoburne family.

As part of the company’s centenary celebrations this year, a book has been published charting the history of Hoburne alongside the story of the caravan industry, the family holiday and world events.

Fascinating old photographs and memories from people who stayed on the parks up to 80 years ago help bring the story of a business that has grown from a farm to a thriving holiday park company attracting more than 30,000 families every year to life.

The old buses have been replaced with modern timber lodges and spacious caravans and swimming pools and entertainment halls now stand where crops once grew but the old farming mentality of ploughing profits back into the business, investing in the product, has never changed.

Rosie Kennar, John Burry’s great-granddaughter and chairman of Hoburne Holidays Parks today, said: “Hoburne has always been in my life. My earliest memories of it are of walking through a field of kale – now the site of the Hoburne Farm Estate opposite Hoburne Park at Christchurch – and of dear Mr Punch, the carthorse, who lived and worked at Naish.

Picking up litter and working in the coffee shop at Bashley was my first work experience in the 1960s – I am not sure how I escaped the toilet cleaning done by some of my sisters!”

She added that she was very proud of Hoburne and its team.

“Together we have come a long, long way in 100 years – who knows how far the next 100 will take us.”

• The book ‘100 Years of Happy Holidays’ is available from Hoburne (hoburne.com), RRP £12.99 (plus £2.99 P&P) ISBN 978-0-9571543-0-8